Page 15

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ROWAN

H adley doesn’t say a fucking word.

She doesn’t make a fucking sound.

She just stares at me.

“I’m sorry,” she starts, shaking her head as she lets out a soft laugh. “You did what?”

I swallow roughly over the lump lodged in my throat and shove my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie. “I panicked. He started talking about stability and my job and he brought up being single and I fucking panicked. I didn’t mean to say it, it just came out.”

“And you didn’t once stop and think to correct yourself?” She raises both of her eyebrows at me and slowly gets up from where she’s sitting.

“I—No.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I messed this all up.

Hadley walks around the island, silently handing Lucy to me. She doesn’t speak a word as she reaches for the basket, pulling it into her arms as she stares me down. “What the fuck, Rowan?”

“I know, I know,” I tell her, running my hand through my hair again. “I fucking know.”

“You do know this is more than you just telling a lie, right?” She shakes her head at me, her eyes wide. “If they send someone out to your house, it has to look like I live here. If they question any of your friends or family, they’re going to have to go along with this lie.” She lets out a breath. “Did you once think about the fact that you’re dragging everyone into this little charade?”

“Obviously, I didn’t think about much, Hadley.” I scoff, feeling like a fucking idiot. “I told you, I panicked.”

“You can’t ask everyone to lie for you.”

I stare at her, feeling the weight of her words on my shoulders. She’s right. It’s not right for me to expect anyone to do something like that, especially when it’s going to involve them lying to the court. Hadley will be leaving in three months, and then what?

“I will just explain the situation to my lawyer and figure out a way to prove to them that she will have stability here.”

Hadley plucks a bar of chocolate from the basket and rips it open. “How good are you at pretending?”

My eyebrows pull together as I watch her lift the whole thing up to her mouth, taking a bite with no regard to the perfectly measured squares. “What?”

“Do you think you’d be able to make it believable?”

She throws me off-balance with her question and for a moment, I’m not sure I heard her correctly. “Could you?”

She chews the bite of chocolate, swallowing as she shrugs. “Maybe.” Silence stretches between us and Hadley sets the basket back down on the counter before she looks at me again. “How do we do this?”

My eyes widen. “Wait, you’re agreeing to do this? I thought you were mad about it.”

“Oh, I am,” she concurs, bobbing her head as she takes another bite of the chocolate bar. “What you did was careless and stupid, but you panicked. I get it.” She reaches in the basket and hands me an unopened bar. “If me pretending to be your fiancée makes it easier for you to get custody of Lucy, then I’ll do it.”

“Hadley, you don’t have to. I shouldn’t have put you in a position like this and I can just tell my lawyer the?—”

She holds her hand up. “Rowan, stop. We’re going to do this, okay?” She gives me a knowing look. “We’re going to make sure you don’t have to worry about having custody of Lucy in the future, okay?”

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding, relief instantly flooding me as it chases away the anxiety. “Okay.”

“We need to figure out how we’re going to do this, though,” she says as she glances down at her scrubs and back up at me. “I’m going to run home and get showered and changed, and then I will be back and we will come up with a plan.”

“Okay,” I repeat the word, dipping my chin again. “I’ll order delivery from somewhere. ”

“Perfect,” she says with a tender smile that sparks something in my chest. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

She leaves the basket and I stand in the center of the kitchen as I watch her walk down the hallway, into the foyer, and to the front door. My feet move without my brain’s permission and I stop just as I step into the hall.

“Hey, Had?”

She turns back to look at me, her soft, hazel eyes finding mine from the front door. “Yeah?”

“You will be back, right?”

A soft laugh escapes her. “Yes, silly. I’ll be back before you even get the chance to miss me.”

I watch her as she slips out through the door, leaving Lucy and me by ourselves. An unusual feeling of dread pricks at my skin. The thought of missing her is uncomfortable. How quickly she’s become someone I find myself wanting around. She’s been the pillar that’s been keeping me standing since Lucy came into my life over a week ago.

And in a few short months, she’ll be walking out of that door again...

Except that time, she won’t be coming back.

Hadley’s curled up on the couch with her brand-new blanket wrapped around her body and her new slippers sitting on the floor. We both grabbed slices of pizza and took them out into the living room after getting Lucy settled in her bassinet. We have the baby monitor set up in her room, but with how often she wakes up, it just makes it easier having her close by.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to convince the guys that this engagement is real.”

Hadley chews on a piece of pizza, bobbing her head as she swallows her bite and takes a sip of her water. “Yeah, I figured that would probably be a hard sell. I don’t think you should be asking people to lie for you, but I think being honest with them about the situation is best.”

“They won’t have an issue with it,” I tell her, knowing my boys. They’d be the first to step up with some bullshit fabricated story, as long as it isn’t hurting anyone. They already know about Lucy and the current situation.

“Okay, so there’s one group of people.” She pauses, tilting her head to the side. “What about your family?”

I chew on the inside of my cheek, immediately feeling guilt. “I haven’t even told them about Lucy yet.”

She freezes, her eyes widening as she stares at me with a shocked expression. “You...haven’t told them.”

“No,” I admit, shaking my head at her as I finish my slice of pizza. “It’s not exactly the easiest conversation to have over the damn phone.”

“Hmm,” she murmurs, screwing her mouth. “Actually, that might not be a bad thing. You could drop both bombs on them at once. Two birds, one stone, you know?”

“That could work. If I hit them with two shocking things at the same time, maybe they’ll cancel each other out. ”

Hadley stares at me for a moment before her face cracks. Laughter spills from her perfect lips and I watch the way she tilts her head back. The sound that comes from her penetrates my eardrums and I store it in my brain for later. I love hearing her laugh.

“That might be wishful thinking, but I don’t know that you really have any other choice.” She lets out a sigh and shrugs. “Unless, you want to try the same approach as your teammates?”

“I think it’s better if they don’t know the truth...at least not right now.” I toss my plate onto the coffee table. “I’ll tell them the truth about Lucy and when it’s time for you to move, I’ll just tell them things didn’t work out or something.” I turn my hands over in defeat. “I’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

“Okay, so this seems like a solid plan, so far.”

“What about your apartment?” I ask her. “You’re going to have to move in with me for it to be believable.”

She swallows, her slender throat bobbing with the movement. “My lease is up at the end of the week. I was going to see about extending it, and I still can if you don’t actually want me here. We could just make it look like I live here and then I can just come when you need me to?—”

“Hadley, stop. Move in with me,” I say in a rush, not bothering to think my words through before I speak them. “It makes the most sense. It saves you money, it solidifies the appearance of our fake relationship, and then you don’t have to worry about going back and forth. ”

“Are you sure?” she asks, her eyes bouncing between mine.

“I’m one hundred percent sure.” I pause, my eyes now searching hers. “The real question is whether or not you are. Are you positive this is what you want to sign up for? It’s just temporary. As soon as Lucy’s custody is assigned, we can pretend this never happened. According to my lawyer, it should be handled before you leave.”

She stares at me for a moment and time feels like it stretches from seconds to minutes to hours before she finally speaks.

“That little girl needs to be with you, Rowan.” A smile spreads across her perfect lips and warmth spreads beneath my rib cage. “Let’s do this.”