Page 21 of Fake It For Him

Here goes nothing.

A member of my parents’ staff opened the door. She stared blankly at me before she shot me an apologetic smile. “Mr. Reid, this is an unexpected visit. Your parents are in a meeting with a contractor who’s here to help renovate the house.”

“That’s fine. We’ll wait.” I brushed past her and pulled Ella with me, leading her to one of the formal sitting rooms.

It was one my mother favored when she had people over for tea and fundraising discussions, and it was full of family photos. Some of them even went back to my grandfather’s time in Scotland when he’d first started out in the whiskey business.

I didn’t even notice them until Ella released my hand and started wandering around, her hands clasped behind her back like she was a kid who was afraid of getting in trouble if she touched anything. I watched her for a moment. She leaned forward carefully, inspecting each of the pictures like it was a potential wealth of information.

In her new getup, she looked like she belonged in a place like this. It’d been a good call on my part to get rid of the jeans and sneakers, that was for sure, but a lot of it was just her.

Ella fit in here in a strange way. It wasn’t a thought I’d ever expected to have, but there it was. She certainly looked the part right now, so well that it was even confusing me.

I’d found her beautiful even way back when she’d stumbled into that pool of light in Edinburgh, but it was different now. She seemed different too. Her features had matured a little bit, but in this more sophisticated outfit, she looked like an aristocrat.

Her long, layered black hair was sleek and shiny, spilling over her shoulders to midway down her back, her skin like porcelain and her cheeks rosy. It was only the look in her eyes that gave her away, the childlike wonder in them as they darted from the photographs to the high, pressed ceilings, the chandeliers, and the wide windows.

“What are you doing here unannounced, Calan?” My father’s booming voice suddenly sounded from the door.

Ella yelped, hurried back to me, and wrapped her arm around my waist.

My own arm shot up to wrap around her shoulders, pulling her into me instinctively. It was a protective move and one unlike any I’d ever made with a woman who wasn’t my mother or my sister. I didn’t let go of her when I realized it though.

If anything, the unexpected surge of protectiveness that had urged me to react that way would help sell this little charade of ours. I turned to my father, not surprised to see my mother right by his side.

“I came because I wanted to introduce you to my girlfriend,” I said without missing a beat. Leading Ella forward, I locked eyes with my parents and smiled. “Mom, Dad, this is Ella. Ella, these are my parents, Ross and Davina Reid.”

Ella was still tense at my side, but she smiled beautifully anyway, holding out her hand to shake each of theirs in turn. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you both. I’ve heard so much about you. You have a lovely home. We’re sorry for dropping by unexpectedly.”

Internally, I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly she’d stepped into her role. Externally, I smiled proudly and moved my gaze back to my parents’ stunned faces. My father shook with her firmly, his expression skeptical at best.

“Girlfriend?” He released her hand and glanced back at me. “Since when?”

“A couple of months ago,” I said.

Ella brought her hand back to mine, leaning into me. She looked up into my eyes and smiled. “Two months, ten days, and about four hours, to be exact.”

While my father kept flicking his eyes from mine to hers and back again, my mother seemed thrilled. Her hazel eyes were bright with excitement as she looked at Ella, taking her free hand in both of hers and sighing dreamily.

“Oh, this is wonderful. It’s so nice to meet you, darling. Welcome to our home, and don’t apologize for popping in. We’re delighted to have you. We were just surprised when Mary told us Calan was here. He doesn’t visit very often these days.”

Her hopefulness would’ve made me roll my eyes if I didn’t have so much riding on this. I loved my mother to no end, but she and I differed in fundamental ways, the most fundamental of which was that she was an eternal optimist—kind of like Freya.

My mother and sister had never quite given up on me the way Dad and Finn had. I knew they were both disappointed in me for what I’d done, but they’d never made me feel as ostracized as the male members of our family.

Ella smiled back at my mother, and I tried to look at her from Ella’s point of view as I imagined what she was thinking right now. Mom had short white hair, an edgy cut with funky spikes reminiscent of that actress from the Freaky Friday movie. In fact, I was pretty sure she’d had it cut that way after watching it with my sister years ago and the style had just stuck from there.

Unlike many other women in their social circle, Mom had never had the round, bob hairstyle that most seemed to favor. She also never wore elaborate jewelry. She hardly ever wore any accessories other than her mother’s watch.

Dressed elegantly in a cream-colored pantsuit with an olive green blouse underneath, she might’ve intimidated many other girls, but not Ella, it seemed. Instead, the girl was still smiling at my mother and they chatted about the pictures and other elements of the room they’d just caught her admiring.

While they spoke, my father looked at me, his eyes hard with suspicion. “Why didn’t you mention a girlfriend when you came to the distillery the other day?”

I shrugged. “The timing didn’t feel quite right. I was going to, until Freya blurted out that she was getting married, Finn wanted me to find out about it through email, and you laid down a series of rules upon which my attendance was predicated.”

“It seems to be like that would’ve been the perfect timing for you to tell me, though,” he said thoughtfully.

Mom and Ella turned their attention back to us, and I looked the old man in the eye. “Does it? I’ve stayed away for a long time, Dad. You summoning me for a meeting about Freya’s wedding hardly seemed like the time to tell you something about my personal life, which isn’t a subject you’ve taken much interest in or known much about these days at all.”