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There’s a headband in her hair that matches her blazer. It’s thin but brings a pop of something else to her red hair.
“Good to go?” Ruby asks, breaking me from my thoughts and pulling me back to the present.
Clearing my throat, I sit up in my chair andfocus on Ruby instead. She’s still watching me with a knowing smile I’d love to ask more about.
“Yes,” I answer, my voice tight. “Sorry,” I add awkwardly, even though that’s not something I typically do. “Got lost in thought for a minute.” I end the sentence there, not wanting to admit what—or who—had me lost in thought. Not that she’d find it odd in the slightest; to her, Winnie and I are blissful newlyweds.
“You both just look so in love,” Ruby, our interviewer, admires, a wide smile on her lips. “It’s really refreshing to see.”
“Wow,” Winnie marvels, her gaze hot on my cheek. When I meet her eyes once again, I find it hard not to get lost in her aquamarine irises. “That’s so nice, thank you,” she finishes, not looking away from me.
Wanting to feed into the moment and play the part, I reach between us and take her hand in mine. My hand dwarfs hers, but somehow, it still seems like the perfect fit as my fingers interweave with hers. Her hand is cold in mine, so I squeeze hers, trying to make her skin as warm as possible.
Ruby stares at our joined hands for a few beats before she sits up straighter and plasters a smile on her face. “I really want this interview to feel like a conversation between friends. I know we don’t know each other well, but I’m hoping we can really get to know one another through this process. And that you guys will be open about your love story. About what brought us here today.”
She lets her words hang in the air for a bit. The other pairs of eyes trained on us, as well as the studio lighting aimed directly at us, make this seem like the furthest thing from a private conversation between friends. I don’t voice my opinion, instead choosing to keep my jaw shut. I’m going to give her exactly what she wants—an epic love story.
If we really sell it today, it’ll solidify Winnie’s and my whirlwind romance to the rest of the world. If after today everyone believes Winnie and I are epically in love, then it’ll keep her safe.At least for now, and it buys me time to make damn sure Blake never does anything with that video.
“Where would you like us to start?” Winnie asks, surprising me by taking the lead.
She isn’t who I thought she was, and it annoys me. Her father has allowed her to seem like this dutiful daughter with not a lot of personality outside of who he tells her to be. I guess Winnie has allowed that narrative as well.
But since our wedding yesterday, I’ve learned there’s more bite to her than people would expect. She knows who she is—at least who she wants to be—but she seems at war with who she’s supposed to be.
I give her hand a reassuring squeeze, wanting to communicate to her that I appreciate when she takes control. I swear she squeezes my hand back, but I half wonder if it’s something I made up in my head.
Either way, she seems to get more comfortable by leaning back in the chair, all while keeping a hold of my hand.
“You could say it wasn’t exactly love at first sight…” she begins.
CHAPTER 14
WINNIE
“So tell me,what was your first impression of Winnie?” Ruby asks, her tone excited, like she’s about to get the hottest new gossip.
Maybe sheisabout to get the newest gossip. My stomach does a weird flip from nerves about what story we’re about to give this reporter. I thought we’d ironed out the details enough last night, but now with her staring eagerly at us, I’m worried we didn’t prepare enough.
Archer lets out a low chuckle that sends shivers down my spine. Or maybe it’s his thumb absentmindedly tracing circles on the center of my palm that makes my skin break out in goosebumps.
“I’m not sure I could tell you my first impression.” He looks over at me, something unreadable in his eyes. I so badly want to ask him what the pause in his words means—why he’s looking at me like whatever is running through his mind is both happy and sad. “I’ve known about Winnie for as long as I can remember. It’s no secret that our families have…history.”
Ruby laughs. It doesn’t have the same effect on me that Archer’s did. “You could say that.”
“So I don’t think my very first impression of her is important here. I can tell you the impression I gathered from my grandfatherand father, but that doesn’t matter. The question you should be asking is what was my firstimpactfulimpression of her.”
Ruby’s eyebrows rise, seemingly unbothered by Archer telling her what questions she should be asking.
“Tell me about the first impression that mattered, then,” Ruby requests, a smile still on her face.
I watch Archer carefully, wondering what he’s going to say. My heart races in my chest because we hadn’t talked about this question. We’d discussed that we’d tell her about the first time we hit it off, what our first date looked like, but we didn’t prepare for first impressions.
But I guess our first impressions could go hand in hand with the night things supposedly cooled off between us. Or I guess you could say heated up, depending on how you look at it.
Archer leans back slightly, like he’s completely at home with the cameras on him. “It was a charity function for breast cancer research. A year ago almost to the day. It was a cheesy masquerade theme. Everyone wore elaborate masks and evening gowns.”
“Masks?” Ruby pipes up, crossing her legs and watching Archer with eager anticipation. “Was Winnie wearing one?”
