Her license read Nola Mercier.
Mercier.
Nola.
Nola was a Mercier? Did that mean she was a niece? Daughter? What was her connection to Mercier?
"Honey, I'm home!" Nola's voice echoed through the house. Instead of the usual excitement I felt when I heard her voice, I only felt dread.
I didn't answer her. I just stood there, staring at the license in my hand.
She'd lied to me about the house. She’d lied to me about who she was.
"Oh, there you are! Such a shame, because I was going to try to surprise you by having all of my laundry put away if you weren't home yet." Nola breezed into the laundry room, snatching up a basket. She stopped when she noticed the card in my hand.
"What are you doing with that?" she asked quietly, the smile gone from her face.
I motioned to the dryer.
"How could you not tell me?"
Her bottom lip quivered. I’d wanted to be understanding. But this was too much.
"Are you Sebastian Mercier’s daughter?"
One dip of her chin told me the truth.
"Why wouldn’t you tell me this?" I yelled, shaking the license in the air.
She placed a hand on her forehead, ironing away the wrinkles. It was a familiar gesture. I couldn’t place it.
She spoke haltingly. "I am Nola Mercier. Sebastian Mercier’s daughter."
The stricken look on Nola's face told me everything I needed to know. She had known who he was. Had known he was the owner of the home and had still lied to me.
I turned to leave, scared that if I stayed, I would never get a hold of my temper again.
"Bane. I want to tell you one more thing. I know I’m the last person you want to listen to right now, but I want to come completely clean."
I shoved as many clothes as I could into my backpack. I was getting out of this place.
"Sally is Sebastian Mercier.
My heart pitter-pattered all the way to the tips of my toes. I’d been living with Sebastian Mercier and his daughter for a couple months.
I had to get out of there before I hear another secret that shattered my heart.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Homeowners Association Rule #10:
If a resident has a disagreement with another resident, they must bring the disagreement before the HOA board members. A vote will be cast, and a settlement decided.
I finished the email I was writing to Ron and his wife, my former clients, reminding them that it was their one-year anniversary in their home. I wished them happiness in their place and congratulated them on being homeowners—again.
A soft knock sounded on my office door.
"Bane," Darla called. "There's a Mercier in the reception area waiting to speak with you."
So this was it. He'd come to put an end to the charade, to my face. It was time. I'd lived in his house. I'd slept in his master bedroom. I'd trespassed on his property. And now he was here, ready to press charges. I wish there was an out. I wished I had something to blame.
A circumstance. A misunderstanding. A mistake.
It was a mistake all right. A monumental, colossal, jail sentence sized mistake. I’d dated his daughter—sort of. I’d married Nola—sort of.
There were a lot of circumstances that could be turned around. As much as I wanted to play the victim, I knew I was equally responsible for our staying in his house. I could have easily walked away. I could have rented an apartment in Burnside and become a commuter. Now I’d have to face him and hope that he would give me a chance with Nola. Because I still wanted that chance. Life wasn’t the same without her.
I’d had a lot of time to think in the past week, and though I hated to admit it, I could see things from her perspective.
She hadn’t been proud of who she thought her father was. She didn’t want a connection with him any more than I did.
A throat cleared. I looked up to see Darla still standing there looking sympathetic.
"All right, Darla. Send him in."
I heard the muffled sound of Darla's heels clicking on the floor as she disappeared back down the hall.
The air conditioner kicked on, fanning chilly air through the room. The new flyer print-out fluttered lightly against my desk. The fake fern in the corner rustled. My chair squeaked as I shifted. Finally, the office door opened, and Darla stepped in. "Can I bring you anything? Coffee? Tea? Snacks?"
I didn't know what she was up to. Darla knew about the whole Mercier mess now. She shouldn't be cheerfully offering me snacks at a time like this unless it was her warped idea of giving me a last meal.
"No, we'll be fine. Thank you, Darla."
She nodded then disappeared out the door. A moment later, another body stepped through the door.
Except it wasn't who I was expecting.
I leapt up from my desk, barely catching myself from rushing to the door and scooping Nola into my arms. The relief in my chest at seeing her again. At breathing the same air in the room with her. No matter how mad I'd been that she'd kept Mercier's identity a secret from me, I couldn't deny the fact that she was my person. She was my other half. She brought light and color into my otherwise gray world.
"Hello," she whispered as she closed the door behind her.
She looked as though she'd lost weight. There probably wasn't anyone keeping her supplied with ice cream anymore. There were dark circles under her eyes, and I could tell she hadn't bothered with make-up that day. It didn't matter; she was beautiful, regardless.
"Nola." I sighed. "How are you?"
"I—I don't know," she admitted.
I nodded. I wondered if she'd discovered the same thing I had. That our lie had become our truth. Our marriage wasn’t fake anymore. That was why forgiveness was the only option in my mind. I needed her in my life.
"Darla said Mercier was here."
Nola fidgeted her hands at her side as she spoke. "I wanted to explain about all of that."
I cut her off. "I could have said 'no.' You didn't coerce me to live there with you. You have nothing to explain. You look stressed, Nola."
