Page 41 of Unbound

“So, your family is … rich?”

He chuckles, shrugging. “I guess you could say that. Compared to some.” He reaches over to grab my hand. “What should our safe word be? For when you need a break from everyone. My family can be overwhelming.”

“Hmm … I don’t know. Shoelaces.”

“Shoelaces?”

I nod, looking down at my untied tennis shoes.

“All right, Sunshine. Shoelaces it is.”

He parks the truck in the circle driveway. I gape up at the house. Sterling’s home in Virginia Beach is a modest, middle-class house, like what my parents live in.

This is a mansion. It’s massive, with an inviting front porch and stone fireplace with a chimney up the side of it.

The red barn down the gravel road is huge. Golden fields with cattle and horses sprinkled throughout stretch as far as the eye can see. There’s a small white house in the distance. Several trucks and a yellow Bronco are parked in the driveway.

Sterling opens my door and grabs my hand, interlacing our fingers. We stayed the night in the same hotel a few hours away, where we’d spent our first night together, so I don’t feel too gross from the road trip.

“I need to pee.”

“Good news is, we have a bathroom. Several of them.”

“Do you think they’ll like me? Are they going to be mad that I’m pregnant?”

“What? No, they love kids, baby. I have two sweet little nieces.”

“I know, but⁠—”

“No buts. My family has issues, plenty of them, but they’re not judgmental. Your brothers will be here soon with your sisters-in-law. It’s gonna go great. And if it doesn’t, we’ll leave. End of story. Your emotional well-being matters more to me, all right?”

I smile up at him, squeezing his hand tighter. “Okay. And are we pretending we’re really married and in love in front of them? Or do they know it’s fake?”

He clenches his jaw, studying my lips. “They know the truth.”

I blink up at him, trying to decipher the strange look in his eyes. He seems almost annoyed by the question.

“I really would rather not tell my brothers that it’s fake. I feel like they wouldn’t understand, and I don’t feel like explaining everything with Michael—at least not right now.”

“Hmm, so we have to fake being really in love?”

I nod.

“That’ll be quite challenging. I might have to smack your butt a few times and kiss you a lot. I don’t know if I can handle that.”

I punch his shoulder as the front door opens, and two adorable curly-headed twin girls run out.

“Uncle Sterrrr!”

“Sterrrling!”

Sterling pinches my chin before opening his arms wide for the girls to run into them. He scoops them up with a grunt.

“Ah! My two best girls. You’re so big! Are you sure you’re not turning fifteen tomorrow?”

“No, we’re almost tree!” One of the girls holds up three fingers.

“Three? You’re almost three? No way. I don’t believe you.”