that giggle told the true story of who Laurel really was, underneath everything—well, then she was definitely someone he was looking forward to getting to know better.
She’d surprised him, though. When she’d dismissed his idea of a fake relationship in the car she’d seemed very certain. He hadn’t expected her sudden change of heart—and he couldn’t help but wonder what had caused it. Surely it couldn’t just have been seeing Benjamin in the flesh again, since she’d been expecting that. Unless she really was still hung up on him, and this was all an act to make her ex jealous. Dan hoped not. Revenge games weren’t the sort he liked to play at all.
He’d have to remember to ask her, later, he realised. Even if it was too late now to back out, having all the facts would make deciding how to play things a lot easier.
‘Hey. You’re back!’
A tall redhead strode towards them across the lobby, a clipboard in hand, looking every bit as professional and efficient as Laurel did when she wasn’t giggling.
He glanced down at Laurel, keeping his hand at her waist as she gave a forced smile. Dan applied just a little pressure to let her know he was still there while he tried to read the situation. Was this one of the people destined to make his week miserable? Or might she be on their side?
‘I am,’ Laurel said, sounding uncomfortable.
Was she changing her mind again? Dan hadn’t taken her for a fickle woman, but under the circumstances he might have to re-evaluate.
‘And you brought company.’
The redhead’s gaze flicked up to meet his, and Dan gave a non-committal half-smile. No point encouraging her until he knew which way Laurel was going to jump.
‘Eloise, this is Dan. Riley’s brother,’ Laurel explained. The redhead didn’t look particularly reassured by the information. ‘Dan, this is Eloise. She’s the manager of Morwen Hall.’
‘Pleased to meet you,’ Dan said, placing the shopping bag full of wedding favours that he’d lugged in from the car on the ground and holding out his hand.
‘Acting Manager,’ Eloise corrected, as if unable to stop herself, as she took it and shook. She had a good handshake, Dan decided. Firm and friendly. Much better than that idiot outside, who’d tried to crush the bones in his hands before realising, after a moment, that Dan hadn’t even begun to squeeze.
‘Not for long,’ Laurel said, and this time when Dan glanced down her smile seemed real. Friend, then. Good. They needed some of those.
He upgraded his expression from noncommittal to cautiously friendly. ‘So, what’s been happening here?’
‘Cassidy, the maid of honour, has taken a fall while skiing and broken her leg, so her husband is bringing his mistress to the wedding instead.’
Eloise’s words came out in a rush, and Dan had to run them through his brain twice to process them. Maid of honour. Broken leg. Mistress. None of that sounded good.
Laurel’s mouth fell open in an O shape, and her eyes were almost as wide. Apparently she’d reached the same conclusion. ‘So Melissa doesn’t have a maid of honour?’
Eloise winced. ‘Not exactly. She’s making me do it.’
Laurel’s eyes widened even further, into dark pools of amazement. ‘You poor, poor thing,’ she said, sounding genuinely sympathetic.
Under other circumstances Dan might have been surprised that Laurel wasn’t offended that she wasn’t even her sister’s second choice as maid of honour. But, given the phone call he’d heard in the car, he suspected she viewed it as a lucky escape.
‘Yeah. I’m thrilled, as you can imagine. And it means I’ll have to call in my deputy to cover for me at the hotel this week. He will not be thrilled. I can probably keep on top of the wedding events at least, so he only has to deal with the guests.’ Eloise sighed. ‘What about you? How did the favours go?’
She eyed Dan again, her gaze slipping down to where his hand rested at Laurel’s waist. They might have passed the ex test, but now their unexpected fake relationship faced an even tougher challenge—convincing a friend. Still, it would be good practice for facing his family later, he supposed. Oh, no, his family. Maybe he hadn’t thought this through properly either...
He reached down to pick up the bag of wedding favours again, just in case Laurel decided they should make a run for it.
‘Fine, they’re all sorted.’ Laurel waved her hand towards the large glossy shopping bag in his hand. ‘Then I got Dan’s car to pick me up on the way back.’
‘That was...convenient.’ Eloise’s stare intensified.
Dan glanced down at his fake girlfriend in time to watch her cheeks take on a rather rosy hue. Women didn’t usually blush over him. It was kind of cute.
‘Um, yes. Actually, I meant to tell you... Dan and I...’
Laurel stumbled over the lies and sympathy welled up inside him. She was right—she really wasn’t good at this. Maybe he’d have to give her lying lessons. Except that sounded really wrong.
‘So I see,’ Eloise said, when Laurel’s words trailed away.
Time for him to step in, Dan decided.
‘We had sort of been keeping it under wraps,’ he said, pulling Laurel closer against his side.
Laurel stiffened for a moment, then relaxed against him, warm and pliant. He could get used to that. Wait...what had he been saying? Oh, yeah, making up an entire relationship history on the fly.
‘What with the wedding and everything. Didn’t want to steal Melissa’s thunder, you know? But now the secret’s out anyway...’ Secret relationship...fake relationship. It was kind of the same thing. Right?
‘This is brilliant!’ Eloise burst out, and Dan blinked at her.
Either they’d been a lot more convincing than he’d thought, or there was something else going on here. Something that meant Eloise didn’t want to examine their lies any more deeply than she had to.
‘Melissa has insisted on Riley staying in a separate room until their wedding night, so I had to give him Dan’s—sorry, Dan.’ She gave him a quick smile. Dan didn’t return it. ‘But if you two are together, then that’s fine because you’ll be sharing anyway!’
There it was. That other shoe dropping.
He really, really hadn’t thought this through. But, in fairness, he hadn’t thought it would actually be happening. It had just been an idle suggestion—a possibility that Laurel had quashed almost instantly. If she’d said yes in the car, they’d probably have talked it through and realised how impossible it was. Instead here they were, stuck with a fake relationship Dan was rapidly realising was clearly destined for disaster.
‘Sharing...right.’
Laurel’s smile had frozen into that rictus grin again. He didn’t blame her. How had things escalated this quickly?
Eloise frowned. ‘As
