Not Fake for Long by Weston Parker

32

KEIRA

My feet hurt. My entire body was sore from spending the entire night dancing and running around in my skyscraper heels to fulfill all my duties, but neither my feet nor the rest of me could hold a candle to my heart.

For only having known him for a few weeks, Harrison had somehow wormed his way into the useless organ in my chest and now I didn’t know how to get him out of it. When I’d had the fleeting thought last night that I’d started falling for him, it had been a random thought. One I hadn’t put much stock in until I’d gotten home.

I was exhausted after the wedding. It turned out that being a maid of honor was a lot more than just smiling for the photos. If I’d thought the majority of my work had been done after I’d organized the bridal shower, I’d been very wrong.

With the bride and groom busy enjoying their night and my parents occupied with their guests, ensuring everything ran smoothly had apparently been left up to me. The wedding planner had been there, and she’d run point on most things, but it seemed she felt the need to check almost everything with me.

While I’d thought that I’d collapse face first on my bed and sleep until Monday without even taking off the torturous heels, it hadn’t quite happened that way. Instead, the silence in my room had been deafening and I hadn’t been able to fall asleep at all.

Eventually, I’d taken a shower, made a cup of tea, and had fallen asleep on the couch while watching reruns of a medical drama that had ended years ago. After waking up, I’d gone to take another shower and now I was back on my couch, staring at the muted television and wondering what the heck I was supposed to do about Harrison.

Whoever he even was.

The problem was that he didn’t really feel like a stranger to me. While I still couldn’t believe he was Harrison Hynes, billionaire bank owner, I felt like I knew the man he was underneath all that. But if that was true, then I would also have known why he’d lied to me about it. And I didn’t.

I really fucking didn’t.

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if my outspoken disdain for Nick and his ilk had anything to do with it. I’d made no secret of the fact that I didn’t like people who had money, but I was also starting to realize that I hadn’t been thinking very clearly about it these last few months.

In fact, it had all started when Hailey had gotten engaged to Nick and I hadn’t been sure why she’d really said yes to him. Then she’d gotten my mother onboard with her plan to “marry rich,” and that had skewed my perception even more.

Last night, while I’d watched Nick with my sister, I’d realized that none of my more recent, more vocal opinions had really even had anything to do with him. I still didn’t like his pretentious friends, but I didn’t have to. They weren’t my friends, and frankly, I didn’t know if they were really his either.

I understood the importance of appearances and networking, and I’d come to realize that there might just be a lot more to Nick than I’d originally thought. Hearing what Hailey had said about him last week when we’d talked and then seeing how he doted on her at the wedding had opened my eyes to the fact that maybe I was the one who’d been full of shit recently.

Now that I was finally working through years of issues I’d had with my sister, there were a lot of things I was starting to realize about myself that I didn’t like so much. Judging someone for being rich was just as unfair as judging someone for being broke.

Ultimately, people were who they were. Sure, money made some people entitled, pretentious pricks, but that wasn’t true for everyone.

Now that I knew who he really was, Harrison was a prime example of that. He was far away from being an entitled, pretentious prick as one could be.

While I was still upset with him, I was also ready to listen to his explanation. I’d needed to get away from him just after finding out, but I’d had the whole night and early morning to think, and I was convinced that a lot of the thoughts I’d had while I’d been in shock over the whole thing had been entirely unfounded.

Maybe he did have mansions or castles all over the city and even the world, but he also had that rustic house on the farm. He’d still stayed over at my apartment without saying a single bad word about it or complaining about it at all.

All things considered, the fact that he had a significant number of zeroes linked to his name didn’t change the fact that the man I’d come to know was decent. He was good. He loved horses and the outdoors, and he didn’t brag about who he was or what he’d achieved.

Having gone back and forth about it since I’d opened my eyes at the crack of dawn, I decided it was time to stop stalling. I wanted to hear him out and I wanted to do it in person.

Jumping up from the couch, I grabbed my phone, keys, and purse and then headed out before I could second-guess myself. At least I was clean and dressed in jeans and a shirt that didn’t have holes in it, so it could’ve been worse.

