Page 56 of Imperfect Arrangement
“My friends,” she admits. “I can’t lie to them. Not about something this big.”
“Same with my cousins. If Rowan doesn’t already know, I’d be shocked. Archer tells him everything.”
“Yikes,” Willow mutters. “Glad I’m not one of their girlfriends.”
I grin. “I’m sure they havesomeboundaries.”
“That’s…comforting.” Then all of a sudden, Willow sticks out her hand. “So, we’re doing this?”
Her outstretched hand brings me back to our first meeting at La Bella Vita, when she offered me a partnership. Except now, things have changed more than either of us could have imagined. We’re not just business partners anymore—we’re fake fiancés.
“If you walk away to take a phone call this time, I’ll be slamming this hand right over your head.”
I laugh, sliding my palm into hers. “Not a chance, Firefly. Wouldn’t want my fiancée going to jail for murdering me.”
IT’S ABOUT FOREVER
WILLOW
“She’s almost here!” Violet practically sings, dropping her phone onto the throw pillow. Her eyes twinkle in a way that tells me she’s planned something bigger for our simple, quiet girls’ night. The porch of the house she inherited from her grandparents looks as cozy and timeless as I always remembered it.
“Vi, who exactly did you invite tonight?” I shoot her a look. “I thought it was just the four of us.” I had every intention of dropping the bomb to my friends that I’m not only playing house as Raymond Teager’s live-in nanny—nope, I’m apparently hisfiancéenow too. My stomach knots as the reality of that word hits.
“Calm down, Wills. Nori isn’t going to stay for long, and trust me, you all are going to thank me later.” Violet jumps on her feet in excitement.
I open my mouth to ask who the heck this Nori person is, because Vi looks like she might actually combust, but Elodie beats me to it.
“Who’s Nori, exactly?” El asks before shoveling a forkful of pasta into her mouth.
“She’s a tarot card reader. Cherrywood’s been dead as a doornail lately. There’s nothing exciting happening that’s worth reporting. So, I was sent to cover the opening of the new alternative medicine course at the university. Since many people think it’s all woo-woo stuff and no science, the head professor had thisbrilliantidea of inviting a whole crew of ‘healers.’ Picture a tarot booth right next to the chem lab.” Vi giggles, wiggling her fingers dramatically. “That’s where I met Nori. She’s superb. You’re going to love her.”
Elodie chokes on her food, and she and Daisy glance my way, as if silently saying,Be ready for a long night.
“Were you handpicked for the job, Vi?” I tilt my head, knowing the answer but wanting to hear her say it.
Violet rolls her eyes. “Maybe, but the joke’s on my editor, because I had a blast.”
Of course she did. I blame her grandfather. He’d spin tales about how his wife and daughter descended from a family of women with amagical touch. Grandpa Morales either watched too much TV growing up or missed his calling as a bestselling author, because he could paint an emotional backstory like no one else. The way he’d reminisce about Vi’s parents, and their love-filled life before they’d died in a car accident when she was only two, was filled with emotion and heartache.
A car pulls up near the gate, the faint crunch of tires on gravel, and Violet claps her hands, her eyes sparkling. “Promise me you’ll keep an open mind about this.”
“Vi, when have we ever not kept an open mind about the wild things you’ve dragged us into?” I give her a pointed brow wiggle, and she laughs.
“You haven’t. But don’t act like my ideas haven’t worked out.” She grins, mischief sparkling in her eyes. “Or have you forgotten the bad-boy purging ritual we did for you, Daze?”
Daisy chuckles, her hands drifting over her swollen belly. “As I have said a thousand times, thank you so much, Vi. The ritual may have worked a littletoowell.”
Ever since Daisy hit her third trimester, her husband, Charles, has taken the word protective to a whole new level. Honestly, I’m shocked he let her out of his sight for a girls’ night.
Daisy must catch the look on our faces, because she sighs. “I know exactly what you’re all thinking. I had to beg Alex to take Charles out for dinner, and even then, it was only on the condition that his security detail was parked outside with an ambulance on standby.” She rolls her eyes, but the little smile gives her away. She’s head over heels for his overbearing protectiveness, even if it borders on overkill.
Charles is going to be a phenomenal dad, just like his cousin, the man I’m getting to know more and more every day. Raymond.
My thoughts drift to him—not exactly a new territory for me. Except now, I’m not secretly hoping he runs out of that shampoo that keeps his hair annoyingly perfect or imagining him tripping over his own polished shoes.
No, Raymond has officially entered my dreams in a dangerously personal way.
Like the way he saved me from a faceplant outside Quill’s room or how his hands felt warm and strong, as if they’d left a mark on me that I swear I can still feel. My brain has taken liberties imagining those hands sliding up my arms, skimming over my shoulders, drifting down my back, making me?—
