Page 51 of The Fake Date (Brides of Beaufort 4)

Feeling oddly defensive of my fake boyfriend, I narrowed my eyes at my sister. “Um, excuse me, but you’ve been very Team Beau this entire time. Why are you suddenly so against him?”

“Because he’s playing with my little sister’s heart, that’s why,” she snapped, softening slightly when I rolled my eyes. “Lyn, if you guys had gotten together in a normal way, it’d be different. But this? This is like, ‘Hey, let’s do all the fun stuff without the real feelings, because I’m Mr. Fake Date and I don’t do real feelings.’”

I cackled at her impression of him. “He doesn’t talk like that.”

“Fine, insert his tone of voice, and it’s all still true. I’m not a fan.”

“What if I’d hired him for a wedding like you’ve been encouraging me to do ever since we first met him? Would you still feel this way?”

She shook her head without pause. “Nope. Because then you’d be the one making the move, and he’d be the one helpless against your amazingness, and he’d probably wind up telling you he wants it to be real after having such a good time with you. But him instigating this, and then telling you he doesn’t want anything real to come from it is sketch, in my humble opinion.”

Suddenly, I really regretted telling her anything about this. Maybe Beau was right. Maybe I should have just kept this whole thing to myself and not told her or our friends. Not only would it have minimized the risk of it getting out to the family I was trying to convince, but it would have also saved me this hassle I never saw coming.

“Okay, well, thank you for your concern. But I have it handled. He’s helping me avoid the matchmaking, and I’m helpinghimin a similar way. So don’t worry about me. Just enjoy your honeymoon.”

She studied me as intently as her dark sunglasses would allow, then sighed. “I will. It may be weird not having you here, but Zac’s amazing, and I’ll be sad to come home in a few days. Well, we’ve both missed Grayson, of course. But Jo says he’s doing great. Trevor has been a big help, too.”

“Does she know to call me if she needs a break or anything?” I knew Zac’s sister and her fiancé had it handled, but I still needed to do my auntie duty and offer.

“Definitely. Thank you. Okay, Zac’s back with fresh drinks, so that’s my cue. Love you, mean it.”

“Love you, most.”

I disconnected the call and put my phone back down on the table. Man, this house was quiet without her in it. She was always humming something or making noise in the front room where she kept her art supplies. Or she was cooking, or had Zac and Grayson over, or had some trashy TV show on while I read. It wasn’t the same without her.

And now that she and Zac were married, she’d be moving out of here and into the apartment he lived in above Ms. Hattie’s flower shop. It had plenty of room and Grayson had only just gotten settled there after they came here from California, and they hadn’t wanted to uproot him. So on my end, that would mean more silence. Less Layla. And when she moved away with him when he got new orders, it would be even worse.

Shaking my head, I settled back under my blanket and picked up my Kindle. Nope. I didn’t like the tightness in my chest that all of that brought on, and the best thing to do when I felt it was distract myself with some good ol’ fashioned fiction. It was way easier to deal with made-up emotional turmoil than reality. And lately? I’d hadplentyof that.