Accidental Fiancé (Unintentionally Yours #5)

4. Julian

Chapter 4

Julian

C hloe and Harmony frowned, but Emma was curious. So I lingered in the hug for a few seconds longer than convention dictated. Let them wonder about us. It would serve them right.

Maggie, the former drama student that she was, played into it and leaned against me. I put my arm around her and breathed in her scent. No need to act when it came to sniffing her hair—she still smelled like sweet, rich vanilla, just like she did in high school. It blended well with the whiskey in my other hand.

We had a few classes together, and I was grateful for every teacher who lazily assigned seats in alphabetical order. Black and Bryant always ended up close together. There were certain things that stuck out about those years, and her scent was one of them.

These days, on the rare occasion I have a sweet craving, I always go for sugar cookies. I blame Maggie Bryant for that.

Though I had surpassed even my own aspirations at an early age, I was uncomfortable being surrounded by the high school mean girl squad even now. Strange how emotional scars never really heal. But I wasn’t a kid anymore, and I had enough money to cover up at least one murder, maybe three, so I stood tall, daring them to start shit.

In fact, I kept smiling at Chloe Foster despite what I wanted to say to her. “Evening, ladies.”

Chloe, for once, kept her mouth shut. She looked good, considering she was at least fifty percent evil by volume. It was a pity my company couldn’t figure out how to bottle it as an anti-aging cream. We’d make an even bigger fortune.

Harmony, on the other hand, had never struggled to say what she was thinking. “I’m surprised you came, Julian. You?—"

“Yes, I know. I run a big company, and no one thought I’d make it. But you have to make time for what’s important, right?” I gave Maggie’s waist a squeeze.

“I was going to say I’m surprised you were even invited after what you did to Grant Worthington.”

That name clanged through me, and Maggie must have felt it, too, because she stiffened up in my grip. But tonight was not the night to rehash old fights, and I refused to be bated into it. What was done was done, and there was no need for Maggie to learn about what happened that night.

Chloe took that as her cue to jump in. “High school was a long time ago, Harm. I’m sure Julian has no plans to dig up old memories. Right, Julian?” Evidently, she had as little desire as I did to dredge up the past. Tension simmered behind those cold blue eyes.

I smiled. “I believe in letting bygones be bygones, and I’m sure Grant does, too, wherever he is tonight. How are you three this evening? Reminiscing about old times?” I jerked my chin at the memory wall.

Terrible name for the display. The memories weren’t for the whole class. They were for the popular kids. The ones who were asked to pose back then. Not the rest of us. We were mere background characters in a world that focused on them and them alone.

I wasn’t anyone special in high school. I kept my head down and tried to get grades good enough that my parents wouldn’t give me a hard time, and that was it. Ambition didn’t strike me until the second half of my senior year, and then, I went balls to the wall on everything. Without a lot of luck, I would have been nothing more than a footnote in the yearbook.

But since I’d become successful, whoever put the memory wall together had cropped some pictures to make it look like I was the focus. Amazing what could be done with some editing and effort, but I knew better. The memory of being ignored doesn’t simply disappear because someone altered the pictures.

Emma spoke up, “It’s amazing how much has changed since then.”

“And yet some things remain the same,” Chloe said. She hadn’t turned her attention to the memory wall, instead glancing from me to Maggie. “I don’t suppose there’s a story here…”

“I—"

“We’re engaged,” Maggie blurted.

I nearly dropped my whiskey when Chloe shouted, “What?” Hell, I’d almost shouted the same thing myself.

But Maggie went on, “I would have said something earlier, but you love to hear yourself talk, Chloe, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Oh my God, congratulations!” Emma said, taking Maggie in for a hug. “I had no idea! I’m so happy for you! How did this happen?”

“Yeah,” Chloe said, seething. “I’d love to know how this happened.”

Maggie’s warm brown eyes silently begged me to play along as she played the role of the happy fiancée. “Um, well, it was pretty sudden, right, sweetie?”

“Right,” I said, trying to be smooth. My heart drummed in my chest, and my mouth went dry. Another swig of whiskey whetted my whistle. “But when you know, you know.”

Chloe’s tone went skeptical. “So, the two of you have been dating this whole time? Since high school?”

“No.” Maggie clung to my side, no doubt hoping we could make this lie work. I wasn’t sure how far we would have to take it, but I could roll with the punches. She explained, “Actually, we lost contact right after high school.”

“Then how did you two reconnect?”

Maggie blanched, so I dug into the memories of what I knew of her life now. As much as I didn’t rely on the internet for biographical answers, some details were readily available, and Maggie was one of the few people I cared to look up.

“Recently, I was at a fundraiser for an animal shelter, I think that’s what?—"

“You don’t remember where you met up again with the love of your life?” Chloe interrupted me.

“I go to a lot of fundraisers. After a while, they start to blur together. Anyway, Maggie was one of the caterers. We recognized each other and started talking, and we couldn’t stop. Even as the lights went down, I couldn’t get enough of hearing her beautiful voice.” I hoped Chloe took that for the slight it was. “After that night, I knew I wanted to marry her. I don’t want to wake up without her by my side ever again.”

“Aw,” Emma cooed, smiling dreamily at my co-liar.

“We’ve been together ever since,” Maggie said. The way she beamed up at me, I would have believed us too. She was a hell of an actress, but it was something genuine in her smile that thrilled me. Her full cheeks lifted, those sexy lips curled at the ends, and her eyes lit up in a way that made me feel like everything would be alright in the world. Maggie Bryant smiled with her whole being as if that was the thing she was created to do.

I had missed that smile more than I realized.

In truth, I had no idea who Maggie was these days. She was a baker, and her shop had suffered a fire, but that was all I knew. Maybe she wasn’t the girl I had a little crush on anymore. Maybe she had become someone else entirely, I certainly had. I imagined she was single by the way she practically jumped at the chance to use me to play defense. Whoever she was now felt like a favor to the girl she once was.

The girl who had helped me get through drama class because I needed an elective to graduate, and she had promised to help me. The girl who had reassured me I wasn’t a loser just because my girlfriend had cheated on me. The girl who let me down easy after I stole a kiss.

I was happy to help her now. Outside of it being the right thing to do, I knew playing along would annoy Chloe, and that was more than enough reason. Maggie’s bully sneered as she said, “When were you going to tell us? You’re not even wearing a ring. How were we supposed to know?”

“Relax, Chloe,” I said, smiling. “Didn’t anyone tell you this is a party?”

Maggie laughed. “I forgot it at home. I’m still not used to wearing such a big ring when I bake, so I keep leaving it on the nightstand.”

“So this ‘engagement’ is new?” She said engagement in a mocking manner, as if the word itself was in doubt.

“What’s it been, sweetheart? Two months?” I casually asked. “Three?”

“Nine weeks, I think? Maybe more. I’m not sure.”

“You don’t even remember?” Chloe laughed wickedly. “When I get engaged, it’ll be a story worth telling.”

Maggie just shrugged and wrapped her arms around me, head on my shoulder. “It’s funny. I don’t remember exactly when he popped the question, actually. In a lot of ways, it feels like we’ve been together forever. We were at dinner, and he pulled out that ring, and everything else sort of faded away.”

I nodded knowingly. “You lose track of time when you’re having fun. Isn’t that the cliché?”

“Yes, but?—"

“That’s why you’ll remember the exact moment when you get engaged, Chloe,” I cut her off. “You don’t know how to have fun. It must suck to be you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to dance with my future bride.” I set my drink down, took her hand, and led her into the middle of a different kind of chaos.

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