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As I predicted, Echo and Corinne fall into conversation like they’ve known each other forever. If our engagement was real, they’d definitely be the best of friends. I hover nearby, and Hayes is amused that I refuse to let my “fiancée” out of my sight.
As the party goes on, so does the mingling. Corinne is absolutely charming. She smiles. She asks the right questions. She clings to my hand and looks up at me just often enough that people are convinced we’re for real. Dinner is equally smooth. There’s good food, laughter, and flowing alcohol. The reporters’ beats are more sports and less gossip, so their interest in us is largely passing. Everyone seems to be vibing and it’s a perfect Hawaiian evening.
Then, as if the clearing of the dinner plates signals the gloves coming off, Harlow clinks her knife against her glass to get everyone’s attention. “Welcome, everyone! Thanks for coming on such short notice to celebrate Xavian and Corinne’s engagement, despite the fact my little brother is a pain in the ass. We love him anyway…but we’re hoping his lovely bride-to-be will make him less surly. No, wait. I meant to say we hope they’ll make each other very happy.”
The guests laugh, and I make a face at Harlow. “You’re not funny.”
“Everyone else disagrees.” She grins.
They chuckle again, and I give a sanguine shrug. “Because they’re mostly your friends.”
More laughter ensues before she takes command of the room again. Harlow really is a dynamo, and she presides over this event perfectly.
“And now for the moment we’ve all been dying for. You two have put off everyone, but the gang is together, so spill! How did you two meet, when did you start dating, and how did you carry on in secret until you got engaged?”
My gut clenches. Show time.
Plastering on a smile, I stand and take Corinne’s hand, pulling her up beside me. “Fate was working overtime the day we bumped into each other. Eight months ago, as many of you know, my sister Bethany was having a rough pregnancy, so I took her client meetings on the West Coast for a week while she was on bed rest.”
A true, verifiable fact—what we rooted most of our tale in.
Beside me, Corinne nods and delivers her part of our rehearsed story. “Around the same time, I was flying to Connecticut for a high school friend’s bachelorette party.”
“While I was at LAX, trying to get back to Maui. Our flights were both delayed.” More verifiable truth. We actually were at the same airport on the same day…but here’s where the fabrication starts.
“And we were both starving,” she adds.
“So I found the nearest place to grab a burger and a beer and I see this gorgeous woman”—I hold up Corinne’s hand—“sitting at the crowded bar, trying to fend off a drunken jackass. I sidled over, put myself between them, wrapped my arm around her, then turned to the jerk and asked why he was hitting on my wife. He left.”
Corinne smiles at me. “Thank goodness.”
“And since his now-empty seat was the only one in the restaurant, I grabbed it.” I shrug. “As I sat, I thought she looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her.”
“We met when I was barely fifteen. He hardly remembers me from that Christmas he spent with my family. I had a crush on him back then. When he realized I’m Parker’s sister, it was awkward until we got to talking. It wasn’t long before I realized he isn’t the bastard my brother made him out to be.”
I take over with a nod. “When we looked up a few hours later, I had missed my flight and hers had been canceled altogether. So she let me crash on her couch that night.”
“You’ve never spent a night on a sofa at a woman’s place,” Clint drawls.
“Despite his reputation, he did!” Corinne insists. “He also said he’d be back in LA a couple of weeks later and wanted to take me to dinner to thank me. I agreed. After that, we started texting, then talking on the phone. By the time he came back through town, I had a whole new crush on him.”
The ladies aww at her remark.
“It was mutual, so we kept in touch. We never told anyone because we wanted to explore what might be between us without hassle or drama. But as the release of Parker’s movie approached, Corinne was torn.”
“My brother is all the family I have left,” she explains. “By then, I was in love with Xavian, and I wasn’t happy about the way Parker had maligned his character. But I didn’t want to put a bigger target on Xavian’s back if my brother found out about our relationship…so I broke things off.”
“We’ve been on-and-off for a while. Each time we ended it, I tried to go back to my old dating habits.” I shrug. “But I couldn’t stop thinking about Corinne. You’ll all be shocked—I know—but I realized she was the one for me, so I bought a ring and planned a trip to LA. I was going to talk everything out and propose. But she reached me first, making an appointment to discuss her finances under a false name. Lisa can back me up on that.”
