Page 22 of Resisting You
“Callie? Are you okay?”
To her credit, she snapped out of her trance pretty quickly. “I–I’m processing. This is a lot to take in.”
“Well, can you process faster? We don’t have a lot of time here. What do you think?” I asked.
“I… I… I think that is thedumbestfucking plan I have ever heard.” She looked over to Rosa. “Seriously? I would expect this sort of Bugs Bunny level half-baked idiotic bullshit idea fromhim, but not from you!”
Rosa sputtered something that was between a laugh and a scoff. “What do you meannot from me? You don't evenknowme.”
Callie laughed and looked between Rossa and me. “Of course I know you. Noah's been talking about Rosa the psychologist for about a year. That’s you, right? You’re the psychologist?”
Uh oh. This was going off the rails fast. Of course Rosa knew that I had a crush on her. I had asked her out about a dozen times, only to be rejected a dozen times. But right now, as I was still in the early stages of us playing husband and wife for twelve months, I definitely did not need Callie's word vomit messing with our plan.
A plan that maybe, just maybe, if I could win Rosa over in twelve months, she might consider making this relationship real.
I could hear Rosa gulp. “Iama psychologist. So what kind of things did he say about me?”
“Okay,” I tried to interrupt, but Callie plowed right past me and kept talking.
“Mostly about how you would never say yes to him. That's what made me like you so damn much.” With a pause, she rolled her eyes. “But then you went and drunkenly married him and came up with this half-cocked plan, so now I don’t knowwhatto think about you.”
Rosa turned her attention to me. “Just how many people did you tell about me?”
“Um… I plead the fifth.”
“Well,” Rosa said with a cocky lift of her brow. “If he's been talking about me, it actually gives validity to our plan, doesn't it Callie?”
Callie looked dumbfounded, with her mouth gaping open. “That's a good point,” she said. “But I still don't love all this pretend business. Seems like someone might get hurt.” She directed that last sentence directly to me.
“We're not asking you to love it," Rosa said. "Hell,Idon't even love it. But Noah and I both need this plan to work.”
Callie snorted. “I think you're confusing want and need.But, this isn't my decision to make. And if it's what you want, I'll help in any way I can. All I know is, at the end of this, you better either get an annulment, or have one hell of a big wedding to appease everyone in this family. Because trust me, shit’s gonna explode when they find out.”
"Thank you,” Rosa said on an exhale and extended her hand to Callie. “And I can promise you thiswillend with an annulment."
Callie took her hand, shaking it, but her eyes stayed fixed right onto me. “I think you might be underestimating my brother a little bit. When he sees something he wants, he gets it. And for the last couple years… he's been wanting you.”
"Callie!” I hissed, but she couldn't hear me over Rosa's roaring laughter.
Dammit. I should have known it would be a terrible idea to invite Callie into all this. But what choice did I actually have?
We needed her. We needed an ally on the inside to help us pull this off.
Unfortunately, she was already forming a truce with my wife… and I could tell this wasn’t going to end well for me.
Chapter 9
Rosa
“Congratulations, again,” I said, giving the bride, Noah’s older sister, Ronnie, another hug.
Unlike some brides, she didn’t care at all that Noah and I had eloped on her weekend. She didn’t seem like the type who would care about ‘stolen thunder’... but she eyed me warily. All the Tripps did.
And I couldn’t even blame them.
“Thank you,” she said and gave me a smile. “I guess we should be welcoming you to the family as well.”
“Oh no,” I said and immediately regretted it as Ronnie’s brow disappeared beneath her side swept bangs.
