My Super-Hot Fake Wedding Date

“I think she wants you to come to the wedding and stage a showdown! There, I said it.”

I pulled the cart over. “You can’t be serious.”

“I wish I wasn’t.” She didn’t say anything for a second, but I could hear her pushing buttons on her treadmill. “But the way she’s acting—trust me. I remember what she’s like. She’s super focused on me right now, which makes no sense because it’s her wedding day, and we’re not even friends anymore. I think she’s trying to get to you.”

“She’s the one who left me for Dave. He gave her a ring and one of those designer bags she’d been wanting for years.” I sighed. “I don’t really see Katie as prone to introspection or looking back. She doesn’t want me. She didn’t want me when she had me.”

“Yeah, but um… I might’ve done something bad.” Marta’s voice came out small.

“What’s that?”

“I might’ve told her that you didn’t care about her and her stupid wedding because you had a new uber-successful, uber-gorgeous, uber-rich girlfriend and you were happy. I told her that not only were you really happy, you were in love. And I think it made her lose her shit.”

“Marta—”

“I’m sorry. It was dumb of me to say anything, but she’s so fucking smug. I just want to put her head through a window!”

I sighed. “So now you think she’s trying to stir something up? She texted me and asked for my blessing. I gave it to her.”

“Yeah, that’s not what she wants to hear. She wants to hear you sob. She wants you leaking big, fat baby tears all over the place, with a side of wailing, preferably in public.”

I grimaced. Oh, those girls with issues. They went from one drama right to another. “Not gonna happen.”

“I know! But just be forewarned, she might try to call you again. I think the whole wedding thing’s making her even crazier than normal.”

“Great.” I rested my forehead against the steering wheel. “Just great.”

Art Delaney pulled his cart up next to mine. “What’s the matter, son?”

“I gotta go. Stay strong.” I hung up and forced myself to smile at Art. “Nothing, Mr. Delaney. Just talking to my sister for a minute.”

“Your sister, huh? You tell her you got clobbered at tennis yesterday by an old man? Or that you sucked hard at golf today?” His shoulders shook with silent laughter.

“Ha ha. No, I didn’t mention it. You ready for the ceremony?”

He nodded, his expression sobering. “It’s a big deal, giving your daughter away. I hope Tim’s up to taking care of my little girl. She has a long list of demands. Always has, that Sienna.”

“Tim seems like he’s ready.”

Art nodded. “You know, son, I think he understands who Sienna really is. If you can accept that, it makes everything else easier. ’Cause a marriage is a lot of things, but easy isn’t one of them. You’ll find out someday.”

“I hope to, sir.”

He shifted his cart back into drive. “You gotta watch it with my Maddy. I don’t know if she’ll ever be married to anything but her work.” He chuckled as he drove off. “And she plays it pretty close to the vest.”

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; “Great. Thanks for letting me know, sir.”

I frowned as he drove away. Because really, what had he let me know? That his daughter didn’t often show her true feelings? His comments, combined with my conversation with Marta, plus what Tim had said conspired to sully my happy vibes.

One puffy cloud passed in front of the sun, suddenly making the temperature drop. I shivered.

Earlier that morning, it had seemed simple. I liked Maddy. I thought she liked me.

So why did it suddenly seem more complicated than that?

Maddy was still with the bridesmaids when I got back to the house, so I decided to go for a quick run down the beach before the ceremony. Parts of it were rocky, but after a little while, it cleared, and I was able to get a good pace going. Exercise always calmed me down and cleared my head. Half a mile into my run, the nagging doubt I’d started to feel at the golf course dissipated.