“It always is.” Censure stretched her mother’s thin lips as her gaze roamed Jane from head to foot. “Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride,” she grumbled beneath her breath as she eyed the growing crowd filing out of the living room into the foyer. “What’s going on?”
“Your father and I wanted to surprise you. Everyone’s here.”
“Surprise me how? Why?”
Her mother’s smile flashed over-bright. “To celebrate your wedding, of course.”
“My what?” Her gaze flew to Keith’s. He shook his head. The stiff line of his mouth proved his disgust with the situation.
Jane dropped her gaze to the broken rectangles littering the floor and a chill raced down her spine. The small, silver frames held a photo of Todd and her, taken months earlier on an outing with some of his business friends. Disbelief brought her gaze up to find her father joining her mother. His smile was easy. Happy even.
“We’re thrilled for you, Jane. Your aunt Prudence flew all the way from West Palm to be here, and Father Martin is here to bless the union.”
Jane’s jaw went slack until her gaze met Todd’s. She ground her teeth, not fooled for a minute by his innocent smile. He’d done an end run around her, hooking up with her mother, no doubt, to plan their supposed wedding with the hope Jane would be too embarrassed to scream her head off.
Shae was right. Todd was a phony and a dick.
He must have read the error of his thinking on her face, because he stepped forward to take her elbow. “You must be exhausted after your long flight, darling.”
She jerked away, avoiding his hand.
His smile grew brittle. “Why don’t we go upstairs so you can freshen up? I’ve missed you, and you can tell me all about your trip while you change.”
They needed to talk all right, and not about her trip. Jane fought the urge to land a fist to his deceitful nose. “What a great idea. I have a few things to tell you that might be better said in private.” She headed for the staircase, pausing when he hesitated, and jerking her hand in a get-over-here motion. In silence, he climbed the stairs behind her.
She rounded on him the moment the door to her childhood bedroom closed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
His mouth thinned in annoyance. “I wish you wouldn’t use that type of language. It’s beneath a woman of your social standing.”
His hair would curl if she used the kind of language this situation warranted. On second thought, screw it, and screw him. “My social standing is none of your damned concern.”
“When we’re married—”
She jabbed him in the chest with a stiffened finger. “I’m not ever going to be your wife. I told you before, I’m not marrying you.”
Color flooded his cheeks. “You’re upset, and too highstrung for this type of thing. I told Caroline surprising you with a wedding wasn’t a good idea.”
She sputtered with indignation, unsure which of his ridiculous and insulting comments to address first. “I’m not your darling, and I’m not your fiancée. I can’t believe you had the balls to tell my mother I was.” His lips flattened further, and she laughed. “You’re something else. Perpetrating a gargantuan lie with my family doesn’t bother you, but mildly salty language makes you pucker up?”
“I didn’t lie to your family.” He tugged at the stark white cuffs of his perfectly cut dress shirt. “I may have been a bit premature in my announcement, but you would have eventually accepted, if your friend hadn’t insisted on dragging you to Paris.”
“Don’t kid yourself. Whether I went to Paris with Shae or not, I said no and I meant it.” She spun to toss her purse to the bed and groaned. Ignoring the long, white dress hanging on the back of her closet door, she turned back. “You were the one who insisted I needed time to think things over, despite knowing I don’t love you.”
He spoke softly, as if dealing with a simpleton. “Love will come in time. In the meantime, I asked you to marry me because we make a good team.”
“Wrong!” She crossed her arms to keep from scratching his eyes out. “I won’t ever love you, and we don’t make a good team. We don’t make a team at all. You think I’ll make an acceptable wife because I was born into that circle represented downstairs, a circle you’d like to move in.” Her arm flashed out, and she pointed at the door. “But even if I were willing to marry a liar, I don’t fit in that circle and never will.”
He shoved a hand through his perfectly cut blond hair. “Calm down, Jane. Let’s discuss this rationally.”
“I don’t want to calm down. I’m pissed and find nothing rational in lying about a wedding to a woman’s parents. We obviously don’t share the same moral code, and after this stunt I can’t even claim to like you as a friend.” She shook her head. “What I can’t figure out is why you want to marry me in the first place. If we suffered from a case of hot and heavy physical chemistry, maybe I could see the appeal, but we don’t even have that.”