He gestures inside. “I’ll let you lead, but can we get the big reveal over with sooner rather than later? I’ll be nervous the whole time until it’s done.”
Hess will be nervous?I’m not used to this level of honesty from a man. The men I know hate to look weak and hate being vulnerable even more. But then again, Abby said we need to communicate, so maybe he’s just a teacher’s pet.
“Fine.” I throw my curls back behind my shoulder, meaning business. “We’ll get it over with from the start.”
I open the door and march inside with Hess trailing behind. Landon and Selena sit at the kitchen island, gas station Styrofoam drinks in front of them on the counter. Their eyes widen with confusion when they see me.
“Cami, what are you doing here?” Selena stands, making her way to me with arms out like she means to hug.
“I live here.” She stops in her tracks. And as promised, I get right to it. “Hess and I got married five and a half years ago, so I could get a large inheritance from Glen Lucas.” Selena’s jaw drops to the floor. “We hadn’t spoken again until the day of your engagement party. That’s when Shanna found out about us, contacted my dad, and told him the marriage was a fraud. We were taken to court and in order to convince the judge to rule in our favor, we have to do six months of hard marriage or pay back the money. I’ve been living here for two months.”
“When I said, sooner rather than later, I didn’t mean within two seconds of coming inside,” Hess says under his breath as we both wait for their responses.
“I like to be efficient.”
In true Selena fashion, she squeals and runs and jumps into my arms. No questions asked. No seeking clarity over what I just told her. “You’re married!”
“Whoa!” Her body slam has me stumbling back. “Notmarriedmarried. This is a temporary arrangement for four more months, and then we’ll divorce.”
She stops hugging me, keeping her hands on my shoulders. “We’ll be like sisters—married to best friends.”
I blink back at her. “We alreadyaresisters, and like I said, this isn’t a real marriage, more like a business agreement.” Selena’s refusal to believe this isn’t a real marriage has me questioning her maturity level even more than I already did.
It’s as if my words don’t register in her brain. “I can’t wait to tell Mamá. She’s going to flip out. The girl who said she’d never marry is married.”
For a second, I almost sayDon’t tell herbut decide that if Selena breaks the news to my mom, it will be less work for me.
“Wait.” Her glee fades for a moment. “You said you did this to get an inheritance from Glen Lucas?”
This item of the reveal makes me anxious. Part of keeping Selena in the dark about this marriage was so that I didn’t have to answer financial questions. I’ve purposely sheltered her from having to deal with that kind of stuff. It’s bad enough that I couldn’t be a carefree teenager. I didn’t want to take that away from her too.
I force a smile, trying to make it seem like none of this is a big deal. “Yeah, I needed the inheritance money to pay for law school and diabetes.” I’m careful to leave out details about paying for her and Mamá to live.
Her hand covers her heart. “Cami, I feel awful that you had to do that. I thought your job covered everything.”
Selena was fifteen when I took the first payout from the trust. I don’t blame her for not realizing that kind of money doesn’t grow on trees.
“It’s fine.” I shake my head. “It was the perfect plan until Shanna ratted us out.”
That explanation is enough for my baby sister. Another giant smile covers her face. “Well, this is so exciting, but I can’t believe I didn’t get a chance to be your maid of honor.”
Landon stands and walks to where we are, like he needs more information. “So you two are married? This isn’t a joke?”
“Legally and lawfully,” Hess confirms.
“And what did you get out of it?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars,” he answers flatly and without shame, and I secretly wish I could own my past decisions with that much confidence. “That’s how I started my business.”
“Wow.” His expression is full of shock. “And Shanna?”
Hess’s shoulders lift. “She’s the reason we’re in this mess. She went behind our backs and told Camila’s dad that the marriage was just for the inheritance.”
Landon frowns. “You’re still together, though?”
“What she did felt spiteful and vindictive, plus there were some other red flags that I refused to see until this happened, so I broke up with her.”
“Have you talked to Shanna since?”
