“It’s a necklace with a lighthouse pendant hanging on it,” she says in a whisper. When she looks at me there are tears in her eyes.
“Don’t cry. I didn’t get it to make you cry, baby,” I say and pull her into my arms again.
“It’s the sweetest thing, Zane! How come you’re so nice to me?”
And there goes the water works again. Is there anything nice I can do for her that won’t make this chick cry?
Chapter 7
ELIZABETH
After renting a car at the small airport in Chesapeake City, we’re driving to my family’s reunion at a local park and Zane’s phone is going off like crazy. “I can’t believe she’s doing this,” he says with a tension to his voice I haven’t ever heard.
“Maybe I should answer it,” I say as it’s Meagan Saunders who is blowing his phone up about what I have no clue.
His eyes cut to me then he says, “Do it. See what the hell she wants.”
With glee, I answer his phone. “What the hell do you want, Meagan?”
“Answering his phone, huh?” she says with a laugh. “Look, I’m on to you two. I’m not one to me lied to. I know you’ve made your way back to your little town and I know you have a family gathering you’re taking him to.”
“How do you know our business?” I ask as I feel the most pissed sensation I’ve ever felt in my life.
“I just do. I have a ton of connections. You need to let Zane know that I am not done with him and he needs to be well aware of that. I fight for what I want. I always have.”
“Don’t call him anymore,” I say and end the call with a swipe of my finger. “I really hate her, Zane.”
“I heard her,” he says. “She’s really a lot crazier than I realized.”
“I wasn’t going to tell my family the lie about us being married but I think I should. If she does find out you told her a lie, I hate to think what she could do to your reputation.”
He glances at me then looks back at the road. “I’m beginning to regret that lie more than I ever thought I would. But I think you’re right. You should tell them the same story we’ve told her.”
I nod and feel a little sick at my stomach. I’ve never lied to my entire family before. It feels wrong on so many levels. And I have a sudden irritation at Zane for putting me in this position.
“I have to get the chips and dip, Zane. Pull into that little store there and I’ll get that stuff real quick.” As he pulls into the parking lot, I see the car of one of my former boyfriends and feel a little twinge of uncomfortableness. “Man, that’s Rodney’s car.”
“Who is Rodney?” Zane asks.
“One of the old boyfriends. He was the last one.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” he says as he turns the car off. “And you let me open that door.”
“No, that’s okay,” I say but he gives me that look that tells me to let him do it.
So I wait for him to come around and feel like a fool as he opens the door for me and takes my hand, helping me out. Then his hand goes to the small of my back as we go inside the little store and everyone looks at us as we walk in.
“Where have you been all week, Lizzie?” the clerk asks me. She and I went to school together.
“New York,” I say and hurry to the chip aisle.
And then I see Rodney who looks at me with a grin. “Hey you.”
Zane’s hand moves from my back to my hip where he leaves it and Rodney’s eyes go right to it. I just smile an uncomfortable smile. “Hi, Rodney. How have you been?”
“Doing good. You gonna introduce us, Liz,” he says as he gestures to Zane.
“This is Zane White.”
Zane reaches out to shake Rodney’s hand. “Her husband.”
Rodney’s eyes go wide and the clerk shouts. “What the hell?”
Well, this will be spread all over town probably before I even get to the park and my family reunion!
An itchy feeling starts creeping all over my body and I think I might be getting a case of hives. I’ve never told such a huge lie before. I might be allergic to lying on this grand scale.
“When did this happen?” Rodney asks. “I mean, I saw you a little over a week ago at the diner and you told me you were still single.”
“She was then,” Zane says, “She’s not anymore. We were married in the middle of last week.”
Looking at Zane, I’m mentally willing him to shut up as Rodney and the clerk looks at me in disbelief. “What’s the date?” Rodney asks.
“The sixteenth,” I say.
At the very same time, Zane says, “The seventeenth.”
“So which is it?” Rodney asks with narrowed eyes.
“Well, we married in the middle of the night in Vegas. He’s right, it’s the seventeenth.” I look at Zane again. “We have a reunion to get to or I’d tell you all the details.”
