Page 26

Reddington

“It looks here like your room is ready,” the front desk attendant confirmed, her eyes scanning the screen of the computer.

Jade bounced on her heels beside me. “Good. I can get out of these clothes, take a shower, and hopefully wash that entire journey from both my body and memory.”

Classic Jade. She got deep for one second, and suddenly it was the worst experience of her life.

What she didn’t know was there was no fucking way I was going to let her go. This may have been fake, but as far as I was concerned, she deserved to be with a real man. And a real man didn’t make a woman feel small or like they weren’t worthy. I knew Nate, so I could say this—he was projecting.

Bottom line: Jade belonged with me.

The woman passed our keys to us. “We’re here if something comes up, and you may need our service. Simply use the phone in your room and—”

“Jade, my dear.” I didn’t need to turn around to know who that voice that belonged to. Sherrilyn. “Red, you’ve both made it.”

I wasn’t sure if Jade knew I caught it, but she rolled her eyes, exhaled, and then turned around with a fake as fuck smile plastered on her pretty face. “Sherrilyn,” she gushed with a little too much enthusiasm if you asked me. They were basically strangers.

Not far behind was Mark, his sandals clacking on the hardwood floors. He was dragging sand in with him, so based on that and the cover-up Sherrilyn was wearing, I’d guess they just came from the beach.

I’d ask Jade if she wanted to walk on the beach, but unless she would be able to bury my head in the sand, I doubted she’d be interested. “It’s nice to see you both.” I snaked my arm around Jade’s waist, pulling her close.

Mark came up to his wife and placed a hand on her back, grinning from ear to ear. “How was the trip?”

Jade took her hat off and held it in front of her, smiling.

“Does it matter? It’s not about the trip, but the people you share it with.

” Leaning into me, she placed a hand on my chest, her other hand holding the hat at her side.

“And I got to spend it with my favorite person, so the trip was beautiful.”

Whoa, rewind the tape because I wasn’t sure I heard that correctly. Where did that come from? Better yet, someone get me a shovel because we were going to need it to get ourselves out of the pile of shit she’d buried us under.

Sherrilyn sniffled. “Aw, you’re going to get me all teary-eyed.” She angled her head and stared at Jade. “And I fear even with waterproof mascara I’ll ruin my makeup. Don’t you just hate when that happens, Jadey?”

Jadey? That was a new one. Make that a large as fuck shovel.

Jade nodded. “Mmhmm.”

“Well, we won’t keep you. We don’t have much time before the welcome sail,” Mark said, reaching over and clapping my back.

“And I know what you two probably want to do before then”—she waved a hand between us—“hmm? I’d say get a room, but you just did.” Without warning, she cackled—actually cackled—and tossed her head back like it was the funniest thing in the world.

It fell flat for me, but fine, I’d go with it. Remember the strings? I laughed and pushed into Jade, giving her the subtle cue to follow my lead and laugh.

She did. “Oh, Sherrilyn, you know us too well,” she replied, her voice filled with laughter.

What was the deal? Had she been an actress in a past life?

“I just can’t wait to climb this one like a jungle gym.

So we should probably go.” I did a double take, my head swinging her way before she grabbed my hand and led us away.

“See you later,” she said over her shoulder.

“You did not just say that.”

When we were at the elevators, she turned to me and shrugged. “You know you thought it was funny.”

“Not the point.” The doors opened, and I admitted, “Okay, maybe a little.”

* * *

Jade

My life was a tragedy. I wished I’d never looked at myself in the mirror after changing because now I feared I’d need bleach for my eyes.

What did I ever do to Red to make him hate me this much?

Technically, I’d agreed to go along with this farce, so it begged a whole new question—why did I hate myself so much? I never thought I did, but I must’ve deep, deep down, otherwise I wouldn’t have put myself through this form of torture.

I was wearing—excuse me while I gagged—a light blue tweed jacket with front slip pockets that had pearls for buttons and a braided trim. Oooh, look at me go and explain things like that. Thank you, thank you, it came with the territory of being the fashion editor of a magazine.

That didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t a pearl girl. I didn’t even own a set before I’d purchased the pearl earrings in my ears, courtesy of Red.

