by Hart, Hanna
Leah looked up at Tom with a wicked grin and raised her brows. “I like your dress, babe. Pink is so your color.”
“Yes…” Tom smiled begrudgingly, wrapping his arm around Leah. “Oh and look, there’s you.” He pointed to the screen: the evil, elephant in the movie looking obese as it ate away half of the magical forest.
It was seeing the small banter like this that made a lilt fall from Riley's heart down into her toes. Seeing a couple so connected made her feel both hopeful and lonely in the same breath.
Charlotte burst into over-exaggerated laughter at the joke and ran up to her father, slapping him on the leg several times before running around the room.
Riley giggled, narrowing her eyes at Tom. “Very nice.”
“Why thank you, thank you,” he said with a faux-bow. “I live to please.”
As the night wore on, the children wandered around the room, singing at the top of their lungs, grabbing toys from the plastic bin in the living room, and flailing them around wildly as though they had anything to do with the movie.
The activity eventually drew Tom into a deep, exhausted sleep, with both children draped over his legs on the couch quickly following suit.
Seeing this, Leah grabbed Riley’s arm and snuck her into the kitchen for a glass of wine. This was the part Riley had been both looking forward to and dreading.
The explanation.
Thin fingers curled around the stem of the wide wine glass as Riley took the pink rosé from her friend.
“A lot has happened,” Riley said, sipping at the wine and trying not to make a face as the ridiculously sweet liquid swirled hotly down her throat.
“Good, right?” Leah said dismissively as she took a large gulp of the pink wine.
“I got kissed and then got married,” Riley said, counting on her free hand and jiggling her wine glass as she did so.
“Uh-huh,” Leah said, matching her eyes from the white barstool she swiveled upon.
Riley took a nervous swallow and pulled the ridiculously large three-carat diamond ring from the small zippered pocket inside her purse. She set it on the table and widened her eyes, unsure whether to feel bashful or excited.
Leah looked down at the ring in shock and then quickly back up at Riley. “You’re serious?”
“Yep.”
The disapproval was clear on her friend’s face.
Leah looked down at the ring and took a deep gulp of pink wine. She grazed the ring gingerly with her fingertip and then met Riley’s eyes.
“I thought you were just pretending to be his girlfriend?” Leah snapped with a laugh of irritated disbelief.
“I-uh, I was. But, things got a little more complicated, and there was more money in it for me if I married him.”
“By which you mean fake married, right?” Leah pleaded, raising a brow.
A brief, awkward silence hung between them and Leah insisted, “Right?”
“Well, no,” Riley said tersely; moving her tongue nervously across her bottom lip after the words spilled out. “But we’re going to get in annulled!”
“Wow, this thing really spiraled,” Leah said, widening her eyes.
“Yeah,” Riley exhaled.
“Is this because of Josh? Because he’s getting married and you… were jealous or something?”
“What?” Riley winced and shook her head. “No, of course not! It has nothing to do with him. This was sort of the… the job. But Leah,” she leaned in and whispered, “it’s a lot of money.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s inheriting some money as a wedding gift.”
Leah set her jaw. “And I take it his family doesn’t know about your little arrangement?”
“Of course not,” Riley drew her brows together and swallowed a hard gulp. “But Leah—”
“And I guess a half million bucks is just enough to erase all your morals?”
“What, are you jealous?”
“Jealous?” Leah’s almond-shaped eyes went huge, and she winced, shaking her head. “Riley. You’re lying to his family to get some money?”
“Yeah!” Riley scoffed. “It’s half a million dollars!”
“That’s gross,” Leah said, standing from her stool and setting her wine down on the counter. “Seriously, Riley, what are you thinking?”
“We’re not sleeping together!” she insisted, but her friend didn’t seem to care. “I need the money,” she pleaded, feeling tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
“I know you do, sweetheart, but this is ridiculous. Honestly, this is starting to scare me. When you first floated this ‘fake girlfriend thing, I thought it was sort of an adventure. You know, eccentric rich guy needs a date to a few functions on billionaire island over there. But now? This is way over the top.”
“You don’t think I know that?” Riley said narrowing her gaze. “Of course, I do! But this is what I need to do to take care of my daughter.”
“But you’re not taking care of Zoe! We’re taking care of Zoe. Do you know what this is doing to her?”
“Leah,” she snipped, “I was sleeping in a storeroom at the restaurant. For weeks. You think I don’t know how messed up my life is right now? I am doing this for Zoe! To make things better for her!”
“No, you’re doing it for yourself. We love Zoe; you know that. But we’ve been watching her for months all so that you can go fake a marriage and pretend like you’re free and single again! Do you even have feelings for this guy?”
“You know I do!”
“Then stop lying to him,” Leah snapped. “Take your daughter to go meet him and make this thing legitimate. Prove you’re not just in this for some money.”
Riley blinked in surprise. She knew what her friend was saying was right… but she was being so heartless it nearly stole her breath away.
“Fine,” Riley nipped, setting her glass hard on the counter. “We’ll leave tonight.”
She stood from the small kitchen and marched into the living room, scooping her sleeping daughter up from the couch, waking her. Zoe wrapped her legs instinctively around her mother’s torso and drooped her head on Riley’s shoulder, falling back to sleep.
