AllFreeNovel
Share Us
BLAKE
I wasn’tsure if my hands were sweating or Nell’s as we both stood there, stone-faced with Justine and Jourdan staring at us open-mouthed.
I didn’t know what to say. I had thought I was prepared for them to be furious, but now that we were here actually in the situation, I realized that had all been a lie.
“You expect us to believe you’re engaged?” Jourdan asked finally, disbelief dripping from every word.
“We do,” Nell answered with a swift nod as she squeezed my hand even tighter. “Because it’s true.”
She sounded so sure, so confident, that I thought the woman deserved an Oscar right then and there.
“You have to be joking,” Justine scoffed as she looked between the two of us.
“We aren’t.” I turned to look at Nell.
I didn’t have to try to put a look of admiration on my face. I just let it all flow naturally as my eyes roved over my fiancée.
“Trust me,” Nell said, still looking at her family. “We were as shocked as everyone when we met up again a few months ago and hit it off after all this time. But it’s what happened.”
Jordan’s cheeks flushed with what I could only assume was rage, and his eyes flicked to me.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” He asked through gritted teeth.
I turned to Nell, giving her a questioning look, and she just nodded. Knowing that this was our time to really sell it, I leaned forward and planted what I hoped appeared to be a loving kiss on her cheek before dropping her hand and following after Jourdan.
He walked back through the arches, going so quickly in his anger that I had to damn near jog to keep up with him. He turned down a corridor off to the side, following its winding path to a secluded nook before whirling on me.
“What the fuck?” He protested. “I haven’t seen my sister in six years,six fucking years,Blake. And you show up here expecting me to believe that you are engaged to her? Did she put you up to this?”
I shook my head. “No. We actually ran into each other at a small bar in Queens a few months ago after one of my trips where I was scoping out the neighborhood.”
The story that Nell and I had rehearsed flew from my lips easily, the words coming out with conviction and a ring of truth.
“I bought her a drink, and at first, trust me, she wasn’t having it. She gave me all kinds of shit for it, but eventually, she let me sit beside her. We talked the entire night, in a way we never really had before. She’s changed so much, Jourdan. And then, after that night, we started spending more time together, and then more.”
I shrugged one shoulder. “We’ve known each other for so long. It’s not like we were starting from scratch. So, we figured, why wait? I love her.”
Jourdan narrowed his eyes at me, still clearly not buying it. “Why didn’t you tell me when you first ran into her?”
“Have you met you?” I shook my head and chuckled for effect. “Do you really think you wouldn’t have thrown a huge fit about me dating your estranged sister? Even when I told you I had run into her in the building, you immediately disregarded all of my advice, and you and Justine came in guns blazing. What would you have done if I had told you I was falling in love with her?”
I cocked one eyebrow at him, and Jourdan at least had the good sense to look sheepish at that. He might be pissed, but he wasn’t delusional. He knew that he would have been a nightmare in that scenario.
“It was all so new and fresh,” I continued on. “We didn’t want the history between all of you to get in the way of us. It’s why we were trying to dip both of your toes in the water of her and I seeing each other by me telling you I saw her in the building, that I fixed her radiator. We were trying to plant seeds so that it wouldn’t all come as such a shock later after we’d had time to figure our shit out. But clearly, that didn’t go according to plan.”
I gave him a pointed look while he continued to scrutinize me. He didn’t look nearly as doubtful as before, and it was almost as if I could see him replaying all of the past few weeks' events.
The small moments where I had mentioned Nell, talked about her, and cautioned him from seeing her like he was rewriting the memories with this new story I had given him to see if the puzzle pieces fit.
I wasn’t worried about it. I knew that they did. Nell and I had made sure of that. I tried to wait patiently while Jourdan sorted through it, but the entire time all I could think about was getting back to Nell.
I could only imagine the onslaught that was Justine at that moment. The woman could really get on a tear when she wanted to, and she had looked mutinous when Jourdan and I had walked away.
His face slowly relaxed, and he gave me a small, apologetic grin. I could tell he didn’t fully believe it, not yet, anyway. But it was definitely a step in the right direction.
I nodded my head in the direction of the ballroom.
“What do you say we get back there before the two women murder each other?” I asked, causing him to laugh, and I took that as a good sign.
