“Yes,” Sylvie snapped. “Give us the location. If there is one, that is.”
“It was at one of the scavenger hunt stops,” I blurted.
My grandmother leaned forward, no doubt analyzing my every intonation, each tiny movement that might expose me for a fraud. “Which one?”
“The wax museum.” Oh, gosh. Why had I said that? There had been nothing romantic atthatlocation.
Hattie looked even more confused. “That stop was the country music clue. So…you poured your heart out in front of the Reba McEntire wax figure?”
Lachlan took over, his smile letting me know he was more than enjoying my misery. “Yep, right there with Reba. I said, ‘Here’s your one shot, Olivia. Don’t let me down.’”
Dear God. Was it too much to ask for the floor to open up and swallow me now?
“And Olivia,” Sylvie prompted, “you said ‘I love you’ in return?”
“She did,” Lachlan answered. “In fact, and I don’t want to embarrass her—”
“Then don’t,” I whispered.
“Olivia here said she’s loved me since college.”
“She hated you then,” Rosie protested.
“There’s such a fine line between love and hate, isn’t there?” Lachlan resumed his hold on my hand, his thumb making lazy passes across my skin. “She realized she’d been so wrong about me, and she’d used anger to guard her heart from the deep and abiding love that threatened to consume her.”
My jaw hurt as I unclenched it. “Like a communicable disease.”
“That is just like inLambda Chi Lovebirds,” Frannie said. “Remember that novel we read for Sexy Book Club?” she asked the other women. “The one where the two college enemies are thrown together ten years later and must battle their love and the forces of evil?” Her attention snapped back to Lachlan. “By chance, are you a prince posing as a commoner who’s on the run from royal obligations waiting for you in your homeland?”
Lachlan blinked eyes the color of forest moss. “No.”
My aunt sighed. “Pity.”
“But back to Olivia declaring her love for me in a very loud and public way.” Lachlan gave a jovial laugh, full of smarm and low on charm. “Did I get to the part where she sang ‘It Had to Be You’?”
“They don’t want to hear that.” If I gritted my teeth any harder they would disintegrate to dust.
“Yes, we do,” Hattie said, now smiling. “Olivia never sings in public.”
“She did for me.” Lachlan brought my fingers to his lips and gave my knuckles a kiss. “Even had accompanying hand motions. A little bit of step-clap. Kind of stiff and the rhythm was off, but I loved it.”
Frannie clutched her chest. “Oh. I can see it. Isn’t itdreamy?”
“Not really the word I had for it,” I muttered, snatching back my hand.
Lachlan ignored me and continued his happy-go-lucky husband routine. “When Olivia and I won the scavenger hunt, she told me the only prize she wanted was to be my wife. Isn’t that true, my little honeybunches of neuroses?”
“No, actually—”
“So I made it happen. Because that’s what you do when you have someone in your life as beautiful, smart, and lovesick as Olivia Sutton.”
“You mean Olivia Hayes.” Sylvie watched me with doubtful consideration.
I’d lost so much this weekend—even my last name. Lachlan and I had pushed a snowball of lies up a hill, and now we were watching it grow as it rolled down. I’d never felt more out of control.
“You should’ve heard the vows Lachlan wrote.” I stared intently at my husband, deciding two could play this game. “He said he loved me more than any of his stupid computers, that he’d spent the last several years wishing he could crawl back to me and beg my forgiveness for getting me kicked out of college, and that he would donate twenty thousand dollars to my favorite charity. That would be your therapy program, Hattie.”
My sister brightened. “Wow. Thanks.”
