Fake Marriage Box Set

She managed to startle a laugh out of me with that one. But I sobered quickly as Emma squirmed in my arms. I set her down and w

atched her run off to the living room to get one of her coloring books. “What if she didn't believe that I was your niece, though?”

“She has no proof of anything otherwise,” Janice said firmly. “It's time to stop worrying about Renée. Why don't you come help me with lunch?”

“Okay,” I said slowly, following her into the kitchen.

I couldn't stop wondering what it meant, though, that Andrew wouldn't tell his girlfriend about Emma and me. Did it mean that he was ashamed of us? Or could it possibly mean that Andrew and Renée weren't as close as she wanted them to be?

Chapter Sixteen

Andrew

I got stuck in a meeting at work, and I got to the café a little late. Fortunately, Katherine was still sitting there patiently, waiting for me to arrive. She stood up when I entered, putting her arms around me and giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.

“There's my favorite brother,” she said warmly. “Got held up in a meeting?”

“Yeah,” I said, glad that she understood. “Things are nuts today since it's my first day back.”

“Well, I'm glad that you could make time in that busy schedule to have lunch with me,” she said, grinning self-deprecatingly.

“Aww, come on. You know that I'll always make time in my schedule for you.”

“I know,” she said. For all that she claimed to already know that, she looked happy to hear it, all the same. “How was Europe?”

“It was good,” I said. “Hey, I got you something.” I pulled out the small box that I had brought for her and watched as she opened it.

Her face lit up with glee when she saw the earrings. “Andy, these are gorgeous!” she said in surprise. “Did you really pick them out yourself?”

“I had a little help,” I admitted. “They're made in Rome, by the sister of the guy who's going to be heading up the Orinoco office there. She helped me pick out the best ones for you. These ones match your eyes.”

“They're beautiful,” Katherine said. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” I said, smiling.

But my brain was running a mile a minute. Thinking of Alfonso, our main contact in Italy, had me thinking of the two logistical issues that I needed to run by the team back at the office. I'd forgotten about them that morning since we were mainly focusing on the London office at the moment, but I knew that if I continued to forget to mention them, they were never going to get resolved. Then, we'd try to launch the office in Rome, and everything would be a mess.

I rubbed absently at my temples, feeling a headache coming on.

“Whoa,” Katherine said, reaching out to lightly touch my arm. “Is everything all right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Work's just been busy. We never should have tried to expand to two different offices at once. We need the people, and we need the logistical aspects, warehouses in a couple different places to make shipping quicker, but everything is nuts at the moment.”

Katherine was quiet for a minute, her head cocked to the side as she considered that. “That's not all of it though,” she said slowly. “You haven't told me the whole story.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I've seen you stressed out over work before,” she said. “The fact that you haven't run yourself into the ground yet is actually astounding to me. But this isn't just the normal work weariness.” She paused. “You know you can tell me anything.”

I gnawed at my lower lip. I knew that she was right. It was the stress of having Lexi and Emma at the house and of not knowing what to do about that situation. That was really getting to me. When it came to work matters, I knew what I was doing by now. Relationships, I didn't have a clue about, and children, I had even less of one.

I really wanted to tell Katherine about Lexi and Emma, but at the same time, I was the older brother. I shouldn't have been so irresponsible as to get myself into this situation, and I didn't really want to tell my younger sister about it.

“It's just work things,” I insisted, shaking my head. “I think I need to find a new secretary. Rachael just isn't her normal perky self anymore, and she's the face of our main office at a crucial time, so I really need her to give it her all.”

“Maybe she's just as exhausted as you are,” Katherine suggested, raising an eyebrow at me. “But come on, Andrew, I know that's not the whole story, either.”

She wasn't going to let it go. And there was definitely a part of me that wanted to tell her about her niece.