“Riley,” Leah said in a lecturing sing-song tone. “Riley, she’s sleeping. Don’t do this.”
“No,” Riley said, too stubborn to look the other way. “No, you’ve made it clear you don’t want her here anymore, so forget it. Thank you both so much for watching her, but I’ll find other arrangements.”
“Riley!” Leah said, not caring about her volume any longer.
Tom twitched at the sudden noise and blinked in surprise at the two girls. He sat up on the couch and pulled his sleeping daughter into his arms before noticing something was up between the girls.
“Uh-oh,” he said quietly. Riley thought he might interject further, but he disappeared into Charlotte’s room, probably to put her to bed.
Just as Riley figured, he emerged in the living room without his daughter and set his hands on his hips, staring between the two girls.
“Now… do I step in and play referee or should I let you girls handle this?” Tom said, trying to joke, but neither Riley nor her friend smiled at the comment. “Okay, seriously,” Tom continued, looking serious now. “What’s going on?”
“Riley’s taking Zoe to Crystal Beach Resorts,” Leah said exasperatedly.
“I thought… the deal… with the guy? And no kids?” Tom said sleepily, scratching his head.
“Well, Leah has made it pretty clear that I’ve been putting you guys out, so,” Riley shrugged, holding her daughter tight in her arms.
“That’s not what I said!” Leah argued.
“What?” Tom squinted. “Riley, no. We love Zoe.”
“But she’s been here long enough,” Riley put her hand up. “So, you won’t have to deal with either of us anymore. And um… I don’t have a way to get her stuff out of here right now, but I’ll send someone for it.”
“Don’t do this,” Tom said tiredly, look
ing down at Zoe with pity. “Come on. You guys had a fight. You always do this! Fight. Blow things out of proportion. Get sad. Make up. Then everything’s great again! Can’t we skip the middle steps and I’ll just come take Zoe, put her to bed, you sleep over, and we can call it a night?”
“Not this time,” Riley said tersely.
“She’s just being sensitive,” Leah said as she rubbed her forehead with her thumb and forefinger. “I guess that happens when you become a newlywed.”
Tom took a moment to process the information, still seeming half-asleep. Then suddenly it clicked in, and his thin frame seemed to stand taller: stand at attention.
“You got married?” he repeated.
“To a billionaire. For money,” Leah filled in the blanks.
“Goodnight,” Riley snapped and spun on her heel, heading for the door.
“Riley, wait!” Tom called, but Riley was already unlocking the front door. “There’s no ferry this time of night! You guys are going to freeze! Just stay the night.”
“No thank you,” Riley enunciated.
“She married this guy, lied to his whole family, and he doesn’t even know she has a daughter,” Leah continued to explain with irritation. Her words only made Riley feel worse about herself. All she wanted to do was get out of here.
Tom’s eyes went big at the explanation, and he pinched the bridge of his nose between his knuckles. “Riley,” he said with a slow exhale. “We all know you’re hurting from Joshua.”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Riley yelled, bursting into tears. She buried her face in Zoe’s side as she held her, prompting the little girl to wake and set a cold, pudgy hand on Riley’s cheek.
“Why crying, mama?”
Riley placed her hand over her daughter’s and rocked her from side to side.
“Mommy’s just tired,” she said, exhausted.
“Where are you going to go, Ry?” Leah said, finally softening her tone. “Stay the night, at least.”
“I want to go,” Riley said through quivering lips.
They were right. That was what was killing her. When Josh left, it tore her apart. Nothing had been the same since he left. She felt like she’d just been floating: a shell of who she used to be.
Ever since then, she’d been making the worst decisions of her life. Taking on an apartment that was too expensive, falling behind on her rent, not asking for help soon enough, losing her job… taking a new one and giving her heart to a man who didn’t really know her.
“I fall asleep for five minutes, and it all goes haywire!” Tom said, throwing his hands up into the air. “Riley, you’re staying. Got it? I’ll drive you to the ferry first thing in the morning on my way to work if you’re that desperate to leave, but you are not putting yourself or that little girl in danger just because you’re stubborn. Not on my watch, got it?”
It took a few minutes of silence for her to agree, but eventually, she did.
Tom walked to and from the bedroom, grabbing spare blankets and pillows for her and Zoe to use on the couch. Leah just stood there, unsure what to stay but unwilling to leave the hallway.
Riley proceeded to get the worst night’s sleep she’d had in months.
True to his word, Tom drove her to the ferry first thing in the morning where she’d managed to sneak back to the island. She knew Logan liked to sleep in, so she could easily slip past him with her daughter.
Arriving at her destination, she knocked on the immense dark-walnut door and felt her hands start to sweat. She could feel the heat radiating off of them as she waited for the door to open.
“Hey,” Gabriella said, drawing her brows together in confusion as she opened the door wider. “What’s up?”
“Do you mind if we crash?”
Her dark-haired friend smiled warmly at her and opened the door completely, nodding, “Come on in.”
