Heirly Ever After - Vernon, Magan (pdf ebook reader .txt) 📗

Fine. We share the bed, but just for sleeping. Is that all you’ve got?”

“None of the flirting or any of the other stuff in front of my family. You can be nice, because you know, I guess we are friends or whatever, but my mom probably doesn’t want to see us even holding hands or dancing too close…if that were to happen or something.” I spit it all out, taking another sip of my tea instead of meeting his gaze.

He let a breath out of his nose. “Got it. No romance. Friends?”

I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest.

Was that really what I wanted?

No.

But was it what had to happen?

“Yes. Friends.”

He put out his hand, and I looked down at it before gently placing my palm in his. Electricity coursed through me, and I wondered if he felt it, too. That there was a spark between us. One that if I wanted to survive any of my time with him, I was really going to have to ignore.

“Friends it is, damsel.”

“Friends it is, Prada Knight.”

…

Natalie: Where should I send the car?

Madison: The Webley Bed and Breakfast

Natalie: Okay, it’ll be there soon, and you and I may have to have a little talk before dinner. I told Mom about the new date, and she’s very intrigued.

I sighed, shoving my phone in my pocket and then zipping my suitcase shut.

“Everything all right?” Jacob asked as he towel dried his sexy tousle of brown hair.

“Yeah, was just responding to my sister. She sent a car to pick us up,” I said, making sure the zipper actually closed this time before dropping my suitcase on the ground.

Jacob circled the bed, his hand on the handle of my suitcase before he pulled it next to his.

“I can carry my own luggage, you know.”

He smirked. “We saw how well that went on the train.”

I wrinkled my nose. “The zipper was stuck. It’s not like that’s going to happen again.”

He walked across the room, holding my suitcase as if it was nothing more than a package of feathers then picked up his own bag. “Doesn’t mean I’m not going to carry your stuff. That’s what friends do, right?”

There went my now least favorite F word again.

“Yeah…friends. Which speaking of that, don’t you think if we’ve been friends and talking for a while, I should know more about you?” I asked, crossing the room as quickly as my strappy sandals would let me.

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “What do you want to know?”

I stopped, racking my brain for something, anything. “What’s your favorite color?”

He turned toward me, his eyes serious. “Red.”

“Red?” I choked.

“Like your hair.” A hint of a smile crossed his lips.

“I believe this is auburn.”

He shrugged. “You say auburn, I say the color of the sunrise. Red. Maybe with a hint of gold.”

My heart fluttered in my chest, a feeling I hadn’t experienced in I couldn’t remember how long. So I took in a deep breath as I tried to gather my wits.

“Well, okay, green is mine.” The same glowing, fresh color of his eyes.

But I wasn’t going to add that.

“How about where are you from? Not just Scotland, but the city. I should probably know this if we’re…friends…” My words trailed off as I tried to speak over my heavily beating heart.

He smirked, but it was barely a quirk of his lips. “A small town in the northern highlands.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Town name?”

“It’s near St. Andrews. Know where that is? The golf course?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course I knew that was a golf course. Don’t tell me, are you also a golfer?”

He smiled, shaking his head. “Naw, not much of one. But it was either I said St. Andrews or Loch Ness, about the only two places Americans seem to think are in Scotland.”

“So you’re near Loch Ness and the golf course? Got it.”

“Ah, and are you near the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon?”

I laughed. “Okay, so when you say it like that, it does sound geographically crazy. But I’m from Charlotte in the American South.”

“That explains that southern drawl. You’ll have to show me the American South sometime, and in return, I’ll take you to Scotland. We can see the loch and maybe the golf course if you’re lucky.”

Briefly, my thoughts flitted to sitting near a body of water, the hills of Scotland behind me. And spending time with Jacob that wasn’t under the pretense of being a last-minute fake date to my sister’s wedding.

But as quickly as the idea hit my mind, the more my stomach sank. It wasn’t real. None of this was. And soon it would be over. We just had to survive the wedding week first.

“We’ll see.”

Chapter Four

Jacob

The last time I wore my three-piece blue suit with the tweed tie was when the family went to mass for the last time with Great-Grandfather Lachlan. The one who was the actual recipient of the wedding invite I was now a surprise guest of.

The guest to the bride’s sister.

Who still had no idea who I actually was.

Not like she asked, either.

It wasn’t my intention to get Madison in the middle of all of this, and now that we were in a private car heading up a silver birch-lined path, my head fogged as different scenarios plagued my brain.

The Webleys wouldn’t even know who I was, so really, I could watch from afar and wait until the perfect moment to reveal myself and demand to be heard.

Would that even work?

I had no proof of anything yet. But there had to be a clue somewhere in Webley.

The car rounded some trees, and I spotted the sprawling manor at the top of the hill with its massive size and perfectly manicured lawn.

How the bloody hell was I going to stay silent?

It looked better kept up than Edinburgh Castle, and while the castle was supported by visitors, this place just belonged to the Webleys. The family that had shunned their kin like we never existed.

I