Lucky This Isn't Real: MacBride Brothers Series St. Patrick's Day Fake Fiance Romance by Jamie Knight (good books to read for beginners txt) 📗

Ironically, that part had turned out to be a piece of cake compared to seeing my ex and stepsister in the lobby beforehand.

“Yeah, but that wasn’t even the most interesting part…”

I started to rush out a bunch of words all at once in an attempt to describe my crazy morning, telling Darcy everything from Raquel and Kenny’s upcoming nuptials to my make-believe wedding in Big Sur.

She grinned at my happiness.

“Your tongue gets very loose when you’re in love.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling my cheeks get warm. “I mean, come on. I just met him. I wouldn’t call it more than a silly crush.”

She tapped a fingertip against her lip.

“So, you met at the therapist’s office? Both of you were seeing a shrink? That’s the perfect opening to a modern-day romance story if I ever heard one.”

“Not exactly. It was one of those all-in-one office buildings. He could have been there for any number of reasons. I was called in before he was, so I never got to find out why he was there.”

“So, what’s he like? Bangable?”

“Darcy!” I said, feeling my cheeks burn.

“Oh, he is, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, okay, he’s very hot. We’re going to Raquel and Kenny’s engagement party together.”

 “Oh, do you really think that’s a good idea? Flirting in a public place is one thing but, like…” She made a face. “What if he’s a serial killer? You don’t know anything about him.”

“I will soon.”

I typed Gavin’s name into Google, suddenly driven to disprove her skepticism. The first thing that popped up was an IMDB link. Interesting— he was an actor. I clicked on the page and handed my phone to Darcy.

“Holy sex bomb, Batman!”

Darcy fanned her hand in front of her face, her tortoise-shell glasses almost actually steaming up.

She liked to come off as pretty nerdy, but she was actually sexy under it all. She had shown me some glamour shots from when she had been a model. I suspected that her current style was at least partly a deterrent to the attention that she had no doubt always received in the past, not all of which was welcome.

“I know, right?” I beamed, feeling like the cat who’d gotten into an entire bowl of cream. “He really helped me out of a horrible situation. He was a perfect gentleman.”

“Seems like a keeper and not a serial killer,” Darcy said, handing the phone back.

I wasn’t quite sure I had him yet, but he was pretty insistent on getting my phone number, and I was pretty sure I’d seen him glance, very subtly, at my chest, which, even though it was a bit difficult to miss, made me think that he might want me, too.

We had a date, of sorts, and who knew what might happen after that?

Sure, this whole thing was meant to be a fake engagement to get Raquel jealous and save me from looking like a complete idiot around her and Kenny, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t also eventually have a real relationship.

It was a bit like being in the movies, and we had both played parts. I would often see the same actors in different films and notice their chemistry. While I didn’t believe that they were really together for a second, I wondered if they were friends.

Like, did they hang out and go to dinner and stuff while having a job where they would kiss and have fake sex in the context of a real relationship? I knew the on-set and off-set worlds were vastly different.

Gavin was an actor, so I guessed he would be able to compartmentalize similarly. We could very well have our fake engagement that we put on ‘on-set’ and a real dating relationship that we were still working through ‘off-set.’

Strange as it might seem to be actually dating while pretending to be engaged, it would give us some good practice if things ever got that far in our real relationship— or at least a girl could hope, right?

Maybe our fake relationship would end in a real marriage.

Just the thought made me feel warm inside.

But I told myself to reign in the fuzzy feelings.

I didn’t want to be let down.

Yet it was still fun to hope, for once.

I left work feeling almost as happy as I was when I had been going in. Rather than heading home, I went further downtown, fully intending to buy a dress for the engagement party. Something sexy that showed off my assets.

I tried not to think about the actual occasion while looking for the dress. The thought of Kenny and Raquel’s upcoming nuptials made me feel angry all over again, so I blocked that part of it from my mind.

I wondered what Dr. Benoit’s recommended self-help books would have to say about that tactic. I had a feeling they wouldn’t approve, but it was what worked best for me at the moment, so that was how I handled it.

The dress I settled on was a bit daring, but I went with a semi-medieval number. A lovely skirt flowed down to the floor, and very fine lacing at the front mimicked a corset. There was also a deep neckline. The arms went down from its long, slender sleeves and fanned out massively into huge triangles at the cuffs.

I took a sharp intake of breath when I glanced at the price tag, which amounted to two full paychecks at my assistant’s job. I would have to go further into my inheritance, but I didn’t feel too bad, though. Dad had left it for me to do with what I wanted, and I had tried to be responsible, as though frivolity would be an insult to his memory.

He never really went in for fancy