21. Ray

Every muscle in my body ached. Every… single… one.

I was running on a latte and less than four hours of sleep, and if I wasn't so worried about my puffy white robe coming undone and baring myself to Wade's female family members, I'd be worrying instead about falling asleep during my massage.

Arlie, Chloe, and a few of Chloe's aunts had joined us in the spa for a girl"s morning before the wedding. I'd somehow been pressured into being alone with Wade's side of the family, and considering no phones were allowed in the spa, Wade had graciously offered to keep my phone on him in case anything happened with Mom.

Steam filled my mouth, my nose, and my ears from every angle in the sauna. I sat in the corner of the room, my back to one wall and my head resting against the other, with Chloe on my left and Arlie on my right. Arlie chatted away with her sisters and Chloe, but their words were so far away, so quiet.

So warm. So calm.

"Ray?"

My eyes snapped open in a second. Chloe grinned at me, her damp hair falling over her shoulders in blonde waves.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to doze off."

"Didn't get much sleep last night?" she asked.

I shook my head. In the haze of exhaustion, I couldn't tell which option was better: telling her that Wade had kept me up half the night or coming up with an elaborate lie. But my brain was too tired to create something worth selling. Maybe I didn't need an excuse.

"Wade's a snorer," Arlie cut in. "Always was growing up."

"Oh my god, the amount of times he'd wake me up when we'd go on vacations. Mom always made us sleep in the same room and Wade alwayssnored," Chloe laughed, shooting her mom a sarcastic glare.

But Wade hadn't snored last night. In fact, he hadn't made a goddamn sound and was sleeping peacefully and quietly when I left. "No, no, he wasn't snoring," I said, and as their eyes turned to me in unison, I instantly regretted the words, my eyes flashing wide. If it wasn't snoring that had kept me up, it could only be one other thing…

"Oh, honey," Wade's mom offered, a hint of a laugh cutting through her words. If I wasn't so flushed from the sauna, my face would have turned bright red. "It's okay. We've all been there with a man."

I looked to Chloe, desperate for some sort of help. She only offered me wide eyes and a confused stare. Wade said she knew it was an act.

"Mom, can we pretend to know absolutely nothing about Wade's sex life? Please?"

Thank you, I mouthed.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just so curious how they ended up together, you know? I didn't think Wade would ever settle down," Arlie giggled, her shoulder pressing into her sister"s arm as she looked for reassurance from them. I wished I'd caught their names earlier when I'd been introduced, but it seemed like absolutely nothing was staying in my head today.

Except for the way Wade absolutely devoured me last night. That wasn't going anywhere and seemed to be the one thing I could actually retain.

"To be honest, I didn't think he would either," I offered. The words came a little easier through the haze of fatigue, and in truth, all I could do was hope to God I said nothing stupid. "Do you want to know how we met? It's, uh, a doozy."

Chloe raised one singular brow.

"Yes! Absolutely," Arlie chimed.

"It was here at the resort," I started. "I was staking the place out for a job interview and I thought, fuck it, why not sign up for a skiing lesson while I'm here? But I'd never skied before so I had no idea what I was doing."

Arlie's smile fell as she looked at me. "You're one of his bunnies?"

I blinked at her, the attack hitting me like a truck. He said I wasn't. I'm not. "N-no," I continued. "I didn't know who Wade was. I mean, I knew he ran the resort, but other than that I didn't know anything about him, not even what he looked like. I wasn't after him like that?—"

"She wasn't, Mom. Wade told me," Chloe offered.

Arlie looked between me and her daughter, her mouth a thin line. I wanted to know what she was thinking, what idea she was forming of me. "Continue."

"I… I went down the big hill, but I didn't know how to slow down. I slammed right into him on accident and sent us both hurtling to the ground. We were fine, but he was annoyed, and I told him he shouldn't be standing around at the bottom of a hill. He told me to watch where I was going. We actually got pretty snippy with each other," I said. "And then a couple of days later, I walked into his office for my interview, realized he was the same man I'd crashed into, and nearly lost my mind."

A beat of silence. I gulped.

"Then he asked me out before he hired me," I lied. I couldn't bear to look at Chloe, couldn't face her knowing she knew damn well that the story had veered away from the truth. "He was an absolute angel to me, even after I found out about the, uh, bunny situation. I wasn't very nice about that. But he asked me to be his girlfriend a few months later after he'd helped me out of a shitty situation where my car died, and I said yes. And I haven't looked back."

Arlie was silent for far too long.

I knew I'd fucked up. I must have. I knew I should have talked with Wade about this beforehand, corroborated on a believable story that wasn't the actual one. But we'd been too busy last night to even consider it. My eyelids felt heavy as the memories of it flooded my head, and goddammit I was so tired?—

The piercing laugh that came from Arlie's mouth was enough to startle me back into the present situation. "Oh my gosh," she cackled. "That's amazing. What a story to tell your future kids."

Future kids.

"Yeah," I chuckled, every movement forced and unnatural. My stomach sunk, churning with displeasure. Future kids. Future kids. Future kids. I wanted to focus on how although half our story was fake, the sentiment of it was there. The foundation was there. The feelings were… there. But all I could think about was that phrase. Future kids.

"Has he, you know, said it yet?" Arlie's sister asked. "The big three words."

I gulped. "Love?"

She nodded.

It's a long-term relationship, Ray. You both would have said it by now. "Yeah," I grinned. "A couple of weeks ago."

I stuffed my hands under my legs to keep from showing how much they shook at just the idea. I knew damn well that I could easily fall in love with the man I'd spent last night with, but saying we'd already exchanged those three words was on another level entirely. I'd be expected to say it out loud, in front of others. I'd have to say it to him.

Chloe cut in with a question to Arlie about her bridal bouquet, closing off all conversation about Wade for the time being. I took a deep breath and sank back against the wall, breathing out the smallest sigh of relief when Arlie carried it from there.

I could make it through the morning. It would be fine. I hadn't blown it.

Yet.