Page 9

Aire

L ife as Nolan Hawthorne's wife wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be after that horrible brunch. Since I was now a rich man's husband and couldn't exactly go back to my regular job at the gallery as myself, I had nothing else to do than sit around all day. After a month of doing nothing, I asked Nolan if I could use the spare room as a studio. Nolan was surprisingly okay with it and charged me with remodeling the room and adding my touch to the townhouse if I wanted. Why he wanted some stranger to mess up his place made no sense, but he didn't seem bothered by the idea of the apartment getting a new look. I thought the way the place looked was fine, cute even, but after spending days alone roaming it like a ghost, I took him up on his offer.

So, I took his credit card and traveled around town in search of new furniture for the house. Shopping took my mind off thinking about my current situation. I had given up trying to contact Aelin. She understood my predicament. She had finally read my texts, but she hadn't responded. Either she was ignoring me or someone had her phone. I chose to believe the former. She was not someone one kidnaps without her consent.

And as I was looking at wallpapers, I was proven correct. My phone rang and when I picked it, I saw an unfamiliar number. "Hey cous."

"Aelin?" I could trace her voice anywhere. There were noises of waves crashing and wind whistling in the background. "Where are you?"

"A retreat. Granddad sent me. I would rather be anywhere but here."

"What kind of retreat?"

"A cleansing kind." Ah. It all clicked.

"Rehab?"

"Don't tell the owners of this place that. They think they're different. Anyway, I finally got my phone privileges and saw your texts."

"How long have you been there?"

Silence.

"How long will you be there? "

Silence again.

Aelin! Help me out here! I’m pretending to be you and I don’t know how long I can pull it off. You need to come back."

She clicked her tongue. "Is life married to a billionaire that hard? If you wanna truly switch places, come over here."

"So you know?"

"About your marriage to Nolan Hawthorne? Of course I do. It was granddad's idea and trust me, I didn't want it like that, but it makes sense. I would have been there if it were up to me, but you know how granddad is. We had to do it soon, before the old man keels over, of course. "

"Aelin, what are you talking about?"

"The plan? He told you all about it, right?"

"No."

Aelin's laughter trilled through the phone, unnerving me. "You don't know. Oh wow. And you agreed. Without knowing why?" She chuckled again.

I could feel my legs tremble as cold sweat ran down my back. "I hoped you would tell me, Aelin."

"No. If grandad didn't tell you, it's best to keep it that way. It could be part of the plan."

"What fucking plan!"

"My time is running out and there are other people I need to call. "

She ended the call, leaving me in limbo. I called her again, but I only reached her voicemail. After five tries, I gave up calling her and tried to get back to shopping. It was difficult to concentrate on wallpaper patterns after a call like that. If Aelin was in rehab, that meant she would come out after a few weeks. So whatever this plan was, it would not last long. That was some relief, I guess. At least it meant I would have to deal with the Hawthornes for a short while.

But if she was lying and was not in rehab at all and was instead hiding from her scandal and letting me take the fall… I did not want to think of that possibility.

"Found what you're looking for?"

I jumped at the sound of the familiar voice. Tyler was standing beside me, his hands clasped behind him, peering at the wallpaper samples. The white polo shirt and blue chinos he had on emphasized his amazing physique. It would make any woman swoon, but his sudden appearance distracted me to care.

"Hi!" I said in a too cheery voice. When did he spot me? Did he hear my conversation with Aelin? If he did, he didn't look like it.

"If you're going to choose that, I can assure you my brother will hate it. He doesn't like Victorian style designs."

I placed the piece down. "I was just looking. "

"Or you can choose whatever you want because I doubt he cares. You should have seen his face when I redecorated his place. Not even a thank you for removing the millennial gray and giving it some color."

"You did a great job," I said. "I like the place. I don't know why he wants me to change it."

"It's probably his way of giving you something to do. My brother is like that. He likes giving people projects, so they don't bother him. And no doubt, it's his way of keeping you out of trouble."

"Keeping me out of trouble? Let me guess. He sent you to make sure I don't step out of line?"

Tyler bellowed out a raucous laughter that made a few people inside the warehouse-like store glanced in our direction. "If you knew my brother and I, you'd know I'm the last person he would send to do that."

"Oh really? Why?"

"Nolan and I are more like cousins than brothers."

Nothing I saw between the two of them suggested Nolan and Tyler were not close. And besides, Tyler should hate me for what I, or rather Aelin, did, but he did not seem bothered. If anything, he was mildly interested.

