Page 4 of Our Big White Lie
Ava and I knew where we stood, but people had been ribbing us for years that it was only a matter of time. One of our mutual friends loved to tell us that everyone knew we were dating but us.
So if we suddenly told everyone that we were not only together, we were engaged, nobody would actually be surprised. Nobody would question it.
Nobody—least of all Gail—would ever know that our wedding was just a chance to give a dying woman her wish to see her daughter as a bride.
I glanced at Ava, who was again staring out the window.
It was a crazy idea. I knew it was. And we’d have to figure out a game plan for after the wedding and after Gail had passed. Like how long did we stay “married”? What excuse did we give when we “divorced”?
But Gail could leave this world believing to her core that cancer had stolen one less dream from her. And Ava could go on knowing she’d given her mother one more moment of joy while she was alive.
Did a fake wedding count as a little white lie? Or… a big white lie, maybe? Definitely white, that was for sure. And a lie. But a lie with good intentions? It wasn’t like we’d be trying to hurt anyone. Quite the opposite. Even if it put us on the naughty list, it still seemed like the karmic scales should tilt in our favor. The road to hell wasn’t really paved with good intentions, was it?
Damn. I didn’t know. I didn’t even know if I should mention this to Ava, or if I should let it go and never speak of it to anyone.
Would someone please tell me the right thing to do?
CHAPTER THREE
Ava
The day after my cousin’s bridal shower, Tori was… someplace else. We’d cleaned the house—a task we normally did on Saturdays but moved to Sunday because of the shower—and she’d barely said two words the whole time. We usually chatted while we worked unless someone was running the vacuum. I wasn’t used to Tori being this quiet.
Not just quiet—up in her own head. Like she barely even seemed to notice I was here. The biggest red flag came when she was wiping down the counter after running the dishwasher. Tucker, her fluffy orange cat, liked to attack the sponge. Usually she’d play with him, sliding the sponge back and forth so he’d dramatically pounce on it like the absolute dork he was.
Today, she did that, but she just… didn’t seem to be into it. Her laugh was half-hearted.
I leaned my hip against the counter and cocked my head. “Hey. You okay today?”
“Hmm?” She looked up, a few blonde strands falling out of her loose ponytail and tumbling into her face. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m…” Tori forced a laugh and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Just, uh…”
I studied her. “You want to talk about it?”
She stared down at Tucker, who was now spinning the rotating spice rack with one of his big paws. Chewing her lip, she didn’t even laugh at his antics.
“Tori?” I came a little closer. “What’s up?”
She hesitated. Then she put the sponge by the sink and met my gaze. “I’ve, um… I’ve been thinking about what happened at the shower. What your mom said.”
I flinched. That had been crowding its way in and dominating my concentration all day. At best, it had been at the edge of my thoughts. I hadn’t expected it to be on Tori’s mind, though, never mind enough to distract her like this. “What about it?”
Tori absently petted Tucker. Her brow pinched, and I recognized that look—she was trying to gather her thoughts and figure out what to say. So, I waited, watching her quietly and letting her sort it out in her head.
I wasn’t ready when she blurted out, “What ifwegot married?”
My lips parted, and I had to take a step back, my balance wobbling. “What if—what?”
“Hear me out.” She took a deep breath. “It doesn’t have to be real. But your mom really wants to see you as a bride, so what if she got that chance? What if we?—”
“That’s insane!” Anger flared in my chest. “You want us to—what? Just,fakeawedding?”
“I mean…” She shifted her weight. “I don’t think anyone would bat an eye if we said we were together. And it would make your mom happy to?—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I scoffed. “I’m not going to lie to my dying mother about getting married! I…” I shook my head, staring at her in disgust. “How can you evensuggestsomething like that?”
Tori’s eyes widened and she put up her hands. “We don’t have to! I just—you were really upset about it yesterday, and I thought?—”
“You thought a fake wedding would—ugh. Gross. I can’t believe…” I couldn’t even finish that thought. And the fact that it was Tori of all people who came up with something that absurd? What the hell?
