Page 59 of The One You Want

“Okay. When will I see you tomorrow?”

“I’ll let you know as soon as Gray and I connect and set a time.”

“Great. And Marc... I’m so glad we talked and got everything out in the open.”

“Me, too, sweetheart. Now let me talk to Rose.” The soft demand in his voice spiked her curiosity again.

Maggie held her phone out to Rose. “Marc has some kind of surprise in mind for me and he’d like your help.”

Rose eyed the phone like Maggie was handing her a snake. “Um. Okay.”

***

Rose took the phone and put it to her ear, her gaze steady on Maggie’s. “Hi, Marc. What’s up?”

“Move away from Maggie so she can’t overhear us.”

Rose didn’t like the demanding tone, but if it was to keep a surprise for Maggie, she’d comply. She stood and told Maggie, “I’ll just be a sec. We don’t want you to hear about the surprise.”

Maggie nodded, though her brows drew together as she watched Rose step away toward the front window.

“Okay. She can’t hear us. What’s the big surprise?”

“Did Gray tell you what happened on Sunday?”

“I heard how angry you were when you called him about your dad coming over.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” He paused. “You don’t know. Good. He kept his mouth shut.”

“What is this about?” She didn’t like it that Gray was keeping something from her.

“Nothing. I told him to keep his mouth shut and he did. I’m surprised but grateful. Now all you have to do is promise the same. Do not tell Maggie about us.”

She sighed. “Marc, you know I can’t do that. Eventually she’ll find out. If we tell her now, it’s no big deal. If we don’t tell her and she finds out later, she’ll think it’s more than it is and be upset we hid it from her. I don’t want her to think we hid it because it needed to be a secret for some reason. She’s already wondering why you’re acting weird about me.”

“She doesn’t have a clue.”

“She’s smarter than you think,” Rose snapped.

“I need this wedding to happen, Rose. Don’t screw this up for me. We had a great night together.”

And it was done and over and should never be spoken of again, especially since he was getting married.

“I remember every bit of that night and you. Do you really think Gray wants to know that you and I slept together? There’s no way he won’t picture that every time he sees me with you. I picture it every time I think about you and see you.”

What the hell?“Stop.”

“I wish I could, because it’s really complicating things for me. You seem to care about Gray. I care about Maggie. We have plans that will give us both what we want. I can’t let anything screw that up.”

“She already suspects something. That’s why we need to tell her the truth.”

“I can’t take the risk that she won’t get over it and leave me. Gray won’t let it go, either,” he warned.

The knot in her stomach tightened painfully. But Rose stuck to her guns and tried to hold on to her belief that Maggie and Gray would see the truth. “We had sex before we met them. Over a year ago. One night. Nothing more. They’ll understand that.”

“We had fucking great sex. And you may have thought I was an asshole the next morning, but that night, you were all over me.”

The reminder made her cringe, because it was true, they’d had a great night together. And if it had ended there, she’d have gone on thinking that, but it didn’t negate the fact that he wasn’t a good guy. And her friend should know that.

She needed to be the friend who told Maggie the truth, damn the consequences.

“Don’t do this, Rose. If you do, we’ll both lose the people we’re with. You want to keep Gray, fine, but you won’t if you tell him you slept with me.”

She didn’t want to believe that. “Look, we don’t have to go into detail, just tell them we spent a single night together. That’s all. Gray and I have a really great thing together. He cares about me. He’s been burned in the past and I’m not going to do anything to mess up this amazing thing I have with him. And not being honest with himwillscrew this up.”

“You’re wrong. You better keep your mouth shut if you wantto keep him because he’s not going to want you if he knows you were with me. Trust me on this, Rose. I know him. And I think you know it, too.” He hung up on her.

She swore and saw Maggie headed toward her, but at the last second, Maggie rushed past her and ran out the café door, up to a man, and spun him around to face her.

Rose gasped. “Oh, my god. Joel.”