Page 65 of Strictly Pretend

I know this is pretend. I know it’s just for a few days.

More than anything, I know I’m going to miss these little kisses and touches when they’re gone. But I can’t worry about that now. So I decide to enjoy them while I can.

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

BROOKS

It takes two hours and four large glasses of wine, but Emma finally relaxes. In fact, she relaxes so hard she falls asleep in my lap as we sit around the camp fire with our friends.

Tomorrow the festivities really begin. There are the all-day bachelor and bachelorette parties. Separate ones, which in one way is good, because it keeps Emma far away from Will.

And in another way it’s bad, because she’s anxious. I can tell it in her voice, in the way she holds herself. I want to talk to her and tell her it’ll be okay but I can’t because we could be overheard.

So instead, as she falls asleep against me, I explain to Cassie and Mia that she’s been so worried about spoiling Cassie’s day that it has taken its toll on her.

“Please don’t blame Emma. It was my fault completely. I just got overcome by the moment,” I lie. “I didn’t even have a ring.”

Cassie smiles at me. “Sometimes we just get overtaken by the moment. It’s lovely, it really is.”

Mia looks at Emma, whose face is pressed against my chest. I realize I’m stroking her hair. She lets out a little snore and it makes me laugh.

“She deserves to be happy,” Mia says, looking pointedly at me.

“Especially after what happened with Will. It really messed her up, you know?” Cassie says. “God, I hate that guy.”

Will has just arrived at the cookout. He hasn’t come over, but he keeps shooting annoyed looks our way. Jemima is clinging to him, as though she’s afraid Emma is going to storm over and drag him away.

“Yeah,” I say. “I’m not his biggest fan either.”

“Seriously, though,” Mia says, her voice low. “Please treat her right. She’s such a lovely person. And after everything that’s happened. Not just with Will. The way she lost everything when she lost her parents.” She shakes her head. “I’ll never forget her face when she walked into our class and had to pick up her things. The school wouldn’t even let her stay one extra day to say goodbye. They just wanted her gone.”

“She really lost everything,” Cassie adds. “After her parents died it turned out her dad was up to his eyeballs in debt. There was nothing left for her.”

“He’d borrowed a lot of money from friends too,” Mia adds. “It caused a huge scandal at the time. I felt so sorry for her.”

I frown, because even though I knew she’d left school after her parents died I assumed it was because she wanted to go live with her grandparents. Not because her parents had left her with nothing.

I didn’t know she’d been forced to leave her friends, having just discovered that her parents were dead on the same day.

“I wish we’d kept in touch with her,” Mia says, shaking her dark hair. “We tried for a while. But we were teenagers, you know? We thought the world revolved around us. That’s why I was so happy when we reconnected. And then Will…” She wrinkles her nose. “That rat bastard broke her all over again.”

I tighten my hold on Emma, who is now snoring in my arms. Not that I mind. It’s funny how vulnerable she seems when she’s asleep. Awake, she can be feral. The she-wolf who howls at the moon.

Asleep, she’s so soft and pliant. I lean down to kiss the top of her head.

“God, you’re lovely,” Mia says. “I swear I thought you’d treat her like an asshole too.”

“Yeah, well he knows we’d rip his balls off if he did,” Cassie points out, grinning.

I smile, but inside I’m thinking about that phone call from my assistant today. Next week, if the lawyers give the go-ahead, her grandfather will get an eviction notice. This will be over. I’ll have won.

I should be happy about that. It’s business, after all. So why does my throat feel like it’s almost impossible to breathe?

“I should probably take her back to the yurt,” I say, looking down at Emma’s face. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her so relaxed. And I hate it. It’s like being relaxed in the arms of a bear.

And I’m the damn grizzly.

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