Grabbing a bag of potato chips, I try to walk away but Rodney steps in front of me. “Not buying it. I saw you one day before that. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” I nearly shout. “I just didn’t want to tell anyone about him until I knew he was for real and I told him that if he wanted me for real then he had to marry my ass and so he did.” I look at Zane. “Go grab a thing of dip so we can get going.”
He goes to do what I’ve said as my tone is snippy mostly because I’m not used to lying and coming up with shit on the fly.
Rodney eyes me like he doesn’t believe me because, let’s face it, who the hell is going to believe this gorgeous man married me because I said he had to?
And now I’m stuck with that damn lie because that’s what the whole town will soon hear. The clerk looks at me and shakes her head. “I don’t know, Lizzie.”
“Carla, I don’t know how to explain this whole thing. He and I have an odd relationship.”
Zane pays for the things then we walk out and get into the car. He looks over at me after he starts the car. “You’re really bad at lying. Why were you so good at it in New York?”
“I suppose because I was anonymous there.” Putting my face in my hands I shake my head. “I can’t believe I came up with that lame shit. No one will ever believe you married me because I said you had to.”
“I suppose I can play kind of weak. You played a role for me. I think I can do that for you too.”
His hand moves over to take mine and I look at him. “I don’t even want you to play a role, Zane.”
“It’s okay. You did it for me.”
And as we drive to see my family, I know this is terrible. It’s back to unreal again and I hate this feeling. I wanted to introduce him as my boyfriend but that damn Meagan Saunders has to ruin everything.
My stomach hurts as we pull into the already packed parking lot. The huge group that is my family is bustling around a set of picnic tables and I want to drive away. I don’t want to go to them and lie my ass off.
Zane looks at me with a smile. “Come on. You need to act bossy with me. I’ll be all submissive. It’ll be a piece of cake. You’ll see.”
“You sure about that?” I ask as I go to open the car door and he shakes his head. “Let me. I have to look like a real kiss-ass if we’re going to pull this off.
I feel like an ass!
Chapter 8
ZANE
“What?” her entire family shouts as Elizabeth introduces me as her husband and takes my left hand in hers to show our wedding rings to them.
She’s managed to take on a bitchy attitude as she says, “Well, I told him I wasn’t into playing games and if he really wanted me, I needed to see a ring on my finger. So he did it. He took me to Vegas and we tied the knot.”
Her father looks at me in disbelief. “You just married her because she said that? What is it you do, there? Did she say your name is Zane?”
“Yes,” I say.
Elizabeth’s head snaps and she says with a commanding tone, “Yes sir, Zane. Don’t let me catch you not minding your manners or you know what you’ll get.”
I almost laugh out loud but hold it in. “Yes, sir. And I’m into real estate mostly. I bought that old property with the lighthouse on it. I was going to put up condos but Elizabeth contacted me asking me not to. That’s when I fell in love with her.” I feel good about that line because it’s pretty close to being true.
“So, we’re going to have some new condos?” one of her aunts ask. “I hadn’t heard about that.”
“That’s because Zane called that plan off. He gave me the property. He’s going to refurbish the lighthouse,” Elizabeth says.
Her mother shakes her head as she looks at me. “Why would you do that?”
Elizabeth answers, “Because I told him to or I would have nothing to do with him.”
Her mother looks at her like she’s looking at a stranger. “Lizzie, who the hell are you? This isn’t how you act.”
I see Elizabeth’s face freeze so I jump in to help out. “It’s something in me that has her acting this way. I need a certain amount of control from a woman. I need it.”
The stares I get make me feel like a loser. And I wonder if this is really the best way to get introduced to her family. A family I might like to be a part of one day.
“Like some kind of a gimp?” One of her uncles asks.
I shake my head and cringe when I find Elizabeth nodding hers as she says, “Exactly, Uncle Roger.”
“Oh, Lord!” her mother says then her father takes her hand and helps her to sit down.
