stoop to paying someone to marry her. How different the situation would have been had Roman been the guy she thought he was. She’d be planning her real wedding right now instead of hoping that she could buy off some stranger.
The doorbell rang. “He’s here,” Lexi sang with a large smile.
Butterflies tapped out a fast beat in Magnolia’s stomach as she sat up taller in her seat and fluffed her hair. “Do I look okay?” She’d taken extra care in getting ready, selecting a green blouse to go with her eyes. Also, she’d curled her blonde locks.
“You look gorgeous, as usual,” Lexi said as she stood and went to the door.
Magnolia rose to her feet, clasping her hands. Her heart was pounding a hundred miles an hour. She sucked in a quick breath as she rubbed her sticky palms on her jeans. When the door opened, Magnolia pasted a smile over her lips.
She caught a glimpse of flowers, just before Lexi embraced the guy in a tight hug. “Hey,” Lexi said, her voice ringing with affection. “You made it.” A second later, she turned, motioning. “Magnolia, you remember my brother,” she said grandly with a bright smile.
“Lucas,” Magnolia inserted, the word falling from her lips like poison. Her heart dropped clear to her feet, disappointment battering her insides. A wall of tears pressed against her eyes as she blinked to stay them. This was the guy she’d been waiting a month to be fixed up with? Lexi’s brother? All hope for the future imploded in a suffocating cloud of dust. There was no hope of finding anyone. She could kiss her trust fund goodbye.
No surprise, Lucas was still as handsome as ever in a casual, indifferent, snub-the-world-way. His sable hair was longer on top and spiky messy. The ends were tipped with gold from being out in the sun. His olive-toned skin held a sun-kissed glow. Magnolia saw the flicker of surprise that passed over Lucas’s features before his jaw turned harder than concrete. He shot Lexi a glare so withering it could’ve stopped a tiger in its tracks. “This is who you’ve been harping about for the past month?” he smirked, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I drove all the way here for this.” He held up the bouquet. “This was a waste of twenty bucks.”
Molten fire zigzagged through Magnolia as she spun around to Lexi. “H—how could you fix me up with him?” Her breath rushed out in fast, short puffs. “You know I can’t stand him!” She felt dizzy. She couldn’t breathe!
“Oh, yeah? Well, the feeling’s mutual, honey,” Lucas shot back.
Magnolia pointed her finger. “I’m not your honey!”
A hard amusement flicked through Lucas’s blue-gray eyes. “No, you are most certainly not.”
“Since when do you hate my brother?” Lexi asked, confusion written all over her face.
Magnolia threw her hands into the air. “Since when have I not hated him?”
Lucas scoffed. “Why don’t you give the letter thing a rest? It happened eons ago.”
Lexi blinked several times. “Is this about the letter that you wrote to Lucas when we were in the seventh grade?”
Magnolia straightened to her full height, jutting out her chin. “That’s where it started, but there’s a lot more to it than that.” She perched a hand on her hip, daring Lucas to disagree.
Lucas’s brows shot down. “It wasn’t my fault that Mikey Sanders found your little love note on my desk.”
The condescension in his voice made Magnolia’s stomach roil. Her voice rose. “Mike made umpteen copies of it and posted it all over school. I was humiliated.”
“I had forgotten about that,” Lexi said, her eyes forming circles.
“This has nothing to do with the letter, and you know it,” Lucas countered. “Why don’t you admit the real reason why you hate my guts?”
Magnolia’s blood was boiling. “Because I prefer to keep the past where it belongs—in the past!”
“What’s he talking about?” Lexi asked.
“Nothing,” Magnolia mumbled.
Lucas smirked. “Oh, she’s just ticked because we went out a few times after high school, and I wasn’t interested in going steady.” He threw Magnolia a smug look.
“You’re a despicable pig!” Magnolia seethed. She’d been devastated by Lucas’s rejection.
He chuckled. “Darling, I’ve been called worse.”
“I’m sure you have,” Magnolia retorted. “And I’m sure it was well deserved.”
“When did y’all date?” Lexi asked.
“It doesn’t matter.” Magnolia’s anger ebbed a fraction, leaving her feeling numb and colder than Antarctica. She’d have to go back to the drawing board—find a suitable contender to take to North Carolina to meet her grandfather … a