Porthos laughed. “You don’t have to do that around us, dude. Remember? We know about the agreement.”
“Yeah,” Aramis chuckled. “Just remember to do it when the guests arrive.”
Only Athos remained silent.
“Right,” Clarke said, chuckling, the laughter feeling forced. He glanced down at her. “So you’ve met my brothers.”
“You mean Athos, Porthos, and Aramis?” she said, smirking. “Such unusual names. The names of the three musketeers. The only other time I’ve ever heard those names outside of the book is when I went to a costume party and there were three guys dressed up as the characters.”
He swallowed.
She knows.
Chapter Thirty
Ceci
Ceci stood in the guest bedroom, gazing out the window. It overlooked the terrace at the back of the house.
“So you’ve walked right into the lion’s den,” Aunt Delilah said over the phone. “Pun intended. Get it? Lion as in Leo.”
Ceci rolled her eyes. “I get it. How did you know I was here?”
“I would have thought by now, Cecilia, you’d have given up trying to hide things from me. Accept defeat, already. Just tell me your decision to go to this shindig has nothing to do with the fact that your father likes the idea of Sir Leo Clarke.”
Ceci swallowed. “Look, it’s good with Dad now.”
“Good?”
Ceci sighed. “Well, as good as it’s ever been.”Probably as good as it will ever get. “He’s showing an interest in my racing.”
“Is that what he’s doing?”
“What’s with the questions?”
“What’s with the dumb blonde act?”
“Do you know he invited me to his house on the Cape for Thanksgiving and Christmas?”
“You mean, he invited you and Sir Clarke. What do you think will happen when this fake dating arrangement is over?” Aunt Delilah paused. “It is still fake, isn’t it? Or has something changed?”
“Nothing’s changed.” Ceci swallowed. “Why would you even ask that?”
“This transformation on your father’s part only came about once Clarke was in the picture. So, I just want you to tread carefully whenit comes to your feelings. I think it’s reasonable to wonder what will happen when that’s no longer the case. Then again, there is evidence to suggest things might continue with the two of you even after the season ends. After all, he did go to your father’s. And that wasn’t part of the deal. Not only that, but he put on quite the show for Hank. That suggests he cares about you.”
“He didn’t put on that show for Father, it was for Tilney. He only came up to kiss me when Tilney had his arm around me.”
“Maybe he was jealous.”
“No, that had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with Tilney. Those two obviously have a history. I told you what happened when we went karting.”
“So if Clarke didn’t do any of that for you, why are you there?”
“Well, he did kind of make things better with Dad. Even if he was only thinking of himself when he did it. So I just thought, I could do this for him. It’s purely transactional. And being here makes sense, given the arrangement and all.”
“Right. The arrangement.”
Ceci could hear what her aunt was thinking, probably because she was thinking it as well.
