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“Dude, how are you not seeing this? Tom just put it out there for you. If you weren’t single, you’d get to keep your girl.”
I make a noise in the back of my throat. “Ash, I’m not asking you to marry me, man. I mean, yes, it would look better if I weren’t single, but you’re not the answer.”
He rolls his eyes dismissively at me. “No shit. My reputation with the ladies precedes me.”
Zax coughs out, “Bullshit,” and we all snicker.
Asher throws a balled-up napkin at him. “Twat, that was one time in the bathroom after I had a few too many shots and a muscle relaxant. I had just won the Super Bowl.” He grunts and then gets a wistful look in his eye. “God, if I ever get another chance with that woman, I will rock her fucking world till she can’t walk straight for a month.” Asher waves all that away and comes back to the room. “Forget that. I’m not talking about her or that night or even me. I’m talking about you, Cal”—he points yet another finger at me—“and your lovely forbidden medical student.”
Aurelia hisses under her breath. “You just said it, Ash. Forbidden. This isn’t the answer he needs.”
“No, you’re not getting it.” Ash is back on his feet, working this all through for us as he calls the plays. “Katy loves Layla, right? She’s the reason Katy eloped or whatever they call it from camp, isn’t she? Katy feels Layla gets her because she does. So, what if you ask Layla to marry you?”
I laugh. It’s a hard fucking laugh too, because that’s no joke, the most insane, ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life, and I’m an emergency room physician. We hear it all. Trust me on that.
“Don’t laugh, brother. A fake engagement or marriage might just be your ticket to keeping your little girl and Layla Fritz is the perfect woman for the job. Though I do have to say, given the restrictions on things and the fact that the court already knows you’re unmarried, a fake engagement is far cleaner than a marriage.”
For a long moment, no one has anything to say to that including me.
Finally, Zax clears his throat and remarks, “As much as I hate to agree with jock shorts over there, I think he could be onto something. I don’t know if a fake engagement is your only way, but you had mentioned that her place flooded and she’s temporarily living with her sister and Oliver, right?”
“Yeah, so?” I push, already tense at where I know this conversation is headed.
“So, ask her to move in with you. You live a hell of a lot closer to the medical school and the hospital than Oliver does.”
“It’s a thought,” Grey agrees, sipping his scotch. “You have a big place. If she moved in there and you were together as a couple, an engaged couple even, well, Tom said being in a position like that will make you appear like you have a stable household. She can hang out with Katy while wearing your fake rock and the courts will be all over it because it will ensure Katy’s comfort and well-being. No one will take her from you then. How could they?”
I fall back in my chair, staring incredulously at my friends. “You can’t be serious. You want me to offer afake engagementtoLayla Fritz? She’s a goddamn Fritz. You can’t just do that with those people. Besides, things like that don’t work. It’s a lie. A huge one. One that will be discovered the second we try it.”
I toss back the rest of my drink and slam my glass down on the table, at the end of my patience with everything.
“Not necessarily,” Aurelia hedges and I throw her a look. “What?” she exclaims, waving her hands around. “I’m sorta seeing this now. It actually makes brilliant sense if you can pull it off.”
If I can pull it off. Meaning deceiving the courts and living with Layla for who knows how long until I gain permanent custody.
“I can’t have Layla live with me.” Because that’s some stuff right there. It’s not a smart play. This would have to be all business and when I look at Layla, business is the last thing on my mind.
I’d be forced to keep my hands to myself.
Fine. I can do that. We’ve been doing that anyway, but having her in my house… It’s madness. It makes no sense. But it’s like what Ash and Tom said...
“No,” I declare. “No way. It can’t be done, and I can’t do it.” Layla will cut off my balls for even suggesting this.
“Not even for Katy?” Grey throws out.
I growl, low and pissed, and scrub my hands up and down my face. “Layla won’t agree. She won’t. Why would she?”
Only in my head, somewhere I start to think this through. See the possibility of it.WouldLayla say yes? Would she consider this arrangement? Not for me, of course, but for Katy. A girl whom I know she relates to on a deeper level.
My hands drop and I stare at my friends. “First of all, she’s my medical student.”
“Not a problem if you’re not fucking her,” Asher states. “When I was at Alabama, I was messing around with a graduate student who was renting a room off-campus in her professor’s house. There was nothing scandalous about that. Besides, the school doesn’t have to know anything you don’t want them to and you’re not officially an employee there. You’re an interim professor and your work there ends at the end of August.”
“What about the hospital?” I counter.
“Same deal only in reverse,” Zax states. “Layla isn’t an employee of the hospital and you’re not technically her boss. But again, I’d keep the engagement locked up tight and not spread that word around either.”
“Okay, so lie to pretty much all the people in my life, but have it not be just one lie, but two?” I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. This can’t happen. Layla and I…” I trail off.
