Her mouth opened, closed, and then she turned around. “Un-fucking-believable.”
I bit my lip, knowing that she’d be back.
And she was an hour later.
Only, I never expected what came out of her mouth to actually come out of her mouth.
“I’ll do it…on one condition.”Chapter 17You know you’re getting older when you walk past a bathroom and think, ‘I better go ahead and pee.’
-Henley’s secret thoughts
Henley
My life had irrevocably changed, and I wasn’t even quite sure how the hell it’d happened. One second, I was an employee of Rhys Rivera, and the next I was his fiancée.
One moment, I was trying to figure out what in the hell I was going to do after time came to an end and I had to find a job, and the next I was practically a kept woman.
I was still in a state of shock.
I mean, I was a deaf girl that always thought that I’d never find someone.
Who would want me?
I was slightly overweight. I had long, bland, straight as a board, boring brown hair. I had acne—and there was no way in hell he was missing the pimple on the end of my nose. My boobies were literally the only asset that I had that was at least considered attractive. Then there were my millions of freckles that covered the entire expanse of my exposed skin, and even some of the skin that wasn’t.
I hadn’t thought the man had even glanced at me twice—and he’d said that I was more than attractive. Twice.
In all honesty, it was all quite hard to believe.
But…I couldn’t pass the deal up.
I mean, who the hell wouldn’t want to be married to Rhys Rivera? He was hella attractive, he had a great personality, he was hard working…and he cared.
A man doesn’t get a woman a transmitter overnight because he didn’t.
He didn’t care that I spoke funny. He’d introduced me to all of his friends.
I mean, really, the lie was perfect.
I’d literally walked right into the part and hadn’t even realized it.
I’d only had one stipulation for him, and that was what we were about to go do before his appointment in an hour.
“You have to make it look like we fell in love, so my mother doesn’t completely lose her shit.”
We were going to play the part in front of my mother, and I was going to have to act like the man didn’t affect my every single nerve ending.
“You ready?”
I looked up to find Rhys in the doorway looking at me.
He’d come over to my house while I was getting ready to head to my mother’s house for our monthly dinner.
Rhys had gone more than once since he’d been recuperating, but this would be the first time that our togetherness was anything but professional.
I was nervous.
I wasn’t sure if we could pull this off—or at least, I knew that I could. It was him that I worried wouldn’t be able to pull it off.
He’d have to pretend to be attracted to me—and that wasn’t going to be easy.
I didn’t have to pretend…not even a little bit.
“Ready,” I agreed, abandoning my perusal of my freckles. “Do you have the ring?”
He held it up and then walked to me.
He flipped the box open, and before I could so much as gasp, he was on his knee in front of me.
“Henley, will you marry me?” he asked, his beautiful eyes twinkling.
There were a thousand different ways I prayed for a man to propose to me, and not one of them went this particular way.
I thought it’d be romantic.
I thought we’d be in the park, surrounded by falling leaves, while being blissfully in love with the man asking for my hand.
I’d planned out the perfect proposal in my head.
But, this wasn’t that.
This wasn’t going to be what I’d hoped and prayed for since I was a young girl—and honestly, that was never going to happen anyway.
I just wasn’t that kind of girl. Never had been, and never would be.
Those dreams were just that—dreams. This was reality.
“Yes,” I grinned. “I will.”
He surged up and then wrapped his hands around my waist, spinning me around before dropping a chaste kiss on my cheek.
I felt my face flush at his attentions, but before I could respond to his exuberance, he dropped me down on my feet and stepped away from me so fast that I felt myself teeter slightly to the side before catching myself.
Then I had the ring placed in my hand.
“Put that on,” he ordered.
I did as he said and admired the ring.
It was absolutely beautiful—the ring was everything I’d always imagined.
“I love it,” I told him with a beaming smile on my face.
He grinned. “Good.”
Then he was hooking his arm around mine and guiding me out the door.
“Let’s go convince the rest of your family.”
Surprisingly, it wasn’t anywhere near as hard as I would’ve expected it to be.