Page 80 of His Fake Fiancé

Grace smiled and smacked him in the arm. She looked so happy. And he knew she made Mason ridiculously happy. And he was thrilled for them, he really was. They’d both fought so hard for each other.

A pang of something he didn’t understand echoed through his chest. He rubbed at the spot, hoping to make it go away this time, or at least make it less achy, but it didn’t help.

“Nice try, but I’m not falling for it. How are you really doing?”

“I’m… o-o-okay.” He blew out a breath. Leave it to his fucking stutter to make him look like an idiot. It was one of the main reasons he’d spent most of today wandering around the ranch by himself. If he didn’t have to interact with anyone, then he couldn’t embarrass himself.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Maybe one of these days you’ll actually believe it.

He tossed that useless thought aside. The last thing he needed was to listen to the snarky voice in his head. It was an invitation to a spiral he was trying to avoid.

She bumped his shoulder with her fist. “Since when did you start lying to me, huh?”

He tried to flash her a grin, the one that had gotten him out of plenty of difficult conversations and situations over the years, but he couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t in him. He sighed instead. “It’s n-not a lie.” Well, not completely, anyway. He swallowed. “I w-went to see Gina th-th-this evening.”

He closed his eyes, begging his brain to just stop. His stutter hadn’t been this bad since he was a kid. He felt like he was drowning.

“How did that go?”

He opened his eyes and glanced over at his sister in law. There was no judgement on her face, or pity in her eyes. She just looked genuinely curious about his answer. It was like she didn’t even notice his stutter. Just like Claire.

Another throb in his chest sucked all the air out of his lungs. He took a shaky breath—hoping that Grace hadn’t heard—and shook it off. Concentrated on her question. “I-it was g-good. I apologized for being an ass, and she p-promised to not take a p-page from my book and k-k-keep Olivia away from me.”

Grace patted his shoulder. The very sisterly touch was the first thing to make him smile this evening. “That’s great, Jake. I’m glad you were able to talk things out.”

“Me, too.” He blew out a breath, locked his gaze on the television screen. “I th-think I fucked things up with Claire.”

“What happened?”

“I was u-upset, and she followed me b-b-back the to the guest house. One thing led to another, and w-we ended up sleeping together.”

“Oh, Jake.” Grace put her hand on his forearm and gave a comforting squeeze. “Then what happened?”

He sighed and glanced at her. His ability to read people was still shit, but he thought maybe there was sympathy there, maybe sadness. “I fucked it up and s-said something s-stupid.”

“What did you say?”

He pushed to his feet, anger and hurt making him restless. He strode to the other side of the room, spun and then headed back toward the sofa. “S-something about it n-n-not meaning anything, I th-think.”

“Did it mean something to you?” Her question was softly spoken, the words careful.

He shoved his hands through his hair again. “Y-y-yes.”

“Let me guess. You got scared and freaked out?”

He dropped onto the sofa, his head in his hands. “She w-w-was l-looking at me l-l-like… I d-don’t know. L-l-like I w-was the m-m-moon and stars.”

“Oh, Jake. You’re such an idiot.”

He jerked up, and stared at her. It was the first time she’d ever said anything like that to him and it would be a lie to say it didn’t sting. A little extra salt rubbed into his already wounded soul.

She had her arms crossed and was staring at him. Hard. Like burrowing through his skin and muscles to get to the meaty center hard. It made his skin itch. And then, after a handful of seconds, she shook her head. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“Wh-what?”

“Every time I see her, Claire is looking at you like that.” Her voice was soft, but steady, like she was breaking bad news. “She’s been in love with you forever.”

The words were like being kicked by a rodeo bull. All the air escaped his lungs in a whoosh, his muscles clenching tight. “Th-that’s not p-possible.”