Page 37 of Heart Breaker

“That’s putting it mildly,” Noah says, glancing over at me.

Ford closes his folder, setting it aside. “They like certainty,” he says. “You gave them that.”

Everyone is satisfied. So why does it feel like I’ve only made everything worse? I haven’t said more than a few words to Lottie in days, and I know she’s still avoiding talking to her parents about our secret marriage.

I stare at the table, the weight of it all settling in. This was supposed to be a solution. Instead, it feels like I’ve created a mess that I don’t know how to clean up.

FOURTEEN

Lottie

“Okay, but listen to this,” Harper says, not even looking up from her phone as she spins slowly in her chair.

“I’m already nervous,” I say as I examine the seating plan for the wedding we’re planning.

“You should be,” she mutters, scrolling. “Because I think I just matched with a man who listed ‘extreme couponing’ as a hobby.”

That gets my attention. I glance up. “As in coupon clipping?”

“Extreme coupon clipping,” she corrects, finally lifting her head. “I feel like that comes with a level of intensity I’m not ready for in a partner.”

I snort. “On the bright side, you’d never run out of toilet paper. Honestly, I think that’s still better than the guy who said his biggest strength was being six feet tall.”

Harper raises her eyebrows at me. “Do you know how many women would overlook red flags for that kind of height?”

An image of Wes immediately pops into my mind. He’s over six feet, but it’s not just the height that I find so damn sexy, it’s the way he carries it. His broad shoulders, quiet confidence, the way he leans against counters and doorframes like he was put on this earth to ruin women’s lives.

I need to stop.

“You’re never going to meet anyone if you keep judging them like this,” I say, turning my attention back to my sister.

“I’m not judging,” she says, defensive. “I’m observing. There’s a difference.”

“Mm-hmm.”

She sets her phone down and leans forward across her desk. “One guy opened with, ‘If you were a vegetable, you’d be a cute-cumber.’ I did judge him. I’m not building a future with a man who compares me to vegetables.”

“I take it back. Your standards may not be the problem.”

I consider the table placements in front of me, shifting a couple of them. I have the same dating app on my phone right now, but I haven’t opened it in months. I guess I should delete is seeing as I’m technically a married woman.

“Okay,” Harper says slowly, sitting back in her chair. “What’s going on with you, Lottie?”

“Nothing,” I answer too quickly. “It’s just a lot right now, adjusting to a new house, a husband who’s hardly ever home and seems to forget I exist, plus a marriage that isn’t real but still needs to look like it is. It’s exhausting.”

“Yeah,” she says softly. “I figured.” She taps her pen against the desk, then brightens. “Okay, then we fix it. Let’s go out tonight for dinner and drinks. We’ll invite Madeline, make it a girls’ night. You clearly need to not be in your head for a few hours.”

“Sounds great, but I can’t. I’m going to see Mom and Dad after work.”

“Oh no,” she says, sounding concerned. “Have you talked to them yet?”

“No,” I admit. “And I’ve decided I’m not going to. With Dad’s treatments, the appointments, and everything else, I’m not adding this to the pile. Not right now. You know how stressed-out Mom gets. Besides, the press seems to have already moved on. Victoria thinks they got what they wanted when we confirmed the wedding and gave them their public display of affection. There hasn’t been anything in the news for days. I think that part is over.”

She tilts her head. “Okay, but Lottie, Mom and Dad are going to see the payments. How are you going to explain that?”

“I’ve thought about that. “I’m going to tell them I discovered they’d been over-billed for some of Dad’s treatments, so they have a credit that’s covering any new costs. I’ll just say I sorted it out with the medical center.”

She narrows her eyes. “You sound very confident for someone who’s making this all up.”