Chapter 5 - The Boyfriend at the Door
Clara reached Marin first.
“You have been seeing someone for months and you didn’t tell me?”
Marin barely had time to release Adrian’s hand before her sister wrapped both arms around her.
“I was going to.”
“When? At my first anniversary?”
“Congratulations,” Marin said. “You’re engaged.”
“Do not change the subject.”
Clara pulled back and openly stared at Adrian.
He extended his hand.
“Adrian Vale.”
“I know who you are.”
Marin winced.
Adrian looked amused.
Clara looked between them.
“How?”
Marin answered quickly.
“Work event.”
“Four months ago,” Adrian added.
“You remember the exact date?” Clara asked.
“September third.”
Marin turned sharply.
They had never discussed an exact date.
Adrian calmly met her gaze.
Then Clara’s expression softened.
“Oh.”
Marin understood what her sister had seen.
A man remembering an anniversary-like detail.
Dangerous.
Very dangerous.
Clara hugged Adrian before he could react.
“Anyone who gets Marin away from work is already my favorite person.”
Adrian stood frozen for half a second.
Then carefully returned the hug.
Marin had the strange sense he had not been hugged unexpectedly in years.
Clara released him.
“Come on. Mom is pretending not to panic.”
Evelyn stood beside Thomas.
Marin’s father was sixty-three, silver-haired, kind-eyed, and normally impossible to intimidate.
Tonight his jaw was locked.
“Dad.”
“Marin.”
“This is Adrian.”
Thomas shook Adrian’s hand.
“Vale.”
“Mr. Whitlock.”
“I knew your father.”
“I know.”
That surprised Marin.
Thomas’s gaze sharpened.
“How?”
“My father mentioned you once.”
“Why?”
“He said you were one of the few contractors who refused him without becoming insulting.”
Thomas stared.
Then, unexpectedly, laughed.
“That sounds like Salvatore.”
“It does.”
The tension loosened.
Evelyn kissed Marin’s cheek.
Then she turned toward Adrian.
“So you’re the secret.”
“So I’m told.”
“You’ve been dating my daughter for months.”
“That’s correct.”
Marin felt guilty.
Adrian’s lie sounded too smooth.
Evelyn studied him.
“What do you like most about her?”
Marin nearly choked.
“Mom.”
“What? I’m making conversation.”
Adrian looked at Marin.
Not at her dress.
Not at her hair.
At her.
“She doesn’t behave differently after learning someone’s name matters.”
The answer hit harder than it should have.
Evelyn noticed.
So did Thomas.
Marin looked away.
Before anyone could respond, Clara’s fiancé arrived, rescuing them.
For the next thirty minutes, Adrian performed the impossible.
He fit.
Not perfectly.
He was too reserved for the Whitlocks’ noisy warmth. Too formal around Marin’s cousins. Too observant.
But he tried.
He remembered names after hearing them once.
He listened to Thomas complain about municipal permit delays.
He asked Evelyn about the lake house in Vermont.
He somehow survived Aunt Nancy asking if he wanted children.
“I haven’t made unilateral decisions on that subject,” he answered.
Nancy leaned closer.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning Marin would be involved.”
Aunt Nancy looked delighted.
Marin wanted the floor to open.
“You’re enjoying this,” she whispered when Nancy left.
“Immensely.”
“You’re evil.”
“Allegedly.”
She nearly laughed into her champagne.
Then Bennett approached.
Marin sensed him before she saw him.
She turned.
He looked almost exactly the same.
Tall.
Blond.
Blue-eyed.
The navy suit she had helped him choose two years earlier.
For one painful second, memory arrived without permission.
Sunday mornings.
Shared groceries.
His toothbrush beside hers.
The ring she had once expected.
Then Celeste appeared at his side.
She was strikingly beautiful.
Dark hair.
Cream silk dress.
Perfect posture.
Marin had met her only once.
After everything.
At a fundraiser where both women had pretended nothing was strange.
“Marin,” Bennett said.
“Bennett.”
His gaze moved to Adrian.
Recognition flickered.
“Vale.”
Adrian shook his hand.
“Hale.”
Bennett looked at Marin.
“I didn’t know you two were together.”
“That was intentional,” Marin said.
Celeste smiled politely.
“It’s nice to see you.”
“You too.”
And to Marin’s surprise, she meant it.
Celeste had not made Bennett leave.
Bennett had made Bennett leave.
Marin had spent months reminding herself.
Bennett slipped a hand around Celeste’s waist.
The gesture was casual.
Yet Marin knew him well enough to recognize performance.
He wanted her to notice.
