Page 59 of Always a Bridesmaid

“I don’t think that matters right now,” he said cryptically, and she couldn’t decipher his tone. Then he said the one word that decoded everything.“Jane.”

She pulled the towel she was holding to her chest as a shield of sorts, to protect herself from the coming slaughter.

“I can explain.” The words came rushing out, her mouth so dry that tumbleweeds could pass through.

“Can you? Because according to the posted article on theGlobe, Henry Norris’s mystery woman’s name is Jane Pearce from Austin. She’s a co-founder of Bride Buddies, a unique company that hires out bridesmaids to wedding parties to make the bride’s day perfect and stress-free.”

He held up the phone and there, accompanying what seemed to be a lengthy article, clear as day, was a photo of them last night at the rehearsal dinner where he was cupping her cheek moments before he walked away. Someone at the party must have snuck a phone past security and sold him out, just like he’d told her he feared someone would. Only this time she’d been part of that betrayal.

“I guess when you said that you were into marketing, you meant yourself. Maybe I should have asked more questions. But then again, would you have told me the truth or steered the conversation back to me?”

“I wanted to tell you.”

“When? Before or after we fucked?” he said, throwing her words back in her face.

“I deserved that.” The look on his face said she deserved a lot more. And she was going to get it. “But I promised Sarah and signed an NDA specifically requiring me not to tell you my real identity.”

The hurt in his eyes nearly undid her. “Why?”

Oh god. She wanted to tell him why, but she couldn’t. And that was only going to make things worse.

“It’s not my story to tell. It’s Sarah’s.” She’d already betrayed her client enough as it was. So she’d leave it up to Sarah to tell Henry about the real Elle in her own time.

“Who else knows?” he growled.

“Wayne.”

“No one else?”

She shook her head.

He stood and the look he gave her was so cold she actually shivered. “So you’ve been lying to my whole family?”

“That is what your sister hired me to do. That’s the job.”

“Being a professional liar?” His assessment of her was like a slap to the face, bringing her right back to that night with herex. She wasn’t a liar. But hearing him say it in that tone, with no room for another definition, gave her pause.

Then she reminded herself of how many people she’d helped. How many love stories she’d been a part of and decided his assessment of her, which was only partly accurate, wasn’t the entire truth. And she wasn’t going to let him diminish who she was and what she did.

“No, I play a role. I help brides out when they need someone to step in and be their support on their biggest day. I help people and I’m not going to be made to feel ashamed about what I do when I am proud of my company.”

“Proud?” He laughed, but there was no humor behind it. He stalked toward her. “You have lied to everyone I love, people who trust you, people who have been taken advantage of their entire lives, and you’re not even ashamed?” He shook his head. “I should have known. You might not be interested in my money or my fame, but you’re just like all the rest. You have an angle, and you don’t care who you have to walk over to accomplish it.”

She took a step back as if he’d physically shoved her. “Last night you said you’d fallen for me. This isn’t how you talk to someone you love.”

“Love? Whoever I fell for doesn’t exist, Elle.” He stopped. “Dammit, I mean Jane. You pretended to be whoever you thought I needed you to be in order to do your job.”

“So you think last night was for the job?”

For the briefest of moments, she saw his conviction falter, but then his walls went back up. “I don’t know.”

Jane closed the distance between them and took his hand, bringing it to her chest. “You do know. You know me. So I lied about my name. Everything I told you about my life, my dad, my family… that was real. Last night, the winery, the day at the race track. That was all real. I’m still that woman, Hank.”

His expression was full of sadness and distrust, and she’d put that there. It broke her heart.

“Do you do this a lot? I mean, were you ever going to tell me? Or just go back to Austin and ghost me?”

She looked into his eyes so he could see the honesty there. “I have never done this. Never. And I was going to tell you tomorrow after the wedding. I was going to see if you wanted to try to give this thing a go.” She could tell he wanted to believe her. Wanted to give in. “We all play roles sometimes. Even you. You’re one way for the press and for fans, and another with your family. I’m no different.”

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