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I turned to look at her, exasperation rolling off of me in waves. “I didn’t mean for him to do anything. In fact, I very explicitly told him that coming here was a bad idea.”
“Are you going to fix my radiator or not?” She glared at me again, looking pointedly from me to the box.
“You want me to try to work while you yell at me?” I asked, incredulous.
“Yes, actually. I would love that, Blake. So will you please get that fixed so I’m not freezing to death, and I can yell at you in comfort?”
Nell put her hands on her hips, looking at me expectantly. I shook my head at her before dropping to my knees on the floor before the radiator and getting to work.
“You'd think someone who ran a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire would be better at negotiating and talking people into things. And, oh, I don't know...stretching the truth?”
I could hear her pacing the length of the floor while I got to work.
“No! You didn’t even have to lie. You could have just not told Jourdan that I lived here. A little omission of that detail and we all would have been fine. But could you do that? Was that possible for you?”
I threw a glare over my shoulder. “Am I supposed to answer any of these questions now? Or should I let you keep going until you get tired?”
“I don’t want to hear from you right now.” She barked, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I turned back to working on the radiator, content to let her yell as much as she needed to.
“I can’t believe you told them where I lived. And apparently, you talked enough about me to even tell them that I don’t go by Juniper anymore. Jourdan was all ‘Nell’ this and ‘Nell’ that like he wanted me to give him a damn prize for using my nickname.”
“And now, I’ve fucked up. Ugh, you forced me into this situation, and they were just judging and judging and judging. And I went and told them I had a fiancé, of all things.”
My wrench dropped from my hands with a start, and I swiveled around to look at her.
“What do you mean you have a fiancé?” I asked, trying to keep the slight note of panic from my voice.
“I don’t have a fiancé,” Nell corrected. “That’s why it is a very bad thing that I told them that I did. One that they would approve of, actually. Just so I could get them to shut up and stop judging. And now, because ofyou,” she pointed an accusatory finger in my direction. “I have to go out into the world and find some rich, self-important schmuck who is willing to pretend to be engaged with me because they’re hellbent on meeting my mystery fiancé, and it is all. Your. Fault.”
She annunciated each word, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she began to pant.
“I could be your fiancé,” I offered, the words leaving my mouth before I had the chance to stop them.
Her mouth popped open in surprise, and she stared at me, gaping. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” I shook my head as I pushed myself up off the floor and walked over to her small sofa.
I took a seat and patted the cushion next to me, a plan taking shape in my mind. I went back over my memories of my conversations with Jourdan carefully, trying to think if I had done or said anything that made it seem like I would have been shocked to find Juniper in the building I bought.
But I didn’t think I had.
“I could pretend to be your fiancé,” I began.
She sat beside me, and I considered each word carefully as I spoke them.
“It could be me. The person that you’re engaged to. I don’t think I outright said anything about finding you here being a surprise, and if I did, I could say I lied because we were keeping it a secret.”
Nell looked at me, eyes roving over my face, and I could tell she didn’t trust what I was offering.
“Why?” She asked, her voice filled with suspicion. “Why would you do that for me?”
I gave myself a moment to consider before answering.
“Because I definitely need to make it up to you since I’m the reason they showed up. And,” I trod carefully as I spoke the next sentence. “Jourdan not having you around really hurt him. He hated it, and he missed you. So, if me doing this helps give you guys an opportunity to work shit out, then I’ll do it.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
“Alright,” she said after a few seconds. “I guess you’ll have to do.”
