Page 26 of The Omega's Fake Mate

“Please tell me you're not serious.”

“I am! I'm super serious! You see I totally know what it's like to fall in love because I have! Head over heels, I'm telling you.” I knew my brother wasn't going to believea wordI was saying, but he couldn't prove me wrong either.

“You would have told me if you were getting married.”

“Really? After you didn't even invite me to your wedding? You didn't even send me acard!Maybe this is payback, bro.”

Rhys sighed. “There's nothing I can do to stop you, is there?”

“You can stop me about as much as I could stop you.”

He fell quiet.

“Could you at least pretend to be happy to see me soon?”

“I do want to see you. I'm just worried.”

“I guess that makes two of us then. We really need to talk in person.”

“Yeah,” Rhys finally agreed after some hesitation. “Maybe you're right.”

“I know I am. How does the second week of December sound to you?” That would give all of us a little time to prepare.

“I can work with that.”

“Cool. I'll let you know when I have a more exact date for when my mate and I can make it to Connecticut.”

“Sure.” He paused. “Who did you mate?”

“You remember Zander Kerner?”

Rhys laughed. The sound was so loud and so sudden that I nearly flinched. When had I last heard my brother laugh like that? It must have been a long time. And what was so funny?

Finally, Rhys calmed down enough to explain his hysteria. “Did you know I had a bet going with Dean and Lara about whether or not you two would end up married some day? I thought I lost when we moved, but now I guess they both owe me five bucks.”

I had most certainlynotbeen aware of that. “You were betting on me?”

“Only a little bit.” Rhys still sounded amused. He sounded so much more like himself than he had over the pastyear.It was so good to hear—and it strengthened my resolution to go through with this fake couple shtick and go see my brother. Especially since he actually seemed to believe me now. If I could convince him, I could convince anyone.

“Well, you won the bet. We're married. I hope you're happy now.”

“You know what? I actually am.” His smile was apparent in his voice. “I'm happy you found someone and that it's him. You two always got along so well.”

“Yeah, when we met again, we picked right up where we left off,” I lied.

“I can totally picture that. You'll have to tell me the story when you're here.”

“Love to.” Two weeks was enough time to make something up. I should ask Zander to think of something. He'd always been good at coming up with stories. I had to go over to the store tomorrow anyway, to help him with this research he wanted to do. Whatever that was.

I ended the call with my brother and put the phone back in my pocket. That had gone better than anticipated. I really hadn't expected Rhys to believe me, but he seemed to have no problem with the image of Zander and me as a married couple.

In hindsight, that really should have made me think.

10

Zander

The nightof the day Nick fake-proposed to me, my parents called as if they knew I had something to tell them. I had only just finished closing up the store and was about to head out for a walk with Betty when the phone rang. The dog shot me a sad look, as though she knew her evening exercise was going to be delayed. Then the old lady flopped on my couch and wearily closed her eyes.