it several times last night and I had to get it for you.”
She looked over her shoulder at me and met my gaze with her beautiful brown eyes. “You really didn’t need to do this.” She turned around to face me then stood on her toes and hugged me. “Thank you. I love it.”
I hugged her back. “I’m glad you like it,” I said. “Though I have to admit, I was kind of worried you might give me another scolding for spending more money on you again.”
She pulled away from the hug and smiled. “I thought about it. But since I really want this dress I’m giving you a pass this time.”
“Good.” I chuckled. “But I will say I was fully prepared to argue the fact that if we were going to make it believable that I’m your boyfriend, it would only make sense that I’d shower the woman I loved with all sorts of gifts.”
“Oh yeah?” Her eyes lit up even brighter than they’d been a moment before, and I wondered if I’d said something without realizing it. She said, “So we’re going to convince Chad that you love me?”
Had I said love?
Well…I hadn’t exactly planned to say that much.
But since it was already out, I shrugged and said, “Yeah. I think that’s what we’re going for. Don’t you think?”
She pressed her lips together, like she was fighting a huge grin. “I think that sounds like the perfect plan.” She pulled the dress out of the bag. “I’ll just put this on and then we can go.”
36
Arianna
“So what’s the plan exactly?” Cole asked as we walked up the sidewalk toward my friends Zara and William’s new home. They lived in a quiet cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Denver in a beautiful gray and white craftsman-style house that they’d built.
“We’re going to pretend to be super, over-the-top in love with each other, of course,” I said, glancing up at Cole’s face.
“I remember that part,” he said. “And am definitely on board with all of that. But the last time we talked about it, we planned to tell Chad that we’d been sneaking around his back for a long time.”
“And you don’t want to do that?” I said, guessing from the hesitant look on Cole’s face.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I guess part of me doesn’t want Chad to think that you stooped to his level. I want him to know that he’s the only cheater and that he just lost you because of what he did—and not because you did anything wrong.”
“But…” I started, trying to figure out what we’d do if we weren’t following the original plan. “What would we even do then? Because I really want Chad to know that he isn’t the winner in all of this. He needs to realize that he’s not the king of the world who can have any woman that he wants.”
“I don’t want him to think that, either.” Cole stopped us in front of the house next to Zara and William’s. “So, instead of making ourselves look sketchy, I thought we could go with a different storyline.”
“A different storyline?” I asked, interested in what he had come up with.
“Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought we could just tell him something a little closer to the truth.”
“Yeah?” I asked, anticipation filling me over what he might suggest.
He nodded, and the vulnerability was back in his expression. “I was thinking we could tell him that we just spent a lot of time together this week, and that without Chad in the picture, we had a chance to realize there was a lot more than just friendship between us.”
“And you think that will be believable?” I asked carefully, not wanting to interpret what he said into something it wasn’t.
But he just nodded and released a long breath. “I think so. At least, as long as you’re on board with the idea, I don’t see any reason why something like that would be impossible to believe.”
And when he licked his lips and let his gaze search mine with a look of hope in his eyes, I had a feeling that maybe neither of us would need to act or pretend anything at all.
Maybe we’d finally be telling the truth.
37
Arianna
“I’m so glad you could make it tonight.” Zara gave me a hug after Cole and I had been at the party for fifteen minutes. The house was buzzing with about thirty of her and William’s closest friends and family, and this was