Chapter Thirteen
Riley
It rained on the island for three days straight, the after-effects of a coastal storm that was headed east. Riley loved the rain. She loved how when you were inside, the sound of it was soothing and melodic, like white noise. But once you were out inside of it, the water was energetic: a snap of cold to wake you up and make you feel alive.
The only trouble was, as the rain continued, so did the new silence she was receiving from Logan. That first night she was back from the mainland they watched television in painful silence; the next night he was equally as quiet, citing 'work problems' as the reason.
She knew there were issues with him having quit his father's company and now he legally had to go back and work there for at least another two years before selling off his shares.
"It's good to be busy!" she had told him, trying to cheer him up, "Keeps you focused and goal-oriented. Too much free time can make your mind wander," she offered.
“Thanks, mom,” he mocked in an undertone.
“It’s true! The first week I was off work, I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself. And then I met you,” she gushed flirtatiously.
Logan breathed hard through his nose and didn't so much as mumble out a response. He hated that job, she knew, but his silence seemed unusually cold.
Still, him being at work all day gave her more of an opportunity to miss him. And she missed him a lot.
Today she had spent her morning with Zoe and had bounded back to the house as fast as she could come five o clock, aching to taste Logan's lips and to see him smile.
Coming back to Logan's apartment was like coming back home now, as strange as it seemed. She'd spent so long here, she couldn't imagine what it would be like going back to living in her car or the back of a coffee house.
She crawled onto the couch so that she was sitting on top of Logan and he didn't move from staring into his book.
"Honey," she said happily. "I'm home!"
"Mm," came a small noise from Logan's mouth.
She blinked in quick succession and glanced toward the kitchen. She set her hands on his stomach, hoping he would put the book down and kiss her, but he didn't make eye contact. "Okay, thanks," she said, getting off of him and walking toward the kitchen.
She opened the fridge and looked down at the array of hors d'oeuvres she’d begged to bring home from the last party they had attended She pulled the plastic lid off of the container, picking and choosing which ones she wanted and popping them in her mouth as though she were eating from a chocolate box.
"What's this?" she asked, mouth full of a crab puff as she looked down at a tin-foil wrapped dish in the far corner of the fridge.
"Ah," Logan mumbled dismissively. "My mother brought by a casserole. Not sure what it is, but it's green."
Riley pulled the casing back and smelled it, wincing back and first and then going in for a second smell. With a shrug, she popped it in the microwave and let it heat up. The hotter it got, the more she recognized the smell.
"Spinach!" she called to the living room where Logan sat by the fire. "Must be some sort of spinach casserole."
"Uh-huh," he said absent-mindedly.
As she waited for the food to heat up, Riley peeked out from the kitchen columns and asked, "Everything okay?"
"Just busy," he said, flipping another page of his book.
She walked back into the kitchen and tried not to make anything of his attitude.
"This is really good," she said of his mother's casserole, forking mouthfuls of it into her mouth too fast to be considered ladylike. "You sure you don't want to try some?"
He raised his hand in polite decline, still not making eye contact with her. "No thanks," he said, "I've had enough of my mother's cooking to last a lifetime."
"It's good!" she giggled and watched him. "You know, I was thinking I should start cooking more around here. Really embrace my wifely role. What do you think?"
"Goodie."
She nodded slowly and began to pace around the room. She walked toward the fireplace and watched the flames flicker before stepping back toward the wall of pa
tio windows, listening to the rain pelt hard against the glass.
"Do you want to go down to the water with me? Have a swim?"
Finally, Logan put his book down. He set it hard against the table and cast his eyes downward. "It's raining," he said tersely, like she was an idiot.
"Yeah," she said, pulling out her most charming tones, "But the water's warm, and there's something so romantic about the rain. Wet clothes... followed by wetter kisses..."
She waited for him to bite at her offer. She wanted to badly for him to wrap his arms around her and kiss her: to make everything seem real again.
"Riley, I said I'm busy!" he shouted, causing her to jump.
She stood, frozen, looking at him in shock and exhaled heavily. "I'm sorry," she said quietly and walked back to the kitchen, putting away the casserole and cleaning up the mess she'd made with the sushi. "I'll quit bugging you then," she said with a put-on smile and excused herself from his company.
She wandered out onto the patio so that he could see her go, but she wasn't expecting him to follow her. Logan just... wasn't that kind of guy. He was too wrapped up in his own ego to consider chasing after a girl.
She stood on the deck, letting the rain wash down her face, and then descended the immense wooden staircase down to the beach.
The sand was wet and clingy under her feet; with every barefoot step she took toward the water, she could feel another clump of sand attach to her arch.
She looked up at the sky as best she could, clouded over from the rain.
She wore jean shorts and a pale blue flouncy shirt with a black bathing suit top underneath. Everything was clinging to her now, and even though the air was warm, the rain was shockingly cold.
Once she reached the water, she stripped down to her bikini and waded in. The water was a warm reprieve from the rain, one that she welcomed. She dove down under the crashing waves and relished the feel of the refreshing salt making its way through her mane of hair.
Riley stayed in the water for what felt like hours, swimming and enjoying the rain.
The longer she stayed out in the cold, lips now shaking, the angrier she became with Logan.