On my way out to the farm, I found myself eyeing every exit and wondering if I should take it. It wasn’t too late to turn around yet, but I couldn’t do it.

If I chickened out now, things might fester and get worse. I couldn’t allow that to happen, especially not knowing now that my heart had somehow gotten involved in all of this.

I’d already gone and given a piece of it to Harrison, and now I couldn’t imagine not having him in my life without even giving him a chance to explain. My gut said that not everything had been a lie. The more I thought about our conversations, the more it felt like he might only have been holding back his last name.

When I thought about it that way, I even kind of understood why he might do it. Not only because I’d been venting about rich people for weeks, but also because there were a lot of people out there who would only want to be with him because of his money.

It made sense that he’d try to protect himself from that. I’d seen the schmoozing and brown-nosing Nick had to put up with all the time. It was entirely possible that Harrison just didn’t want to put up with any of that.

When I finally pulled up in front of his house at the farm, I noticed that his truck wasn’t anywhere in sight. Ashton was there, though. He had a shotgun in his hand and was walking up from another, smaller house down the path from Harrison’s.

“Hi,” I said, giving him a small wave as I climbed out of the car. “Is Harrison around?”

The older man frowned when he saw me, but then a tiny smile lifted just the corners of his lips. “No, he’s not. I thought he was with you. How was the wedding?”

“It was good,” I said, then chewed the back of my lower lip as I debated how much to tell him. Eventually, I decided to just be honest. “The wedding itself was good, but Harrison and I aren’t. I learned some things about him and I might not have handled it as well as I could’ve.”

He sighed, coming over to stand on the other side of my car, where I’d parked in the shade between the two houses. “He told you then, did he?”

“Sort of.” I let my gaze wander over him, wondering why he seemed a little paler than he had before. “It kind of came out, but he said he was about to tell me just before it happened. Are you okay?”

His wizened face scrunched up, but he shrugged and waved one of his hands. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just feeling a little bit off today. Tell me what happened. He was so excited for the wedding. Even dragged me shopping with him.”

“He did?” My brows rose and I almost laughed. “Really? I can’t imagine you two shopping together.”

“Neither could I,” he guffawed but then winced and walked over to Harrison’s porch to lean the shotgun against it. “I wouldn’t have gone with him if he hadn’t been so excited, though. You’re the only woman I’ve even seen around him that wasn’t a client here. It seemed like it was important to him.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said softly. “You obviously know who he really is then. Does he own the farm?”

He frowned, his head slightly cocked. “Yeah, he does. Bought it a few years ago. I know who he is, missy, but I think you do too.”

My heart warmed at his words, but before I could respond, something happened. Ashton was still standing there looking at me one minute, but the next, his eyes went wide and seemed unfocused.

“Ashton?” I said, trying to stay calm despite the icy tentacles of panic that wound themselves around my heart as I ran around the car to him. “Are you okay? What happened?”

He opened his mouth, but he couldn’t seem to get a word out. His pallor had also changed completely in the last few seconds. Just as I reached him, he let out a loud groan and his eyes rolled back in his head.

I caught him before he hit the ground, but he’d definitely passed out. My hands trembled, my extremities turning to ice. “Ashton? Ashton?”

My voice was shrill as that same panic threatened to overwhelm me. Forcing myself to suck in deep breaths, I fought against the haze that was trying to sink in. Moving as gently and yet as fast as I could, I laid him down while yanking my phone out of my pocket.

I fell to my knees next to him, desperately waiting for an operator to answer. Ashton needed help, and every second might matter. I didn’t know what was happening, but something was very, very wrong. And I was the only person here to help him.

“Hello?” I said once the operator had answered, my voice shaky and still much too loud. “I need an ambulance. Right away. We’re at Airedale Farm. Please, my friend collapsed. Send an ambulance!”

The operator rattled off a few more things but assured me that help was on its way. As soon as I hung up, I brushed the graying hair out of his face and off his temples.

Then I clutched his hand and begged him to hang on.