She shook her head. "I need to tell you something, Bane. You're always protecting me. Forgiving me. But I need you to let me explain so that you can understand. Then you won't ever have to speak to me again if you don't want."
My stomach dropped to my toes. Never speak to her again? That sounded like a great way to lose my mind. I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off with a raised hand.
"Let me explain."
"What is it, Nola?"
She shifted from foot to foot before she finally raised her green eyes to meet mine. They were missing their usual spark. "I...I'm sorry I didn't tell you that Sally was Sebastian Mercier. I panicked when I saw him there. I hoped you would never meet him. I hoped I wouldn't have to tell you. I knew how much it would bother you if you knew we were living in his house. I was so angry with him. About everything. I thought he'd stolen from us and that he'd abandoned my friend. I didn't want to claim any connection."
I took a step back and sat down on the edge of my desk.
Nola continued, "But it was me. I was the one pushing him away and hurting him. But that's a story for another time. As you learned, it wasn't my Dad stealing and evicting everyone. And he isn't even building those luxury apartments. He's building a nice apartment complex set up for families with a large park and pool. Chippy lied about the cost just so that all the tenants would disappear and hopefully not be around to point out his thievery."
"I know. I was there with Sally, er, Sebastian when we found out about that."
She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Dad was impressed by you; by your work ethic, by your money savvy, by the way you treated me."
It felt as though she were digging a knife into my chest. "But why didn't you say something? I thought we were friends. We were married after all..."
She smiled softly. "That's why I didn't want him to tell you who he was. I—I was falling for you, Bane. I didn'
t want anything coming between us because I hoped you would eventually feel the same. That's why I asked him to be in on the secret with me. I guess I childishly wanted a chance to make you feel for me the way I felt for you."
I took a step towards her. Hope. A deadly thing. It was what had crushed my heart in the first place.
"I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know why I didn't tell you. It wasn't because I wanted to hurt you. The complete opposite, in fact. I wanted you to have somewhere to stay, and I was afraid if you knew Sebastian Mercier owned the house, that you wouldn’t stay there, and you would still be homeless. I simply didn’t have the guts to tell you. And then when I was falling for you, I was so scared if I told you the truth that it would push you away. I didn’t want anything to come between us."
I watched as she lifted her head and squared her shoulders back, looking more like the Nola I knew and loved.
"I’m not going to lie, it hurt me. It hurt a lot. But I also know you were being protective."
With a sigh, I turned around and grabbed a chair, pulling it closer to the ottoman. "Why don't we sit down while we talk about this?"
She looked up in surprise. "You're not mad?"
"Honestly, it's a relief."
Nola sat down slowly. "How so?"
"Because there were some things that didn't make sense living with you. Why you wouldn’t tell me the name of the homeowners. Your obsession with Sebastian Mercier. I mean, I was beginning to think you might have had a crush on the guy with the amount of time you spent talking about him. I thought I was fighting a losing battle against a man I'd never met. I hadn't realized he was old enough to be your father, or that he was your father. And then there was the way "Sally" treated you. It makes sense now that I know you are his daughter."
Nola smiled. "I guess that would seem a little strange. My weird obsession. Well, imagine my surprise when Dad showed up on our doorstep the day after the block party."
I smiled as I remembered the block party night. The first time I kissed her.
"I know I broke your trust. I know how important it is to you to be with someone that you can rely on—who won't go back on what they've said. I wanted to be that person for you. I think that's why it was so hard to tell you the truth. One lie turned into another, and it kept getting bigger and more out of control to the point where I knew if I told you the truth it would irreparably hurt you. I didn't want to hurt you. I wanted to love you. But because I was selfish, you were hurt by me."
Two fat tears rolled down her cheeks from her puffy eyes. "You deserve someone you can trust. You deserve someone who is braver than me. But I want you to know how much our time meant to me. I want you to know I'll remember it for the rest of my life. I hope you don't forget me too soon." She smiled softly. "And I came to let you know that Dad took care of everything for you. He's explained away your absence in the neighborhood."
"Nola. None of that matters."
Her eyes widened. "Wha—what do you mean?"
"I mean, I forgive you," I said quietly.
She stepped an inch closer. "You do?"
"I do."
"When did you forgive me?"
I cleared my throat. "Right after I left the house."
She blinked rapidly. "Thank you. I don’t know if I could stand it if you hated me. Now, I’ll get out of your way so you can get back to work."
"Nola, you’re not getting away that easy."
"What do you mean?" She asked as she turned towards the door.
"We’re married." I crossed the distance.
The surprise in her eyes was joined by a dash of hope. "We’re not truly married."
"I don’t care. We’ll make it official. Because this—" I waved my arm through the air as if I could encompass our problems. "This is the kind of stuff couples work through together. They don’t quit on each other. And I won’t quit on you."
A tear ran down the edge of her nose and pooled on her top lip. "Bane, I couldn't quit you, even if I were to try."
I caught the tear with my thumb. "Then why are you sad?"
"I’m not sad!"
