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Surely, he’s going to lock eyes on me at any moment and recognize me from that night. Surely, he’s going to pale just as I have and the whole jig will be up.
How would that go, exactly?
“Do you guys know each other?”
“Sure do, sis! I just happened to bang your fiancé before I knew he was your fiancé and now, I’m pregnant and there’s a ten in ten chance it’s his baby. But you know, I’m super excited about your engagement. I hope the two of you will be oh-so happy together.”
Oh, God. Oh, God. Ohhhh, God.
I’m dangerously close to hyperventilating. But thankfully, no one is looking at me. At least, none of my family is looking at me. Their eyes are focused on Ilarion. And his eyes are focused on…
“You must be Celine’s baby sister,” he says, extending his hand out in my direction. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
I stare at his hand for a moment. Because—what?!I mean, he has to know who I am. Right? I know I clean up pretty nice, but there’s no way I lookthatdifferent from how I looked the night we met.
“I… Uh, yeah. Yup, pleasure,” I say, stumbling over my words like a complete moron.
Now, everyoneislooking at me. Mom looks horrified, Celine looks amused, and Dad looks… well, kinda out of it, if I’m being honest.
Ilarion—I can’t bring myself to say his name with the same joking cadence I used before; now, it’s justIlarion,with doom and gloom and thunder crashing in the background—releases my hand after one shake and wraps his arm around Celine’s waist. She looks up at him as though she can’t believe what she’s seeing.
Same here, Cee.
“Would you excuse us for just a moment?” she asks. “I want to introduce Ilarion to some of my friends. They’re dying to meet him.”
“Of course, darling. Go ahead,” Mom says.
The two of them walk back into the garden crowd, and I’m left questioning my sanity. Is it actually, truly, humanly possible that my future brother-in-law is the same man I slept with the other night? It can’t be. I mean, if it had been, he would have had some sort of reaction, right?
And that’s when I see it.
He’s clear across the garden, being introduced to a couple of Celine’s college friends. I can see only his profile.
Then he turns, his eyes lock on me, and I know I’m not imagining things.
He recognizes me.
He’s just pretending not to.
16
TAYLOR
I turn to my mother. “I handled that badly, didn’t I?”
Mom chuckles. “I can’t blame you. He’s a very handsome man.”
I feel as though I’m about to throw up my breakfast. “Oh, God, Mom! He’s Celine’s fiancé!” I’m reminding myself of that fact way more than I’m reminding her. “I’m not—I wasn’t—ugh.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you were doing anything of the sort, sweetheart. I was just—”
“Does he even seem like Celine’s type?” I blurt out before I can stop myself. “She doesn’t usually go for men who are so… put-together. She likes the shy, awkward guys.”
Mom looks at me with raised eyebrows. “Honey, are you sure you’re okay?”
“Should you really be askingmethat question? I mean, Dad’s the one who’s acting super weird.”
Throwing shade in Dad’s direction is a little uncalled for, but I don’t want anyone looking at me too closely right this second. It works, though. Mom glances at Dad, and seems to notice for the first time the expression on his face.
