Page 23 of The Playboy's Most Unexpected Baby

Olivia sighed. “Charlie… I think we need to tell her the truth.”

“I thought you didn’t want to do that.”

“Hang on,” Izzy said. “Tell me what truth?”

“You were the one who said we shouldn’t do it,” Olivia said. “You were the one who said the fewer people involved, the better. Did you forget that? I’ve been going along with your plan. And I still would be if you’d done like I asked and not struck up this conversation with her — but you two are acting like the best of friends, and Izzy’s not stupid. She knows there’s something going on here.”

“Whattruth?” Izzy repeated.

But Olivia didn’t know what to say. She wanted to come clean to her sister, but how could she possibly explain all this?

Fortunately — or unfortunately, she wasn’t sure how she felt about it — Charlie had never been lost for words in his life.

“The thing is, Izzy,” he said, “I’m married to your sister.”

Izzy’s jaw dropped. “No you’re not.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Olivia said. “I know this sounds crazy. And it kind of is crazy. There’s a lot that went into the decision. But… yes. Charlie and I are married. That’s why he’s so eager to get to know you, and that’s why he’s not like any of my other clients. He isn’t just a client. He’s my husband.”

Izzy looked from one of them to the other, clearly at a loss for what to say.

And Olivia felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach as she realized the full weight of what she had just confessed.

There was a lot of explaining to do, and none of it was going to be easy.

CHAPTER9

OLIVIA

“But why didn’t you tell me you were getting married?” Izzy asked. “I thought we always said that we would be each other’s maid of honor. Didn’t you want me to be? You didn’t ask someone else, did you?”

The two of them were sitting on the front porch of Olivia’s mother’s house. Her mother wasn’t home, thankfully — she was working her night job. Olivia hadn’t decided whether or not to share this news with her mother. Izzy was one thing — the two of them had always been closer than close, and keeping a secret from her sister had felt simply wrong. But if Olivia were to tell her mother, it would give rise to a family scandal. Olivia wasn’t ready to face that sort of thing.

“Of course I didn’t ask someone else,” she assured Izzy. “I’d never do that. And I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret from you specifically, Iz. We went down to the courthouse and signed a marriage license. We didn’t tell anybody.”

“Well,that’sromantic.”

For a moment, Olivia thought her sister was being sarcastic, but then she looked over and saw the shine in Izzy’s eyes. “Are you serious?”

“Oh my God, are you kidding? You were so desperate to be married to him that you couldn’t even wait and do it the normal way — you had to sign papers and make it official right away. You must becrazyin love.”

Olivia laughed. “It’s not exactly like that,” she said. “Although you weave quite a tale.”

“It wasn’t because you were madly in love?”

“No.”We’re not in love at all. But she didn’t want to say that to Izzy. She didn’t want her sister to see just how jaded and opportunistic she was. Suddenly, she felt ashamed of it. To Izzy, marriage was a beautiful, romantic thing. What would she say if she knew that Olivia had married for money?

“I don’t get it,” Izzy said. “Did he need a green card or something?”

“Did Charlie Coldwell need a green card? He’s about as American as they come.”

“Oh yeah, I guess that doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Izzy realized. “Were you trying to get on his health insurance? You’re not sick, are you?” Izzy frowned. She knew that as an independent realtor, Olivia purchased her own marketplace health insurance. Olivia had complained to her family plenty of times about the cost and the difficulty of doing that.

But now Izzy looked worried. “You’re not sick, are you, Liv? You didn’t need better insurance than you could afford or something?”

“No, no,” Olivia said. “It wasn’t anything like that.” She hadn’t anticipated these difficult questions, and at the same time, she was grateful. The way Izzy was reacting was so different from the way Charlie’s siblings had reacted, and it was so much kinder. Olivia had always known how special her bond with her sister was, but right now she was really seeing it in a way she hadn’t before, and it meant the world to her.

“I don’t get it,” Izzy said. “Why would you get married out of nowhere like that? It doesn’t make any sense, Olivia. If you didn’t need insurance, and he didn’t need a green card, and you weren’t just so wildly in love that you couldn’t wait another minute… why not do things a more traditional way? It’s not as if you’re opposed to normal marriage conventions. I know you’re not. You would have told me.”

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