“It was at the insistence of my friend Darrah. She set it up, and I gave it a shot because it meant a lot to her. But I wasn’t ready to start dating again.”
I asked, “How long ago was your break up?”
“It was a year ago, and I moved here three weeks later. Jack and my brother Warren became a couple right after I left, but…”
“But what?”
He hesitated before telling me, “I think they may have started seeing each other when Jack and I were still together. I shouldn’t say that because I have no real proof, but there were all these little signs and…well, it doesn’t really matter now.”
I had to ask. “Are you still in love with your ex?”
“No, but I don’t hate him, either,” he said. “Sometimes I wish I did, because it would be easier than missing him. The thing is, I didn’t just lose my fiancé. I lost the person who’d been my best friend since our freshman year of college.”
“Why wouldn’t you hate him after what he did to you?”
Wesley shrugged. He was trying to play it off like it hadn’t totally destroyed him, but the pain in his eyes told a different story. “I just wasn’t what he wanted. Given that, it’s good he broke it off rather than going through with a sham of a wedding.”
“Well, you’re a better man than I am. If a guy ever did that to me, I’d be makin’ voodoo dolls with his name on ’em and cursin’ him up one side and down the other.”
He grinned and said, “I thought I’d detected a southern accent, and it was pretty unmistakable right then. Where are you from?”
“Louisiana originally. I’ve been out here a long time, but I’ll always be a southern boy at heart. My mama made sure of it when she named me after a character from Gone With the Wind. That has to be the most southern thing ever.”
“Ash is short for Ashley?”
“It is, but I never go by that.”
“I’m sorry if I’m being nosy and asking too many questions,” he said.
“This is exactly what we need to do if we’re going to convince your family we’re a couple,” I told him. “In fact, we should plan on spending as much time as possible together this week, so we can get to know each other.”
“I think you’re right. Will the same daily rate be sufficient, or—”
I quickly interrupted with, “No, you don’t have to pay me extra.”
“Are you sure?”
“Here’s how I look at it,” I said. “Next week we’ll be performing a play with a nine-day run called Wesley and Ash, The Couple. This week is about learning our parts, so we can pull off a convincing performance when we’re with your family. That prep time is already covered in the fee.” Really though, I couldn’t make myself take another dime from him, since he was already paying me such an exorbitant amount.
“Okay. So, what do we need to know about each other?”
“Everything, and we don’t have a lot of time.” I stopped walking and added, “There’s one other thing we’ll have to do if we want to sell this.”
He turned to me and asked, “What’s that?”
I took a step closer. “We have to learn to be intimate with each other.”
Somehow, I just knew that’d throw him for a loop. He stammered, “I, um, I told Jasper this wouldn’t involve sex, and—”
I picked up his hand and held it between both of mine. “No, I know that. But a couple who’d been dating for three months would hold hands, kiss, and hug. They’d reach for each other without a thought, like it was the most natural thing in the world.”
“I was never like that with Jack. We kept our affection private.”
“But you’re not with Jack now, you’re with me. As far as your family’s concerned, anyway. You and I are something very different than you and he were. Everyone’s going to see that.” I pressed his palm to my chest and met his gaze. “They need to feel it too, Wes.”
His voice sounded rough when he whispered, “No one calls me Wes.”
“I call you that. I whisper it when we’re in bed together, and I shout it when I want to get your attention. I’ve been doing it since the day we met, and you didn’t like it at first. But over the last three months it’s grown on you, along with a million other quirks of mine.”
I smiled at him, and he said, still in that raspy whisper, “You’re really good at this.”
“Thank you.”
He slipped his hand from mine and started walking again, and I fell into step with him. It took him a minute or so to regroup, and then he said, “Tell me some things I should know about you.”
“Like what?”
“What’s your favorite food?”