Royal Ruse - Emma Lea Page 0,34

Maya had taken me shopping for all the clothes I would need for the new and improved Francesca Davenport. She’d even insisted on social media training and even a few photograph lessons with a professional photographer for those all-important Instagram pictures she expected me to post regularly. Day by day it felt like I was donning a fancy dress costume and I just went with it. I kept telling myself it was only for a short amount of time in the grand scheme of my entire life and as soon as it was over I could go back to stuffing my face with carbs and wearing my comfy boyfriend jeans and boots.

“I’m doing this for Lucas,” I said, turning to her and squeezing her hands. “This is a big deal for him and I don’t want to embarrass him. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to normal in no time and you’ll be begging me to use some of my new manners again.”

Mom smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Okay,” she said on a sigh. “Just remember not to lose yourself, okay? It’s easy to get swept up in the fairy tale of it all, but that is not your real life, okay?”

I pulled Mom into a hug. “I know,” I whispered.

She squeezed me tight and then let go, dabbing at the corner of her eyes.

“Hey, no crying,” I scolded with a grin. “You’ll ruin your makeup.”

Mom laughed and hooked her arm through mine. “Are you ready?” she asked.

I took a deep breath and nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied as we headed for the door.

“You know,” Mom said, pulling me to a stop before we exited the room. “If you and Lucas decide to make this thing real, your dad and I would approve.”

I scoffed. “Lucas doesn’t see me that way,” I said.

“Are you sure about that?”

I rolled my eyes. “Positive. He’s had years to turn our friendship into something more. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now.”

“But so have you,” Mom said.

“And I didn’t because I knew he didn’t feel the same way about me.”

“Just…don’t rule it out, okay? You and Lucas have something special and I think—”

I covered Mom’s mouth with my hand. “No,” I said with a grin and a shake of my head. “Do not go making up some romantic fairy tale happily ever after for us,” I said. “Lucas and I are friends. That’s it. That’s all.”

Mom sighed and nodded, and I let my hand drop. “Okay,” she said, “but you can’t blame me for trying.”

“Come on, troublemaker,” I said, tugging her out of the room and toward the stairs. “We can’t be late or Maya would never forgive me.”

“That woman gets on my last nerve,” Mom muttered as we descended the stairs.

“And after tonight you won’t have to deal with her anymore,” I said.

“You might not have to deal with her after tonight, but somehow I doubt she will leave your father and me alone while you and Lucas are away. She’s already planning Sunday brunches and dinner parties so we can discuss the wedding.”

“You’re a busy woman, Mom. I’m sure you can find an unlimited amount of excuses to avoid her. You can literally use ‘sorry, gotta perform brain surgery’ as an excuse to get out of anything. Besides, it’s just a month and then it will be splitsville for me and Lucas and you will be rid of her.”

Mom sighed but didn’t answer. I shrugged off the sadness that wanted to cling to me when I thought about the inevitable break up with Lucas. Tonight was not the night to think about the end of our fake engagement, tonight was all about pretending to be in love and besotted with one another. There was plenty of time to think about the end…even if I silently wished for it to never end.

Lucas

“Ah, here they are,” Adam said.

I turned to look toward the stairs and my mouth went dry at the sight of Frankie. She looked amazing…better than amazing. I didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know where to look. My eyes wanted to look everywhere at once and I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was staring—ogling—my best friend and yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.

“Lucas?” she asked hesitantly and then grinned and did a slow spin for me, showing me the back of the dress. “What do you think?”

“It’s uh…you’re…”

I must be having a stroke or something. My brain was a