Not Fake for Long by Weston Parker

24

KEIRA

The restaurant Hailey chose and texted me to meet her at surprised me. Over the last few years, I’d gotten used to her always wanting to go to upscale or trendy places. This was not that.

In fact, calling the place a restaurant might even have been taking it a step too far. It was little more than a bar that had a menu to offer people something to soak up the alcohol in their stomachs.

I’d left work as early as I could. Technically, I was only five minutes late, but Hailey was already there and already halfway through a beer. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw her nursing it instead of her customary glass of wine.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I scooted in on the bench opposite hers. “Did you know that was a beer when you ordered it, and is there a different place with the same name as this one?”

At the sound of my voice, she lifted her gaze from her beer to meet mine. Her eyes were wide and filled with unshed tears, her throat working like she was struggling to hold them back.

“What the hell happened?” My voice had risen a few octaves and my hands shot out to cover hers. “Just tell me where he is and I’ll go kick his ass.”

“Kick whose ass?” A crease appeared between her dark brows and she looked at me like she was thoroughly confused. “Since when do you beat people up and why do you want to beat someone up now?”

“Uh, because you look like you’re about to burst into tears?” I said, tightening my grip on her hands. “What happened?”

Sagging back in her seat, she sighed heavily and withdrew her fingers from mine to press them over her eyes. “I don’t know if I can marry Nick on Saturday.”

“What?” I was stunned. Totally completely stunned. “Why not? I thought everything was going so great with you guys?”

She picked up her beer and took a large gulp while shoving her unusually messy hair out of her face. “You know how they say people get cold feet before the wedding sometimes? Well, my feet are frozen. Like, I’m about to get frost-bite frozen.”

I barely glanced up when a server came to our booth, my gaze locked on my sister as I ordered us a whole pitcher. When he was gone, I dropped my chin and stared at her.

“Did something happen?” I asked softly. “Did he do something to make you doubt him?”

“No.” She exhaled deeply through her nostrils and then tossed her hands out to her sides. “He’s perfect, and he’s so excited, but I’m just…”

“Not?” I suggested when she trailed off.

She dipped her head into a single nod, her eyes going misty all over again. “I was super excited, but then I woke up on Monday morning and it dawned on me that it was my last week of not being a married woman. It freaked me out and now I can’t stop freaking out.”

“That’s understandable,” I said cautiously. “People get cold feet all the time. It doesn’t mean they don’t end up going through with the wedding.”

“That’s just the thing. I want to go through with the wedding, or at least I think I do, but the thought of it also terrifies me.”

I’d never seen Hailey like this. Not ever.

She wasn’t wearing any makeup and it didn’t even look like she’d brushed her hair before coming out. Instead of her fancy clothes, she was wearing a sweatshirt that I knew she’d had since high school and a pair of old yoga pants she wouldn’t normally be caught dead in outside of her own bedroom.

My perfectly put-together sister seemed to be falling apart before my very eyes, and I didn’t have the first clue how to help her. I wasn’t even annoyed about her reaction to me telling her about my promotion anymore.

There would always be time later to tell her how much it had hurt me that she couldn’t even be excited for me when something that big had happened, but if she’d been in this frame of mind when I’d called her, then I really did understand why she was the only thing she could focus on at the moment.

“I think it’s normal to be terrified of getting married,” I said finally, hoping like hell I wasn’t just making everything worse. “It’s a big deal. I mean, you’re talking about committing to one person for the rest of your life. You should be terrified for at least a little while, but ultimately, if you love him, you love him.”

“I do love him,” she said softly, her gaze darting around as if she was checking that no one was listening to us. Her choice of restaurant also made more sense now. She hadn’t wanted to go anywhere she might run into anyone she knew.

Burying her head in her hands, her shoulders rose on a deep breath before she looked at me again. “I know you’ve been worried that I’m only marrying him for his money, but I told you before that I really love him and I really do. It’s just… forever is a long time.”

“Yeah, it is,” I agreed, trying to gauge what the best approach would be from there. “Why do you love him?”

“Excuse me?” She pulled her head back and frowned at me. “Did you just ask me why I love him?”

“Yep.” I smiled at the waiter when he delivered our pitcher and two fresh glasses. Then I filled both of them to the brim before pushing one over to her and picking up the other myself. “He’s loaded, but he’s older. He’s good looking, but it’s more distinguished than it is hot. He can be nice, but so are plenty of other people. So why him? When he asked you out on your first date, why did you say yes?”

A faraway look came into her eyes and a hint of a smile appeared on her lips. “Why him, huh? Okay, I’ll bite.”

She took a much smaller sip of her drink this time, swallowing it slowly as a spark of life came back into her eyes. When she was done, she leaned forward again and put her palms flat on the table.

“I said yes to our first date because I thought he was the most charming, charismatic man I’d ever met,” she started. “He was like this force of nature to me, you know? I couldn’t help but be drawn to him.”

“What was it about him that drew you in?” I asked.

My primary objective really was helping her, but it would be interesting to hear the answer either way. I’d always wondered why she’d gone gaga over the guy from the get-go. Maybe I would finally be able to understand and, with it, really be happy when she walked down that aisle because I would know without a doubt that she was happy.

