The Fake Engagement

He laughed. “Everyone loves the place.”

“Have you taken girlfriends there before? More fake fiancées coming out of the woodwork?”

“Nope, just you, baby,” he said. He grabbed her hand as she was about to fall. “Mind your step. We don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Are you going to tell me again where we’re going?” she asked.

“It’s my secret hideout,” he said.

“A secret hideout?”

“Yep.”

“Preston Boone, are you telling me you were a nerd?”

He snorted. “No, I was a kid, with way too many brothers and an annoying sister. Dad knew I needed my space, and it was our bonding time. We built a fort.”

“A fort?”

“You’ll see.” He kept hold of her hand, and she had no problem with that.

They walked for another five minutes, and then she saw the sign. Boone’s Fort.

“Okay, this is straight out of a horror movie.”

“Stop it. There’s nothing scary about any of this.” They walked past the tree.

“Your parents own this land?”

“Yeah, there was a big fight to buy the land. The intention was to chop down the trees, but then the land would be exposed, and the chance of a big corporation picking it up and building a mall or some other venue was too high of a risk. Dad was worried about what it would do to the town, so he bought the land. There are people who keep an eye on it for wildlife purposes, but for the most part, it’s my parents’ land.”

Eliza winced. “By big corporations buying up land similar to this one to build for tourist reasons. Ring a bell?”

She didn’t want to make the comparisons, but it was Preston who had started it.

Preston stopped and turned toward her. “You’re talking about Aguire?”

“Kind of.”

“It’s not the same.”

“How is it different?” she asked.

“It just is. His land doesn’t have a whole heap of wildlife and isn’t backed onto a housing estate. This is a special piece of land.”

She pressed her lips together. “You’re right.”

He was being picky, and they both knew it. The land Aguire had, in its own way, would at some point interfere with the integrity of the town.

“Some places need to have advancement in life. It is the only way they can move forward. I know what I’m doing.”

“You’re right. You know what you’re doing. I’m sorry. Show me your fort.”

This was clearly a sore subject with Preston. He purchased many companies, tore them down, and built them back up. The Aguire project was different. Very different. This would be the first time he purchased land with the hope of building an investment opportunity like a mall or something similar.

She looked past his shoulder and gasped.

“This is the fort your dad built?”

“With our bare hands.”

“You and your father built this?”

“Yep. It took us a whole summer. I take it you’re impressed.”

There were at least three tree houses, along with ropes to climb up into each one. Across each long trunk, they’d built bridges for him to get to each one. His father had thought of everything.

This was the place he’d come to in order to think. He’d planned his future in this very fort.

“This is incredible.” She moved toward one rung of steps. “May I?”

“Be my guest.”

She grabbed the rope and began to haul herself up into the first tree house. He followed up behind her, and she took a seat.

“Is it stable?”

“It hasn’t fallen down yet. My dad said it would always be available for when I have kids.”

She sat down, her gaze roaming around his space. She had a quick glance at his bookshelves. There were some business course management books, as well as comics. “The boy became the man?”

“Yeah. I guess he did.”

She reached toward the shelf and grabbed the business management book. “Where did you get this?”

“The library.”

“Were you a rebel and stole it?”

He laughed. “Nah, nothing quite so sinister. They had a sale and wanted to make room for new books. I got it cheap. A couple of dollars.”

Eliza flicked through the pages. “This was where it all began, huh?”

“Yeah, it did.”

“Are you proud of what you accomplished?” she asked.

“Most of the time.”

“My, my, does the ultimate rich bachelor have doubts about this own company?”

He chuckled. “No doubts about my company. Just a couple of other things.”

“Such as?”

“Life, I guess.”

“Life?”

“Yeah, being back home, it makes me realize all that I’ve sacrificed, you know? This is my first time back, and I mean really back. Normally, if I was here for a couple of days, I’d be locked up in my dad’s office, answering emails. Still conducting meetings.” He shrugged.

“You check your emails every single morning.”

“True. This is different though. This is getting away from all of that.”

“You’re thinking about building a family?” she asked.

“I’m considering it.” He watched her to see her reaction. Nothing. “Does this make you think of back home?”

“Sometimes. It’s a small town, exactly where I come from. I don’t know.” She smiled.