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He never shows. Neither does Felix.
I feel oily the entire time. I feel exposed. I feel…afraid.
And I fake it, smiling and serving. The lines are certifiably to die for, and yet, I want to curl up in a ball.
Mercifully, at ten p.m. we close. Gage and I haven’t had a chance to talk since Sebastian left. It’s been go, go, go.
Once everyone leaves, it’s just us at last, and I want to collapse in his arms. Just like a real fiancée would do.
26
A PROPOSAL
Gage
Talk about a Freudian slip.
At the end of the evening, my own words are still playing on a loop in my mind.
My wife.
That asshole was right. Of course she’s not my wife. But the words slipped off my tongue so easily. Without a second thought.
But with zero regrets.
Even when he called me on it, I felt no remorse for having said it.
His accusations only fueled me. Made me want to protect Elodie even more from him.
I still do.
Now that the lines are gone at Special Edition, I lock the door, lower the blinds, and pull her to me. Instantly, she buries her face in the crook of my shoulder, like she’s wrung out. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with him,” I say, apologetically. “I wish I’d been there sooner. I wish I hadn’t gone to the other shop. I hate that you had to deal with him alone.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you were there at all.”
“I heard the tail end when I came back. I could barely believe what he was saying,” I say, and my tone is gentle for her, but inside I’m seething still, hearing his smarmy voice, picturing him standing too close to my woman.
“Me too,” she says quietly, in a small voice that hardly feels like my Elodie. I pull back, meet her gaze. Her eyes are shining with tears. “He mentioned Amanda.”
I breathe fire. No. Just fucking no. There’s nothing gentle in my voice as I ask, “Are you serious?”
A tear rolls down her cheek, then another as she nods. “He didn’t threaten her. But he wanted me to know he knew her name.”
But that’s a threat in its own terrible way. Fact is, that asshole threatened me too when he showed up here the first night. “Like he did last week when he wanted me to know he’d looked me up,” I grit out, my jaw ticking. My entire body is a high tension wire.
“He’s onto us, Gage. Everything we’ve been building in a few short weeks and he’s just going to upend it?” Her voice is quavering. “We’re not famous. Not even close. But he could do something. He knows we’re faking it. He knows we’re not really engaged.”
“I know,” I mutter, so damn frustrated that the guy has something on us. I’ve got to find a way out of this mess. I’ve got to help her.
“We’ve got all this attention on the shop,” she continues, sounding desperate. “We’re being written up and talked about. We’re being featured. Felix has said there’s more business to the hotel thanks to us. What if that all goes down the drain? All Sebastian has to do is plant the seed of doubt and he could ruin what we’ve built.”
Not if I can help it. I shake my head. Grip her shoulders fiercely. “I won’t let him.”
“How can we stop him?” she asks, like she doesn’t think I can fix this.
But I can. I know exactly what pitch to throw to strike him out.
A crooked smile tips my lips. “Marry me.”
