I pinched the bridge of my nose, thankful Rafe hadn’t said a thing about my outburst. “Just busy.”
Rafe let out an obnoxious snort-laugh.
Pinning him with a glare, I arched a brow. “Got something to say?”
“Hmm. Déjà vu,” Liam mused, his tone soft and annoyingly whimsical.
Again, Rafe laughed.
It got on my damn nerves. “What’s so funny?”
The anger in my tone didn’t faze them one bit. It pissed me off even more. “Did you come all the way here to sit there and laugh like a couple of clowns?”
“See?” Rafe said to Liam. “What did I tell you?”
Leaning back, Liam hummed thoughtfully.
I was two seconds away from losing my fucking mind. “What—”
“The last time I was as defensive as you are now,” Liam said. “A five-foot-four woman was to blame. Or rather, the confusing feelings I had for her, to be more accurate.”
I’d never felt more seen in my entire life. I didn’t like it. “So?” I shrugged.
“Where did you disappear to last night?” Rafe asked. When I just stared, he went on, “I don’t know how much you remember, you were pretty fucking out of it.”
I wasn’t, but there was no use in correcting him.
“You spent two minutes with the blonde then hurried out of the club as ifdiavolohimself was chasing you.” Cocking his head slightly, he leveled me with a stare. “Do you know what you said before you left?”
I did. That woman wasn’t Kate, and I’d told her so.
“And just now out there.” Rafe pointed a finger toward the door. “You almost took my head off for referring to Kate as lovely—which I’d been doing for years, I might add.” Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on his thighs. “It’s not hard to put two and two together.”
Didn’t the truth always have a way of getting out? Guess, it was finally time to let them in on the secret.
Sighing heavily, I scraped a palm over my face. “It’s not what you think.”
Without going into Kate’s personal reasons, I told them about our arrangement. How we got married so I could make partner. To their credit, they listened without interruption or judgment.
Not that I’d expected them to think less of me. That’s not who they were. But I wouldn’t have been surprised if either of them was upsetI hadn’t clued them in earlier. Instead, they surprised me with understanding stamped so clearly on their faces.
“For both your sakes, I hope you know what you’re doing,” Liam said.
Rafe nodded in agreement but didn’t add anything. I didn’t know why, but it bothered me. He always had so much to say about everything.
“Right.” Smacking his hands together, Liam pushed to his feet. “Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I can get back to my wife.” He checked his watch then shoved his hands into his pockets. “We should do dinner soon.”
“Yeah,” I muttered under my breath.
After giving me a quick handshake, Liam was out the door.
The lock hadn’t even clicked yet before Rafe turned to me. “I don’t buy it.”
“Don’t buy what?”
He stared at me for so long, an uneasy feeling slid over my skin.
“This marriage of yours? It’s really just for show?”
