room. And it was a fairly big room, filled with other people. All around her, life went on as usual. Meanwhile, her own life had suddenly become something she didn’t recognize.
“Here’s what I’m offering.” Nicholas leaned forward, crossing his arms in front of him on the table and leveling his steely gaze at her. “I’ll pretend to be your boyfriend, fiancé, husband—whatever—at your high school reunion next weekend. The weekend after that, you go with me to my brother’s wedding and pretend to be my fiancée.”
“How will that solve anything with your mom?” Charlie asked when she finally found her voice again. “You can’t just bring a fiancée to a wedding, then not get married at some point.”
“I’ll figure it out after that. Or maybe I’ll tell her my engagement is none of her business. Whatever the case, it will put an end to her persistent matchmaking. That’s all I want.”
Charlie was one hundred percent sure his plan was a faulty one. At some point, his mother would figure out he wasn’t actually engaged—probably the first time he showed up for a holiday gathering without her in tow. All he was doing was delaying the conversation he needed to have with her…which was that she needed to mind her own business.
But Charlie was now excited about having a date for her high school reunion. A date who was a billionaire—a very, very handsome billionaire. The kind of billionaire who would make even Shellie Ashworth’s life look ordinary.
6
Nicholas pulled up in front of the taco stand, a smile tugging at his lips the second he saw the now-familiar building. It was hard to believe it had been a full week since he’d first met Charlie McLaughlin. Seven full days of texting back and forth about plans, with some of the texts even turning a little flirtatious.
Okay, so the flirting had been mostly on his side of the text exchanges. Charlie was all business, tending to go mysteriously silent whenever he turned up the heat a little with a wink emoji or a subtle tease. He certainly didn’t want to push things if she wasn’t interested, but he found himself testing the waters a little, eager to see if she felt the same attraction to him as he did to her.
It had also been almost seven days since he’d last laid eyes on her. When the door next to the taco stand opened and Charlie emerged, his entire nervous system went on immediate alert. He’d already been wired all day, long after his morning cups of coffee had worn off. Just the thought of picking her up in front of her building after work had kept him on high alert. But now, knowing he would be in her company for a full forty-eight hours had him reacting like a schoolboy with a crush.
“Hi,” she said, smiling at him as she met him at his trunk. He opened it without taking his eyes off her, then reached for the handle of the suitcase she’d rolled over between them. It was so hard to take his eyes off her, but he forced his gaze to the suitcase to avoid making a fool of himself.
“Ready for the long drive?” He struggled to keep his tone light and casual as he arranged her suitcase neatly next to his. Normally, he would have just tossed the luggage into the trunk without much thought, but she was so poised and composed, he felt the need to match that.
“Only a couple of hours,” she said. “We should get there just in time for the tail end of the cocktail party.”
“I hope there’s food at this thing. I’m starving.”
Charlie seemed to take that as her cue. She pulled up the menu on her phone and, while he pulled away from the curb and started out of town, read it to him. It was an impressive selection of finger foods, but he said nothing complimentary about it. He had a feeling her nemesis was responsible for putting the menu together. The name of the game this weekend was winning this war against Shellie Ashworth.
“Thank you for doing this,” Charlie said. “I know you probably have better things to do with your time than hang out at some stranger’s high school reunion.”
He smiled over at her. “Are you kidding? I’ve been looking forward to this all week. We have some time, so what’s our story?”
“Story?”
He glanced over at her briefly before turning his attention back to the road ahead. “For your friends