Page 65 of Substitute Bride

She smiled wryly. “Because nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

He understood what she was saying, and he couldn’t help but respond to it. He pulled her into a warm hug. “It’s happened to me before, but this is still entirely new, still entirely terrifying sometimes. It’s not really about experience. It’s always about trust.” He cleared his throat and decided to risk it. “And I love you, Rose Beaufort. You can trust me in that.”

Her features tightened briefly before they burst into a smile. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

She took a raspy breath. “Well, that’s a relief. Because I love you too.”

Then they were kissing again, and it was only after they pulled apart that James started to hope that Rose’s sister and grandmother weren’t peeking out at them through the window.

“I guess that’s not the normal thing to happen on the first date,” Rose said, giggling helplessly, like she was too happy to possibly contain it.

James really hoped she was. “We’ve never been normal, I guess.” Then he remembered something. “Oh, shit, I left your flowers in the car.”

“What flowers?”

“Jill and Julie helped pick them out for me. They wanted to make sure it was a very romantic date, one you’d never forget.”

Rose leaned up to kiss him just beside the mouth. “Well, you can tell them it was a success.”

Three months later, Rose was laughing hysterically as James and Jill tried to best each other at a board game. The rules had been thrown out the window a long time ago, and now the two were racing their playing pieces through the steps and obstacles on the board, trying to get them all done before the other.

Jill was winning by a very small margin.

Julie was cheering her on, and Rose was supposed to be cheering for James, but mostly she was just laughing.

She’d she been dating James for the past three months, and she couldn’t remember ever being happier. At times it felt like they’d known each other forever, and at other times it was like they were just getting acquainted. Because they were in a professional relationship before, some parts of their lives had never been touched.

Until now.

Now she was part of James’s life fully—and of Jill and Julie’s too. It was exactly what she wanted.

She had started college last month, and she was trying to work her schedule so she could graduate as soon as possible. The classes so far weren’t terribly hard, so she was hoping to stack a lot of them in a few semesters.

Kelly would still graduate before her, but not by a whole lot.

“I won,” Jill declared, dropping her piece on the last square.

“Yay!” Julie shouted, doing a little jig of victory. “Hooray for us!” It might have been Jill’s success, but that meant a victory for both of them.

James was making a lot of exaggerated groans, making the girls laugh. Then he told them to put the board game away and get ready for dessert.

Rose watched the girls’ faces and wondered what was on the menu for dessert. Jill and Julie both looked like they were suddenly hiding secrets, and they scurried away, stifling giggles.

James looked bland and unconcerned.

“What’s for dessert?” Rose asked, getting up from the floor and moving to sit on the couch, where it was more comfortable.

“Nothing too exciting.”

She peered at his expression and decided he was hiding something too.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Why do you think something is going on?”

“Because all three of you are acting weird. Do you think I can’t recognize that by now?”