“What was it about him that drew me in?” she mused, speaking more to herself than to me until she looked up again. “It was everything really. Have you ever noticed how blue his eyes are? They’re so blue it’s like they come alive sometimes. Like I can see the waves and swells of the Adriatic Sea in them.”

“Uh, nope. I can’t say I have, but then again, I’ve never stared that deeply into your fiancé’s eyes.”

A soft giggle came out of her as she shrugged. “Fair enough. His eyes were one of the first things I noticed about him, and then I realized there was so much more. I know you’re worried because he’s older, but I actually really like that about him. He calms my crazy, you know? He just looks at the world in such a different way that it makes me realize when I’m being petty or silly.”

I didn’t respond because it didn’t seem like she was done yet. She paused for less than thirty seconds before the faraway look was back in her eyes and her smile had widened.

“When I say that he calms my crazy, I don’t mean that he tries to change me or that he points out when I’m being childish or silly. He just balances me out. Sometimes when I look at him, I still can’t believe that he chose me when there are droves of more mature, worldly women out there throwing themselves at him on a daily basis.”

She was really getting into it now, becoming more animated while she spoke and sipping her drink in between. “I know what people see when they look at him, but once I got to know him, I realized that he’s also funny and that he has such a playful streak. He’s attentive to my needs in every way, so he does take care of me, but he’s also my best friend.”

“Your best friend?”

“Absolutely,” she said without any hesitation whatsoever. “I can talk to him about anything and know that he’ll never judge me. If I had to choose one person to go out and have fun with for the rest of my life, it would be him. At the same time, he’s also my rock and my anchor. He encourages me to try new things but he also makes me feel safe and like it’s okay if I don’t want to.”

There were tears in her eyes again, but they didn’t seem to be from freaking out, sadness, or fear this time. She swiped her fingers across her cheeks and shook her head.

“All that is only the start of why I love him, but I think one of the biggest things for me with him is that it feels like he really sees me,” she said, then surprised the crap out of me. “I like looking good. I like wearing nice clothes and doing my makeup in the morning, but because of all that, it’s like most people look at me and only see the exterior. Sometimes, they look at me like I’m a doll instead of a person. Nick has never looked at me like that.”

Unexpected guilt tightened my gut. I knew that I was one of those people she was talking about, and I felt like absolute shit for it now.

“I’m sorry for making you feel that way,” I said quietly, my heart squeezing deep inside my chest. “I think that maybe I’ve been blinded by my jealousy at times.”

It was the first time I’d straight out admitted to her that I was jealous of her, and by the way her eyes grew as big as they could go, she knew what a monumental step it was for me.

“I haven’t been the best sister to you either,” she said, reaching for my hands and interlinking our fingers together. “I know we’re not going to get past our differences in just one conversation, but I’d like to try to get past them from now on.”

“So would I,” I admitted, and it was like a giant, fat rhinoceros I hadn’t even realized was there climbed off my heart with the words. “On the bright side, I think you’ve convinced not only me but also yourself about whether you should go through with the wedding.”

“Yeah.” She smiled through the tears running down her cheeks. “I think you’re right. God, I just got so swept up in all the wedding and marriage stuff that I completely forgot who it was I was saying yes to and why.”

Before I could reply, she got up from her side of the booth and came over to mine. Pulling me into one of those amazing, comforting hugs of hers, she held me close and whispered into my ear. “I’m lucky to have you as a sister, Keira. I know it’s going to take more than one night to make things right between us, but do you think I could stay over with you tonight?”

“Of course.” When she finally let go of me, tears of my own had started leaking out of my eyes. “I think it’s about time we have a good sister night. What do you say we finish this, pick up some wine, and go back to my place?”

“I say that it’s a good thing I brought my pajamas.” She laughed and hugged me again. “Thank you, Kiki. I really needed you today. Thank you for coming through for me.”

“Always,” I promised, but it wasn’t only her I was making the promise to. It was myself as well. I’d seen a different side of her already tonight, but it was one I should’ve known was there.

I was looking forward to learning more about who she’d become when I hadn’t been paying attention. For the first time, I was also looking forward to standing up with her at her wedding.

Later that night, when we were more than a couple of glasses of wine in and lounging on my couch in our pajamas, I finally mustered up the courage to let her in on my situation with Harrison.

After telling her that we’d spent last weekend together as well, I told her about his proposition for the wedding. She gaped at me when I was done.

“So, he’s going to be your fake fiancé just to keep Mom off your back?” she asked incredulously.

I nodded. “Do you think it’s a crazy idea?”

She gave me a long look before shaking her head. “Nah, I think it’s just crazy enough. I’ll keep your secret, but you tell him that if he hurts you, he’s going to be dealing with me.”

There had been a lot of hugging tonight, but I leaned over and gave her another one. “Thanks, I’ll make sure he knows not to mess with me.”

It felt damn good to know Hailey had my back. I didn’t know when the last time had been that I’d felt like she was really there for me, but I felt it now, and it felt even better than I ever could’ve imagined.