Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78634 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78634 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“What are you talking about?”
Fallon jabbed the screen a few times, and an audio recording of Embry’s muffled voice started to play. He was saying, “When we got together with your family at Christmas, we weren’t in a relationship yet, and now we are.”
I leapt to my feet and demanded, “Where did you get that?”
“I’m staying in the room right next to yours. Did you forget these walls are paper thin, and that the vents are basically sound amplifiers?”
I had, actually. Then something occurred to me, and I growled, “Does that mean you were listening when Embry and I had sex?”
“Ew, no! I would have left the room. Like I want to hear you doing it.” He shuddered and added, “I only got here about an hour ago, but that was plenty of time to have all my suspicions confirmed.”
I frowned at him and asked, “So, what are you going to do now, run to Granddad with the evidence?” It was going to be incredibly fun to tell him he was too late.
“That’s exactly what I planned to do. But then you two kept talking, and it’s obvious you really care about each other.”
“And that changes something, as far as you’re concerned?”
“Yeah, it does. I can’t fucking do it, because I like Embry, and I don’t want to get him blackballed from the family. I hate myself for being so sentimental.” He held up his phone and showed me as he deleted the recording. Then he grumbled, “So, you win. Enjoy your inheritance and your awesome relationship and your perfect life.”
I grabbed him in a hug, and he went as rigid as a mannequin as he asked, “What are you doing?”
“Hugging you. Just go with it.”
“Stop it.”
I let go of him and said, “I always knew you were a good guy, Fallon.”
“I completely regret deleting that recording.”
“No, you don’t. You know you did the right thing, and I hope this can be a fresh start for you and me. If you ever need anything, I’m here for you, brother.”
I could tell I was getting through to him, even though he tried to brush it off. “Whatever. I’m going to go get drunk now. For the love of god, please don’t bone for the rest of the weekend, because I don’t want to hear it. My therapist already has his hands full without adding that trauma to the mix.”
As he started to walk away, I called after him, “You earned yourself some major karma points, Fallon. Just watch. I’ll bet something good is headed your way.”
He muttered, “Yeah, right,” before disappearing into the main building, and I grinned. I was going to be proven right very soon, but he didn’t know what our grandfather planned to tell him after dinner.
I hurried back to our room to tell Embry the news. He’d put on the pale pink suit he’d bought secondhand and had tailored for this weekend, along with a white dress shirt and a pair of sneakers. I murmured, “Wow, you look gorgeous.” Then I swept him off his feet and spun around in a circle, which made him laugh.
“I guess whatever your grandfather wanted to talk to you about was good news,” he said, as he draped his arms over my shoulders.
“You won’t believe it.”
I took a seat on the small sofa with him on my lap and told him everything that had happened with both Granddad and Fallon. When I finished, Embry looked stunned. He took a few moments to process it, and finally, he asked, “So, what happens now?”
“Well, first I’m going to pay off all my debts, including both mortgages on the house. Then I guess I’ll contact a commercial real estate agent and start shopping for a building to house my restaurant. Even though I still have a ton of planning to do, it makes sense to secure a location, and—”
“No… I mean, what happens with us? Do we annul the marriage, and do we keep living together?”
That caught me off guard. “Nothing has to change, does it? Living with you has been wonderful, and I want to keep doing that—assuming that’s what you want, too.”
But maybe he didn’t want that at all. Maybe he wanted to move back into the house he’d loved with all his friends, instead of staying with someone he’d only been dating a few weeks. I was afraid of what he might say, so I barreled ahead with, “And, obviously, I’m going to write you a check as soon as we get home. It’ll be for double the amount we agreed on. I got more than I was expecting, and you should, too.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want any money.”
“What do you mean?”
“We said I’d get paid if we fooled your family, but your grandfather knew we were faking it. Also, the agreement was that we’d keep this going for a year, but it’s only been a month. There’s no way I’d take a huge payout for any of that.”