"Do you want me to help you?" He glanced at the wallpaper samples. "I do this kinda thing for a living. You could pick my brain."

I frowned. "I never caught what you did. "

"Nolan didn't tell you, did he?" He smirked. "See? I told you we're like cousins. I'm an architect. But I minored in interior design."

"Why help me? You could just let me sink and laugh at my horrendous decor decisions behind my back."

He gave me a cryptic smile. "I am curious about you. Want a coffee?"

Looking at furniture, paint colors and flooring was not as fun as I initially thought it would be, and my brain was tired from staring at fifteen variations of the same thing, so I nodded. And besides, Tyler's interest in me was bothering me and I wanted to know why. He chose a coffee shop that sold beverages at twice the market rate. Apparently, the coffee was supposed to taste twice as good. It didn't. But maybe my palate wasn't as sophisticated.

"So, why did you marry my brother?" Tyler asked as soon as we sat down. I was sipping my coffee, and I almost choked on it. The question was so abrupt and the last thing I expected him to say.

"Your brother didn't tell you?"

"Nolan is a robot who only thinks about The Company. He married you because he's always wanted your family's company and will do whatever to get it. I am asking you."

I shrugged and tried to sip my coffee once more without burning my tongue. "Same thing. "

"You?" He leaned back in his chair and chuckled in disbelief. "Not the Aelin I know."

My heart raced. He knew Aelin. Fuck. Fuckity fuck. My first thought was to jump out of my chair and run, but I glued myself to the seat and tried to think of the most casual way to probe without exposing myself. "A lot of people think they know me, but they couldn't be further from the truth."

He raised his arms in surrender. "You're right. All I know about you is stuff from the press, and we all know how that gets twisted. But I thought we hit it off on Tocci's yacht. Or were you lying to my poor, wounded soul?"

Tread carefully, I thought. Very carefully. "You have to excuse my blank memory. I was high on a cocktail of drugs. I don't think I remember the conversation." Please Aelin. I hope you didn't sleep with Tyler.

He chuckled. "I get it. That was one wild weekend. You told me you'd never get married, and we both made a vow together not to do so. At least that's what I remember."

"Sorry. I am drawing a blank. But you wouldn't take for granted a vow I made on coke, would you?"

"I don't know. It wasn't just the drugs. You were adamant."

"Things change. People change." I drank my coffee to complete the act of nonchalance and hoped he bought it.

"You're right. You have changed. There's something different about you." He narrowed his eyes. "I can't put my finger on it."

I stayed silent. Too frozen to say anything in fear I might incriminate myself. But Tyler didn't seem like he knew he was talking to a different person and after he delved into another topic about interior decor, I relaxed a little. And before I knew it, I had reached the bottom of my coffee cup when Tyler mentioned he had to get back to work.

"I don't think Sebastian will appreciate me spending my lunch with you."

"Oh. I am sorry about that, by the way. I wasn't in the correct headspace when I did that. It was messed up." I was still thinking of Lynn and what she had to go through because of Aelin. Not only was I wearing her clothes and pretending to be her. I was wearing Aelin's crimes as well, and it left me with a sense of partial responsibility.

"Ha. Nolan is already on his way to fix that mistake. That's one advantage of marrying him. He loves rushing in and playing the hero. He's probably already called the judge working on Lynn's case. Oh!" His eyes brightened. "Would you like to come to my office? I can show you some of the alternative ideas I had for Nolan's place. You could use them. Ditch them. Do whatever. We just have to make sure Sebastian doesn't see you."

"You work with him?"

"Seb and I joined forces and started an architectural firm."

"Fascinating." Sounds like all the Hawthornes are high achievers."

He chuckled. "Of course you'd say that."

I gave myself an invisible pat on the back for saying something Aelinesque. I was at ease now and considered asking the one thing that had been bothering me. "Oh, by the way. You and I. Tucci's yacht. We didn't. Did we?"

He scoffed. "Don't worry Aelin. We definitely did not. You were preoccupied with some Italian hunk."

I let out a deep breath. "Good. Not the Italian hunk part, but you know."

Tyler stared at me as though he were seeing me in a different light. His eyes narrowed. "There is something different about you. I can't tell what, but it's fascinating."

I had hung out with Tyler for too long. I gave him a slight shrug. "Nothing's changed. It's just me."