Charlie from her thoughts. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Your high school reunion. Your attorney isn’t the only guy with an impressive background. I’ll bet you could find a good-looking, successful guy who would be more than willing to spend an evening in your company to show Shellie what’s-her-name what’s up.”
As much as she liked that he’d already forgotten Shellie’s last name, the last thing she wanted was for Nicholas to think she was hinting around for him to step in and be her pretend boyfriend. That hadn’t even occurred to her, although her heart did speed up a little at the mere thought of showing up with a billionaire as her date.
“It’s not just one evening,” she rushed to clarify. “It’s an entire weekend of fun and festivities.”
That last part was quoted directly from the social media post that had invited everyone to the reunion. They hadn’t even tagged her in the first, second, or third round. Someone who had been on the debate team with her senior year had tagged her after the invite had been up for four months. By then, the people organizing the reunion were begging and pleading for people to invite anyone they thought had been forgotten because they hadn’t sold enough tickets to pay for the venue.
“I need to cancel my hotel room,” Charlie said, more to herself than to him. “I’ve been putting it off. I keep telling myself I’ll go alone, but it’s next weekend, so—”
Nicholas choked on the swig of margarita he’d just taken. “Next weekend?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Nothing. I just thought this was some faraway event. And this is in your hometown?”
“Sacramento, yeah. They’re having it at the country club. Shellie’s on the planning committee, and she’s a member, so she did us some sort of huge favor by getting us the place for the night.”
That was a lot of information Nicholas probably didn’t need, but it sure felt good to get it out. She was so wound up about the whole event, and she hadn’t even realized it until now.
“Why go at all?” Nicholas said. “Sounds like you didn’t really care for high school.”
“I guess…I don’t know. FOMO, maybe?”
Nicholas laughed. “Yeah, I’m all too familiar with that feeling. I guess you think the weekend of the reunion, you’ll be sitting at home, wondering what you missed?”
“Yeah. But the idea of walking in there alone gives me the shivers. So I guess I’ll just stay home. There are enough events in life we dread without forcing ourselves to go to ones we don’t have to, right?”
She wasn’t sure if that made sense. Looking at Nicholas, it may very well not have. He was staring off to the side thoughtfully, probably trying to piece together what she’d meant about events that people dread. Maybe she was the only person who felt that way.
“I’ll make you a deal.” Nicholas swung his gaze back to her, the thoughtful look gone from his eyes. The look in his eyes told her that he was alert now, focused on what he was about to say.
She was almost afraid to ask. “What’s that?”
“I have an event I’m dreading. It’s coming up in two weeks.”
Charlie couldn’t help but notice that when Nicholas focused on something, his face took on an intensity that made him even better looking than he was otherwise. His deep brown eyes grew even darker, reaching a smoldering depth that made her one hundred percent unable to look away.
“My younger brother’s getting married,” he said. “My mom already has a wife picked out for me. She’s going to be at the wedding.”
What? Surely she’d misheard.
“Did you just say your mother has picked out a wife for you? Like, an arranged marriage?”
“Not exactly. Well, sort of. She’s constantly fixing me up with various people, but this time she’s sure this one is the perfect woman for me.”
“And you think she isn’t?”
“I know she isn’t. My mother has a very specific type. You fit the type, actually, which is why this is the perfect plan.”
Charlie shook her head. Was she suffering from some sort of food poisoning or something? The kind that went straight to her brain? This conversation suddenly made no sense to her.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“If I show up for the wedding with you, my mother will be off my back. But it won’t be enough for me to say I’m dating you. You have to show up as my soon-to-be wife.”
It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the