Didn’t sound like me, did it?

Here, don’t work too hard, I’d answer for you—it wasn’t me at all.

To top it all off, I was wearing my hair down. That would have been perfectly fine, except for the fact that it was straightened with a straightening iron. And don’t even get me started on the white headband.

That was it, I was going to puke. I’d never had an overactive gag reflex before, but put me in clothes like this, and it got going.

The only good thing that came out of all of this was that the invitation had warned against wearing heels at the marina or on the boat, so white sandals it was.

Getting off the elevator to meet Red, I thought about how lucky I was that he had been out of our room by the time I’d gotten out of the shower. Something about how he had some business matters to tend to.

I’d tried this outfit on in front of him when he’d taken me shopping, but I wasn’t wearing the whole shebang. I was screaming rich woman who did shit like had a multi-day vow renewal celebration to honor the love they’d already been sharing right now.

You know what there was to celebrate? That they didn’t end the other, entangle themselves in a messy divorce, or become swingers.

Certainly not love, though. By the way, I understood the whole swinger thing.

Sleeping with the same man for the rest of your life?

Unless said man was single-handedly the most talented man in the bedroom, then I was going to have to pass on that one.

But that was just me. Meanwhile, just thinking about the whole one-man-for-the-rest-of-your-life thing was making my armpits sweat.

Could you sweat in tweed without it leaving marks? Oh, crap.

As I approached Red, he got up from his seat in the lobby, shoving his hands in the pockets of his chinos as his eyes gave me an appreciative once-over.

By the time I closed the gap between us, I swore the heat radiating from his eyes could have put earth’s inner core to shame.

“What’s that look for?” He honestly didn’t think I was one of those girls who gave a hoot if he looked at me like I was the most beautiful woman in the room, or even world, did he?

It was worth less than counterfeit money to me.

His eyes roamed back up to my face, and he grinned. Genuinely grinned. “You look stunning.”

Oh, stunning. Just a fancier word for beautiful, so it fell into the same category for me. “Don’t say sappy shit like that,” I repeated for what felt like the nine hundredth time. I refrained from rolling my eyes, but I did cross my arms, hoping he got the message to never do it again.

He lost the grin, his expression stoic. “Fine, I won’t.”

“Thank you.”

“You look like an ugly duckling. Better?”

I narrowed my eyes at him and formed a thin slit with my lips. “Why don’t you spend less time complimenting me and explain why in the world you’re wearing the same color as me?” To catch you up, he was wearing a thin light blue shirt.

He didn’t even blink. “Didn’t know you owned rights to the color blue.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You okay, Jade? You’re looking a little. . . green.”

“Yeah, because I feel sick to my stomach.”

“Hmm.” He tilted his head and looked off to the side like he was deep in thought. I wanted to knee him in the balls for his obnoxious behavior. “Is it something you ate? Stomach bug? Flu?”

“If I answer yes to any of those things, will it get me out of going today?”

He shook his head. “You can be sick in the water. It gets washed away.”

“Then, in that case, my nausea is the direct result of us matching.”

He shrugged. “We’re engaged.”

Duh, that explained everything. Were you seeing things clearer now?

Because I sure as shit was. Peering down at the ring on my finger, I uncrossed my arms and lightly swatted my forehead.

“Of course. It slipped my mind.” Then I paused and looked heavenward, taking a page out of his book and seeming deep in thought before continuing.

“Oh, wait. That doesn’t explain anything.

” I pursed my lips and placed a hand on my hip.

“Engaged couples match, especially at events like this.” He started walking toward the door. “Come on. You’ll see.”

He officially unlocked my new biggest fear—being on a boat with dozens of disgustingly cute couples wearing matching outfits.

* * *

A part of me wondered if Regina would have been at an event like this. Something told me she would have because this was her world, it was what she knew. It wasn’t a bad thing, either, but for someone like me this was a fantasy. It was a dreamworld that had a timer attached to it.

My sisters had grown up in this world, so they would have fit right in, too. Not that you could tell I didn’t fit in. My ensemble took care of that. Although, it was all smoke and mirrors because the way I felt was like a fish out of water.