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“Do you want me to kill him for you?”
The suggestion elicited a chuckle. “Yes! And make it painful. Preferably poison.”
“Done! Let’s see... where did I pack my hemlock?”
Both of them fell back onto the bed laughing through their tears. “There is something you can do,” said Charlie. “It shouldn’t be too hard, because I’m sure he’ll avoid me like the plague. But I definitely don’t want to be alone with him. In fact, I want to stay away from him as much as possible.”
“You’re taking Jace out this morning?”
“Yes. It’ll only be the two of us. So I’m good for the morning. I only need your help in the afternoon.”
“What about Derek?”
“Well... even though I told you I wanted you to kill Josh, I actually want him to be happy. So I guess I need to keep Derek away from Olivia.” Charlie pressed her hands to her temples. “I hope I’m at the very end of the bridesmaids again, as far away from the bride and groom as possible, because that’s going to be one tough wedding.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to use the hemlock?”
Charlie smiled, even as tears began to fall again. “No. No hemlock, and please don’t tell anybody. Not even Spencer. Okay?”
“What about Mom?”
“I’ll tell her myself, when I’m ready. It may be after the wedding, though.”
“Okay. I won’t tell a soul.”
“Thanks, Sister.” Charlie paused before confessing, “I kind of thought I’d lost you.”
Emily felt more tears spring to her eyes. “Stop it—you’re getting me all dehydrated. You will never lose me, Sister. No one can replace you.”
She hugged her little sister, wishing she could take the pain away. Why did love have to be so hard? But she watched as Charlie sat up, wiped her face, and bit her lips.
Charlie said, “Time to put on the game face and go skiing.”
OLIVIA WAS IRRITATED. Nothing was going according to plan. After Josh’s declaration that morning, he’d stuck to her like glue and was acting as solicitous as a starstruck lover. He’d insisted on carrying her skis and poles, had continually offered the use of his lip balm, had ridden up beside her on every lift, and he was always the first on the scene when she fell. They’d even gotten separated from the group at one point, and he’d taken them to an entirely different mountain from Derek and the others. Only by reaching Grace on her cell phone had she managed to reconnect with Derek and her family.
Finally, she’d had enough. She decided to confront him. “What’s going on, Josh? I know you don’t love me. Why are you pretending you want to have a real marriage?”
He looked wounded. “I do want a real marriage. With you.” His brows wrinkled together. “We can do it, Olivia. We can have a real marriage. I’m willing to put your needs over mine. And I’ll promise to love you and be faithful to you. Maybe you don’t love me yet, but maybe you haven’t given me a chance.”
“No Josh! No! You’ve got to stop this. I can’t get married for real. And have sex with you? Are you kidding me?”
“Okay, maybe not the first night. But don’t you think after a while, you’ll grow to love me?”
“Arghhh!” she screamed. She glanced upward, praying for some kind of aid. “Josh, I’m going to ask you a question. And I want you to be absolutely honest. Are you doing this to have sex with me?”
Josh’s mouth dropped open. “No. Of course not. I swear, Olivia. I don’t want to sleep with you at all. I mean... That didn’t sound right. I mean... Of course, any guy would want to sleep with you, but that’s not my motivation.”
“I believed you the first time. And that’s great, because I don’t want to sleep with you either. Sorry to deflate that humongous ego, but there’s at least one woman in the world who doesn’t want to go to bed with you. And she’s sitting right beside you on this chair lift.”
“But, we can still have a real marriage. I’m sure eventually we’ll feel that way about each other. I mean, I bet if I saw you naked, I’d be more than willing.”
“Well, that isn’t happening. You’re not going to see me naked, and this marriage isn’t happening.”
“I’m not giving up. There’s no guy out there who’ll treat you any better than me—I’ll be the best husband you could ever dream of. I’ll make you fall in love with me—you’ll see.”
“Is this the kind of stuff you said to Charlie? No wonder it never worked out between you two.”
“Leave her out of this,” he growled, turning his head away.