I wiped away another tear. "Your face says differently."
"My face hasn’t got the memo yet that we’re happy. I don’t know if my heart is up to speed. I came to this office to apologize. To see you one last time. I didn’t think you would want to have anything to do with me anymore."
"Well that just goes to show you how wrong you can be." I pressed a kiss on her forehead. "I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you, Nola Mercier, and there’s no stopping me now."
We stood there embracing in the quiet. The silence only broken by a few ragged breaths from Nola as she tried to stop crying.
"When did you first fall for me?" She asked shakily.
"I think when I first saw you arguing with Chippy about the eviction notice. Or maybe it was in the store when you loaded that basket with grapefruit. But I think the moment that tipped the scale forever was when I introduced you to Carol as my wife. It kept playing over and over in my mind. Then as we played pretend, I wondered if I could make it real. But then everything with Sally, and your big crush on Mercier—"
"Hey now, I've explained that. You can't hold it over me forever."
"I'll consider forgiving you if you kiss me again."
"I'll consider it. Only because you're my favorite yummy, human."
"Yummy?"
She blinked her eyes slowly as she looked at me. "You probably don't want to know."
"I think I do." I nodded. "But Nola, there's something you need to know."
She swallowed. "What's that?"
I took a step closer to her, reaching out to grab her arm and tug her closer at the same time. I leaned towards her right ear. "I need you to know that you sleep in the middle of the bed. And you're a snuggler."
She tipped her head back and laughed.
"And I want to wake up every night to you drooling on my pillow."
"I—well, I'm so overwhelmed by that poetic speech that I can't help but say yes."
I wrapped one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders. I pulled her tight against me as I took in every detail of her face. A face I could happily look at for the rest of my life. I lowered my lips to hers. No hesitation. No fear of rejection. Just kissing her with complete abandonment.
A few minutes later, Nola pulled back. "What exactly did I say yes to? Forever kisses, I hope."
"You said yes to being my real wife."
Nola beamed at me as she ran her fingers through my rather long hair.
Her hands stilled abruptly. "Oh, I forgot! My mother is in the waiting room."
She grasped my hand and tugged me after her.
Her mother. The one who had been gone. For some reason I couldn’t remember her mom’s name. Maybe that was because Nola had always referred to her as "Mom" when she talked about her.
I followed Nola to the small waiting room. She flung the door opened and stepped inside.
She gasped in horror.
Sebastian Mercier was lip-locked with a woman wearing a light blue dress.
"Disgusting!" Nola yelled. She slapped one hand over her eyes, then blindly felt around my face to cover mine. "I did not need to see my parents making out in a waiting room. In fact, it's at the top of the list of things I never wanted to see."
Sebastian stepped back from his wife and grinned. Her mother turned toward me with a sheepish smile. "She's been gone a long time. You can't blame me."
I could see since Nola's hand was ineffectively covering my mouth instead of my eyes.
"How'd it go?" Sebastian asked.
"I'm not opening my eyes yet. Someone, please call Nate and let him know I've gone blind. I might not be able to read another one of his texts."
I chuckled, pushed her hand down, and pried her fingers from her eyes. "I think they're done kissing."
Nola looked at me, her face unnaturally pale as she whispered, "Forever traumatized."
A crinkling
sound caught my attention. Her mother, who looked like Nola in twenty years, stood there holding several familiar paper bags.
"Why is she holding four bags of Hawaiian food?" I whispered to Nola.
"That was my last resort if you didn't forgive me."
"You should have led with the Hawaiian food. It would have been faster." I yelped when she pinched my side.
"Dad, Mom," Nola said. "We're getting married."
This time it was her parents who turned unnaturally white.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Homeowners Association Rule #77:
Backyard weddings are only allowed at the approval of the current HOA president.
I stood on the patio in the shade.
"I'm going to cry."
"Don't you dare," Ian whispered to Tori where they stood next to me.
The entire neighborhood was here for our "vow renewal." Ian and Tori stood in as our attendants. They were the only ones who knew the truth. About everything.
Turns out Nola wasn't that good about keeping secrets, and she'd spilled the story to Tori on one of their book club nights when she’d stayed late and talked with her.
Tori and Ian ended up making great wedding attendants thanks to Nola's over sharing.
Today was the day. It was the time when our fake marriage was going to be real.
Sebastian refused to let me step down from being the HOA president. He told me it would be a dereliction of duties and that I should stay in the neighborhood until we were able to buy our own house. Well, I already had a house lined up, because now that Sebastian would actually be my father-in-law, I especially didn't want to be living in his house. Nola and I would be married for real. This time there would be no secrets. This time there would be no pillow between us on the bed.
"I'm crying," Tori whispered loudly as Nola rounded the corner of the house on her father's arm.
"Stop," Ian's tortured whisper answered her. "You're going to make me cry too."
"But they're getting married in their yard—just like we did."
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I waited for Nola to come closer. To step farther from where the blinding sun. It was making it impossible to see her. I could only make out her silhouette.
Mr. H.O.A. Page 19