I told her everything. Except when it came to King. The only person I’ve ever talked to about our past relationship is Bill, and he always seemed to understand why I left, which helped me feel like I could move on.
Sighing, I lean against the counter and keep my eyes on the floor. “I was heartbroken when I left Willow Cove. Not exactly something I wanted to revisit.”
“You’re the one who ended things,” she reminds me.
“I know. But we were kids when he asked me to marry him. What was I supposed to do?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?”
“Georgie?” Emily is back again. “Are the sticky buns ready?”
I let out a curse and dash toward the oven. The buns are a little overdone, but not unsalvageable. I dish one up and hand it to Emily. “On the house,” I tell her and practically shove her back into the lobby.
Cecily snickers. “I haven’t heard you use language like that since before you started dating Lane. I haven’t seen you this relaxed either.”
I let out a laugh that feels like it’s on the verge of being maniacal. “I am not remotely relaxed,” I argue, lowering my voice. “This meeting with the attorney is freaking me out.”
“Why?”
I know she’s doing her therapist thing and trying to dig, but I’m too nervous to resist. “Because if he doesn’t think we’re really married, then the bakery—”
“Why will it be so difficult to convince him? You already said you’re attracted to King.”
I wish I hadn’t told her that part. “That doesn’t mean I can pretend to be his loving wife.”
Cecily shrugs. “All you have to do is bat your eyes at him and be all lovey dovey. If he was repulsive, I would understand the difficulty, but you had heart eyes when you were telling me about this hunky husband of yours.”
I point a finger at her. “I never called him hunky.”
“Not with your words, no. But your facial expressions?” She lets out a deep sigh, like she’s about to swoon from the romance of it all. Sometimes I wonder how her husband puts up with her romantic heart, but then I remember he proposed to her in front of the Eiffel Tower. They’re the most sickeningly adorable couple I know. “I’ll reserve judgment until I meet the man, but I have a good feeling about you two.”
I roll my eyes. “I feel like your opinions on love should disqualify you from being a marriage counselor. Real life isn’t the same as fairy tales.”
“I know that! It’s so much better. And I know you only recently got dumped in the worst possible way, so you’re allowed to be a little cynical.”
“Thank you.”
“For now.”
I sigh. “I’m glad you’re here, Cece, but you are incredibly annoying sometimes, you know that?”
She grins. “I know. But Georgie, you’re acting like you can control everything that’s happening here, and you can’t. This isn’t just about you, and you’re going to worry yourself into a mess if you keep living so scared of what other people might do. Not everyone is like Lane.”
“Georgie!” Emily pokes her head back yet again, this time with a sparkle in her eyes. “King is here.” Giving me a wide smile, she returns to the counter.
“Yay!” Cecily leaps to her feet and looks way too excited for me to feel comfortable about what might happen next. I haven’t even had a chance to process what she said before Emily interrupted. “I get to meet the pretend husband!”
“The husband part is very real,” I argue right as King steps into the kitchen.
Like it does every time I see King, my heart throbs in my chest in a way that makes me think I should get it looked at. That can’t be healthy.
He takes only a couple of steps into the kitchen before he sees Cecily, and then he stops dead, eyes taking her in before darting to me with a clear question in his gaze. Beyond that, there isn’t much to his expression, so it’s hard to know what he might be thinking.
I turn off the mixer and grip the edges of my apron, wishing I could have avoided this interaction entirely. “King, this is my friend, Cecily. Cecily, this is, uh…”
“The hunky husband,” she finishes for me.
The smallest of smiles tugs on King’s lips. “It’s nice to meet you, Cecily.” His voice is deep and rumbly, and I’m cursing the fact that he hasn’t shaved in a couple of days because that dark scruff on his jaw is tantalizing, begging to be stroked. He takes another step toward us and folds his arms, offering plenty of distractions from his face. “Did she really call me hunky?”
Cecily’s grin is far too wicked for me to be comfortable right now. “More or less. And what’s your opinion of your new wife?”
King’s eyes jump to me again, only long enough to leave a searing trail from my head to my toes. I don’t know how he manages to leave a physical sensation like that without touching me, but he does. I’m blaming the fact that I’ve only seen him in passing this week and therefore haven’t had a chance to become immune to his gaze.
“Don’t answer that,” Cecily says. There’s laughter behind the words. “Are you here to bake with Georgie?”
“Nobody wants that,” King says before I can find an excuse to get him out of my kitchen. Technically it’s still his kitchen, but considering he hasn’t been here in days, I’m claiming it as mine now. “Besides, Coop reminded me we should probably get some rings before our meeting today.”
I look down at my bare fingers. I don’t usually wear jewelry while working—getting dough out of the nooks and crannies of a ring is a nightmare—but I get a sudden and potent memory of Lane asking if I would wear a ring on the show if he gave it to me. It was an off-hand comment during one of the episodes, but it led to all sorts of speculation from our viewers. Some people even predicted Lane was going to propose to me, which started a run several episodes long that felt more like scripted reality TV than a baking show.
That was months ago. Right around the time Bill died.
“Georgie?” King says. “How are things looking here? We don’t have a ton of time before our meeting, so we’d need to go now.”
“Yeah,” I breathe and tug my apron loose. “Yeah, we should do that while we can.”
“I’ll come with you!” Cecily says brightly.
I nearly groan. I really don’t want her analyzing my every interaction with King, but if I tell her not to come with us, she’ll read too much into that too. If I thought Cecily wouldn’t come to all the wrong conclusions, I wouldn’t have told her this marriage was fake in the first place.
