Page 18 of The Billionaire's Fake Fiancée

I feel my jaw unhinge. “Uhhh.”

Jada claps her palm over her mouth, eyes wide. “Shit!” Needless to say, this does not dampen interest. Nor does the fact that she screams, “Forget I ever said that!” when she removes said palm.

“You’re going on a megayacht?” Vicky asks. “What?” Vicky has Smuckers on her lap, and she’s petting him into oblivion, but even Smuckers looks interested in the megayacht news. His little tail is going a million miles an hour.

“I can’t tell,” I say. “I’ve signed something, and so has Jada.” I give Jada a hard look.

“We signed something,” Jada confirms.

“Is that a yes? To the megayacht?” Mia asks.

“Look, I sooo wish I could tell you guys, but we both signed such serious NDAs, both Jada and I. And if it gets out, we are so screwed. Forget you heard it.”

Vicky frowns. “Are you cutting hair?”

“I really can’t tell you?” I wince. “But I swear it’s not a sex thing.”

“Cone of silence,” Jada says.

“I assumed you were visiting your mom,” Lizzie says.

Jada shakes her head with major drama. I grab a tank top nobody wants and throw it over her head. “Stop emoting!”

“I’m sorry!” Jada says from under the shirt.

“You guys,” Lizzie’s sister-in-law, Willow, says, “a nondisclosure agreement is a really serious thing. These two could get in trouble for revealing even this much.” She looks around with a dark expression. “We must completely forget that our Tabitha is going on a Flying Fox MEGAYACHT!” She pumps her fist in the air. “Woo-hoo!”

Everybody is laughing.

Vicky throws the maxi dress at me. “Try it on!”

I go in Mia’s bedroom to try it on. I’m kind of glad they know. Everybody just assumed the two weeks was about visiting Mom in her sad assisted-living facility up north. I hated the dishonesty—my girlfriends are everything to me. Living in this place near this clan of women is more important to me than any of them knows. They just have no idea.

I come out in the dress and do a Spanish dancer pose, and everybody’s clapping. No way can I wear it, though. Rex’s personal shopper took me out this week and fixed me up with a new wardrobe composed entirely of brown, black, and white garments, with zero fun patterns unless you count stripes, which I don’t.

Mia gives me tips on what silverware to use when—she was just in aDownton Abbeysort of play where she had to learn it all.

Jada feels awful she told. She’s making all seven women do a cone of silence oath that they won’t tell. “It’s really important that this doesn’t leave this room,” she says over and over.

Vicky goes in her case and pulls out aSmuck Upendant where Smuckers is wearing a sailor cap and blue bow tie. Smuck U is her fun line of jewelry with animal faces that’s going for top dollar in the hippest stores. “I knew I made a Smuckers sailor dog one for a reason. I want you to have it.”

“I get to bring Smuckers!” I say, so touched and grateful. I can tuck it inside my outfits, a way to bring my girlfriends along. And with Rex’s check, I won’t have to move away from them. Unless the place gets torn down, that is.

“I’m sending a box of megayacht cookies to share,” Lizzie says. “Maybe I’ll try to find a picture of the actual Flying Fox brand of yacht and make cookies to match. They are gonna be completely cute.”

I press my hand to my pounding heart, feeling like I have a team of fairy godmothers on my side.

Chapter 4

Rex

Clark walksup to where I’m standing at the foot of the air stairs, just outside the hangar. It’s a cool, crisp, sunny day. Perfect for a flight to Miami, which is where we’ll board Gail’s yacht.

“Everything’s loaded in,” he says.

“Where’s my fiancée?” I ask.

He glances at his phone, then pockets it. “Near.”

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