My lips curved into a satisfied smile as I neared the guest bedroom, the low murmur of Leland’s voice reaching my ears before I got to the door. I assumed he’d called his parents, but I realized I was wrong as I neared the room and could understand what he was saying.
“Merry fuckmas! Get it? Because it’s not Christmas, and you’re probably fucking your girl nonstop.”
No way would he say that to his mom, dad, or even his older brother who’d gotten married a year ago.
“I’d still be prettier than you, Holland.”
Ah, that solved the mystery of who he was talking to. He must’ve called his best friend, although I was surprised by the “fucking your girl” part of the conversation since Danny never dated anyone, much to my best friend’s chagrin. Delia had sworn off men toward the end of our sophomore year, a little while after I’d started dating Leland, but she’d had a crush on Danny for a long time. I’d tried to get him to hang out with us about a million times in the hope that I’d get to play matchmaker for the two of them, but he was always too busy studying to do anything fun.
“I’m an awesome person and a god in bed.”
I couldn’t make out what Danny had said, but my smile widened at Leland’s matter-of-fact reply. As the only woman who benefited from his skills in bed, I could confirm that he wasn’t just bragging and could back up what he was saying.
“I need a favor.”
I wrapped my hand around the doorknob, but I didn’t open the door. I was too curious about what Leland was going to ask his best friend to do for him. Pressing my ear against the hard surface, I was able to make out what Danny said, too.
“Name it.”
He really was such a great guy. I needed to try harder to hook him and Delia up.
“There was—”
Whatever else Leland said was drowned out by my dad yelling, “Don’t forget I can come in there any time I want!”
I was irritated with him for beating a dead horse and making me miss whatever the favor was, but that ended up being the least of my concerns when Danny said, “Done. I owe you for hooking up with Olivia to keep tabs on Delia.”
The last thing I expected was for Leland to confirm the bombshell Danny had just dropped by saying, “Exactly.”
“And what a hardship that’s been.”
Being with me was a hardship for the man I loved with all of my heart?
“You know me. Always willing to sacrifice for a friend.”
Leland sounded as though he was joking, but I didn’t find anything funny about what they were saying. Not when my world was crumbling around me, and his best friend had been basically stalking mine for the past two years.
“I’m hanging up now.”
“The twenty-seventh!” Leland shouted, reminding me of the favor he wanted and confusing me even more.
None of this made any sense. Had he been pretending to be in love with me all this time? Would he really take the whole charade far enough to propose to me?
I wanted to yell and throw things, but that wasn’t an option. Not with my parents in the kitchen. My dad would never forgive him if he found out that our relationship had started on a lie. I wasn’t even sure I could, but I loved him so much, and deep down inside, I knew my feelings were returned.
I couldn’t picture my future without him in it and hoped with every fiber of my being that we would be able to move past this. But Leland had a heck of a lot of explaining to do before that could happen.
Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I pushed the door open. There was no hiding how devastated I felt, so I didn't even try. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I met Leland’s gaze, my stomach in knots over what was going to happen next. Horror and regret filled his gorgeous blue eyes before he squeezed them shut and muttered, “Fuck.”
I had to swallow the lump in my throat to whisper, “Yeah, you can say that again.”
“How much of that did you hear?”
I shut the door behind me and hoped like heck my parents were too occupied with making breakfast to come looking for us anytime soon. “Enough to know that you helped Danny stalk my best friend, and they somehow hooked up after we left. And you’ve apparently been dating me for two years so you could keep an eye on her for him. Did I miss any other life-shattering tidbits? Are there more lies you’d like to share with me, so we get them all out in the open at once? Or was that it, you lying sack of crap?”