“What?” Talia’s jaw dropped. “You married Lyla?”
Lyla. Of course she’d think this was Lyla. Because she had a crush on me. While Eloise pretended I was a goddamn stranger.
“Uh, not exactly,” I muttered.
Another jingle sounded from the door, and then there she was. The source of my misery.
“Oh, uh, hi.” Eloise came to stand by Talia’s side. The color rose in her cheeks. Her eyes darted everywhere but at me.
How could she ignore me? I couldn’t tear my damn eyes away.
And that, well . . . that fucking pissed me off. If she called me sir, I was going to lose my ever-loving mind.
“Hi,” Talia said. “Jasper just told us that—”
“Oh my God, you told them?” Eloise shrieked. “How could you tell them? We agreed to keep this a secret until it was annulled!”
No, we’d agreed she was going to tell them.
“Wait.” Foster leaned forward, pointing between the two of us. “You two got married?”
I was about to explain, but Eloise kept on talking.
“Now everyone is going to find out. Gah! Damn it. I’m never drinking again.” She spun around, jogging for the door.
I shot out of my chair and chased. “Eloise, wait.”
She didn’t.
She just kept on running.
Again.
So I chased her down the sidewalks of Quincy.
Again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ELOISE
“Eloise.” Jasper’s hand wrapped around my elbow, stopping me before I could round the corner and disappear down the block toward my house. “Let me explain.”
“No.” I whirled, shaking loose his grip. “How could you do that? How could you tell them? We agreed to keep it a secret. Maybe you don’t care what people in Quincy think about you. But I do. This is my town. This is my home. This is my family. You told Talia. My sister. You are a thief, Jasper Vale. You are a thief.”
He’d robbed me of the chance to explain.
Gone was my opportunity to fix this. Gone was my hope to keep this quiet until I’d worked up the courage to tell my family the truth. I glanced across the street, toward The Eloise.
Did this mean my hotel was gone too?
My chin began to quiver, fury and frustration bubbling to the surface as tears. “This changes everything.”
“You said you’d tell them.”
“I didn’t, okay?” My hands flew out at my sides. “Not yet. I was going to but . . .”
But I was a coward.
“You should have checked.” I poked a finger into his chest. “You should have waited.”
“Fuck. I know.” He dragged a hand through his dark hair, and that was it. End of explanation.
“‘I know’? Just . . . ‘I know’?” My hands balled into fists. Never, not once in my life, had I wanted to hit someone. Even as a child when I’d fought with Lyla or Talia over a toy. Even my freshman year of high school when Mateo had snuck into my room and read my diary. Today? I wanted to punch my husband in that handsome face.
“I’m sorry.” Jasper sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t plan on telling them. It’s been festering. We were sitting in the coffee shop and it just came out.”
“It just came out. Seriously? It just came out?”
We’d kept this a secret for a month. Jasper and I had avoided each other, relying on texts and emails for the few times we’d needed to exchange details. Otherwise, we let our lawyers do the speaking.
But today, it had just come out?
“I can’t believe this is happening.” My phone vibrated in my coat pocket. I pulled it out and turned it so Jasper could read Talia’s name too. “Would you like to answer this?”
Jasper’s jaw ticked.
“Didn’t think so.” I declined the call and returned it to my pocket. Before I spoke to anyone, I needed to think of what to say. “Oh my God. My parents.”
Mom and Dad were going to kill me.
My hands dove into my hair, pulling hard at the strands.
“Eloise—”
“We were so close to having this behind us.” My voice was practically a shriek. “So freaking close. We just need the annulment and—”
“We’re not going to get it.”
Now he sounded like my attorney. “We might.”
“We won’t. Which means we’re looking at a divorce.”
Divorce. My insides twisted. My lawyer had warned me about this. She’d said it would be easier if we just got divorced, if we didn’t even bother asking for an annulment because they were so tricky to obtain.
But I didn’t want a divorce. I wanted this marriage gone. Erased.
I wanted it to be like it had never happened.
I wanted it to be my secret.
Forever.
That was the real reason I hadn’t told my family. Because I’d let myself hope for the annulment. I’d convinced myself that I could make Jasper agree to keep this secret permanent. Then no one would ever have to know. Not my parents. Not my siblings. No one.
Stupid Eloise.
Another stupid idea.
I should have told them. Now it was too late.
Jasper had done it first.
The lump in my throat began to close, but I managed to croak out a single word. “Why?”
He checked over his shoulder, taking in the sidewalk, making sure no one was close enough to hear. “Lyla has a crush on me.”
I blinked, leaning in closer because I couldn’t have heard him right. “Say that again.”
“Lyla. Your sister.”
“Yes, I’m aware that Lyla is my sister,” I deadpanned.
“Apparently she’s got a thing for me.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Did she?
Lyla hadn’t mentioned it. Though we’d both been busy lately and hadn’t spent a lot of time alone together. In the past month, I’d only seen her at Mom and Dad’s, when we’d all met at the ranch for a family dinner. The house had been noisy and chaotic. Not exactly the best time for sisters to gab about their crushes. But still, she would have hinted, right?
“How do you know? Did she ask you out or something?” My head began to spin. “Do you . . . do you like her too? Wait. Was that why you told Foster and Talia? Because you want to date Lyla? Does she know we got married too?”
I’d run from the coffee shop so fast that I hadn’t even thought about Lyla.
“Oh my God. You want to date my sister. And we’re married.” I swayed on my feet, about to double over and vomit on his boots.
But Jasper’s arms were there, wrapping around me, holding me steady. “Breathe.”
My lungs wouldn’t work. My stomach was doing cartwheels.
This was happening too fast. Nothing was going according to plan. Jasper was . . . mine.
He wasn’t mine but he was mine. Sort of.
How was I ever going to face him if he fell in love with Lyla? How was I going to forget that he’d given me the best orgasms of my life? How was I going to see them together, knowing what it felt like to have him inside my body?
“Breathe, angel.” Jasper’s voice, low and smooth, sounded in my ear.
“I can’t.” My chest heaved. The world tilted sideways. Was this an anxiety attack?
Yep, I was going to puke.
One moment I was swaying on my feet, the next, they were swept out from beneath me.