“Here, sweetheart,” he says to his wife. “You sit down. This is all too much.”
One of her cousins who is wearing a tight mini-dress leans in close to Elizabeth and whispers, but not low enough I don’t hear, “You little minx, you!”
Elizabeth gives her a grin then looks back at me. “Some punch might be nice.”
I hurry to get her a glass of it and find the entire family looking at me.
This is so humiliating. I had no idea when I told her we should lie about this to her family that this would be how it went. And we have a week here. Well, you can bet I’m not going to be leaving the house much.
ELIZABETH
The day is moving at a turtle’s pace and I am hating how this is going. Everyone thinks I’m an asshole and Zane’s acting like a whipped boy. This is not the way I wanted my family to think of him or me for that matter!
Zane brings me another chicken leg, as I told him to with a barking command, and takes a seat next to me at the picnic table. He leans in to whisper, “When can we get the hell out of here?”
Feeling the same damn way, I say, “Now. I’m exhausted.” Getting up, I take my chicken leg and eat it as I wave at everyone. “Gotta go. We’ll be here all week. I’ll stop by for a visit, Mom and Dad.”
Mom looks at me with a scowl on her face. “You do that, missy. We have to talk. Nice to meet you, Zane.”
My entire family waves at Zane and echo my mother’s sentiment as we walk away. Just as we get into the car, it starts, the tremor in my lower lip and the lump forms in my throat. “Hurry,” I tell him as he pulls out of the parking lot. “I don’t want them to see me crying.”
“Oh, baby, don’t cry. We’ll figure this all out,” he says as he hurries to turn the car around before I bust out.
As soon as we get out of sight I start wailing. “My God, what have I become?”
The tears are pouring out of me and I can’t stop sobbing. His hand on my knee pats away as I cry and cry. “Baby, I don’t know how to get to your house. Can you try to stop so you can tell me?”
Wiping the tears away, I look around. “The third road to the left. Why does that terrible woman have to exist?”
“I’ll fix this. I can’t stand to see you like this,” he says. “I’ll just tell the truth and then we can tell your family the truth too. That we’re not married but we are living together because we’re a couple. Where do I go next?”
“In one mile, take a left,” I say. “That’s not going to work. It’s too late. I’ve lied to them all. I can’t just tell them that.”
“We can explain the whole thing.”
His phone rings and I wipe my eyes and find it’s that bitch again. He sees it too and tries to pick it up but I grab it first. “Don’t, Zane. We need to think about things. Come up with a plan. We’ve been doing everything we do by the seat of our pants. Let’s stop, slow down, and make a fucking plan. Because neither of us is any good at this lying thing.”
“You’re right about that. You especially. A gimp, Elizabeth? Really? I about shit myself when you agreed to that.”
Then the image of Zane in one of those bondage things makes me laugh and I stop crying as I laugh. But it’s kind of a hysterical sound and I stop it. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I have no idea how we’re going to get the hell out of this mess.”
“I have enough money to run away forever, Elizabeth,” he says as he runs his hand over my thigh.
“I love my family. They think I’m pretty disgusting right now but I still love them and I have to figure out how to right this wrong, without losing you in the process.”
“What the hell does that mean?” he asks as he looks at me with his jaw tight.
“It means, the only logical thing to fix this lie is with another one. That one being that we got the marriage annulled and went our separate ways. That’s the only thing that will clean this very messy slate.”
“Well, we’re not doing that,” he says. “I’m not ready to end this. Are you?”
“Turn here. This is my apartment complex.”
He takes the turn and asks again. “Are you wanting to end this, Elizabeth?”
I point to the right. “Go around this way and all the way to the back. It’s the last building on the right. You can’t miss it, the lady on the first floor has her door painted in rainbow colors.”
He goes where I’ve said then parks in front of that rainbow door where Miss Shirley lives with her seven cats. Then he asks me again. “Elizabeth, answer me. Are you ready to end this?”
“I think we have to.”
To be continued…
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TORN: A Billionaire Romance Series (Contemporary Romance Novel) Page 137