Adrian noticed too.
His hand settled lightly at Marin’s lower back.
Exactly within their rules.
The contact grounded her.
Bennett’s eyes dropped to it.
“So,” he said, “how did this happen?”
“Flowers,” Adrian replied.
Bennett frowned.
“Flowers?”
“We met at an event Marin designed.”
“That makes sense.”
There was something patronizing in his tone.
Marin recognized it immediately.
Bennett turned toward Adrian.
“She’s always been obsessed with work.”
Adrian’s expression did not change.
“I’ve noticed she’s committed to things she cares about.”
The correction was subtle.
Marin felt it anyway.
Bennett smiled.
“I used to tell her she worked too much.”
“I know.”
Bennett blinked.
Marin looked at Adrian.
“You know?”
“She told me.”
She had not.
Not exactly.
But Adrian had understood.
Bennett took a drink.
“Must be an adjustment, Marin. Adrian’s schedule is probably worse than yours.”
“Actually,” Adrian said, “I manage mine.”
The sentence landed softly.
Bennett’s jaw tightened.
Celeste looked down, possibly hiding a smile.
Marin almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Dinner was announced.
Everyone moved toward the long table.
Marin glanced toward the far wall.
The man in gray was gone.
She leaned toward Adrian.
“The man you saw?”
“Security is checking.”
“So he was someone?”
“Maybe.”
“You promised honesty.”
“I don’t know who he is.”
“That’s honest?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
Before they sat, a server handed Adrian an envelope.
“Sir, someone left this for you.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“Who?”
“He said you’d understand.”
Adrian opened it beneath the table.
Inside was a photograph.
Marin caught only part of it.
Her flower shop.
Taken that afternoon.
She reached for it.
Adrian folded it immediately.
“What is that?”
“Nothing.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“No omissions.”
He looked around the room.
Families laughing.
Clara glowing beside her fiancé.
Thomas pouring wine.
Bennett pretending not to watch them.
Adrian exhaled.
Then he handed Marin the photo.
She stared.
The image showed her through the front window of Whitlock Floral.
Below it, handwritten:
Pretty things break easily.
Marin’s blood turned cold.
Adrian took the photograph back.
“Who sent this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Corwin?”
“Likely.”
“Why?”
“To provoke me.”
“By threatening me?”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Marin’s fear transformed into anger.
“I don’t even know this man.”
“That’s why he chose you.”
“Because of one conversation in a hotel?”
“Because I reacted.”
“To him at the shop?”
“Yes.”
She looked around.
“Should we leave?”
Adrian’s immediate instinct was yes.
She saw it.
Then his gaze moved toward Clara.
“This is your sister’s night.”
“That doesn’t matter if someone’s in danger.”
“No one inside this room is in danger.”
“How can you know?”
“Because everyone entering has been screened since we arrived.”
Marin stared.
“You arranged that?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me.”
“You asked for honesty, not operational updates.”
“Adrian.”
“I’m learning.”
She should have been furious.
Instead, strangely, she felt safer.
“Do you want to leave?” he asked.
The choice was entirely hers.
She looked at Clara.
At her parents.
Then Bennett.
For years, Marin had allowed fear of other people’s opinions to shape quiet corners of her life.
Tonight she refused to let Richard Corwin do the same.
“No.”
Adrian studied her.
“No?”
“We came for six hours.”
“Marin—”
“I’m not letting some man with a printer ruin Clara’s engagement dinner.”
Something like admiration appeared in Adrian’s eyes.
“Fine.”
“But you stay beside me.”
His voice lowered.
“That was already the plan.”
They sat.
Dinner began.
For the first time all evening, Marin forgot Bennett completely.
Adrian leaned closer.
“What?”
“You’re smiling.”
“I was thinking.”
“About?”
“How ridiculous yesterday was.”
He looked at her.
“Yesterday?”
“When my biggest problem was finding a fake boyfriend.”
His mouth curved.
“And today?”
“Today my fake boyfriend apparently has enemies.”
“Competitors.”
“Please stop branding them.”
He laughed quietly.
Across the table, Evelyn saw them.
She touched Thomas’s hand.
“You see that?”
Thomas nodded.
“Unfortunately.”
“You don’t like him?”
“I don’t like anyone looking at my daughter like that.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Like what?”
Thomas watched Adrian.
“Like he forgot there were other people in the room.”
At that exact moment, Adrian was looking at Marin.
And Thomas was right.
The performance was becoming a problem.
Because Adrian had attended the dinner to experience six hours of pretending.
May you like
But halfway through the first hour, he no longer remembered he was supposed to pretend.
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