Falling for Mister Wrong by Lizzie Shane Read Free Book Online Page B

before our
honeymoon. Two weeks tops. Then we can get started on our lives.
And trust me, baby, the money from the magazine spread will really
help a young couple starting out in the world.”
    They’d never talked about money. She was only
a piano teacher now, but her parents had been very strict about
putting her concert earnings in a trust for her. She’d never told
Daniel about the trust. About the freedom it would give them so
they wouldn’t have to do publicity crap for money.
    But he didn’t sound like this was just about
the money. He liked it. The attention. The fame.
    All the things she’d walked away from.
    Her stomach rumbled again. How well did she
know him? Two months of carefully crafted dates. Was that really
enough to build a marriage on?
    “Daniel, I don’t know…”
    “Just think about it. Think about our dream
house in Beverly Hills.”
    “I don’t think my dream house is in Beverly
Hills.” Was he even listening to her? How wrong had she been about
him?
    “Sorry, right. I know. I just get so carried
away. I want to give you everything, sweetheart. You’re my Miss
Perfect.”
    In person she might have been taken in by his
tone, by his blue eyes sparkling with sincerity and sweet dimples,
but now all she could do was sit in her darkened apartment and
wonder if she was making the biggest mistake of her life. Was it
too late to back out?
    “I don’t know, Daniel. Everything happened so
fast. Do you think we’re rushing it?”
    “Hey,” his voice lowered from its excited
chirp, and for the first time she felt like she was talking to the
man who had wooed her. “I know all this is madness, but all of it
is about one thing. You and me. Through all the crazy distractions,
it’s always been you and me. Together. Right?”
    “Right,” she echoed weakly.
    “Watch the show on Tuesday. Look at my face
the first time I saw the girl of my dreams.”
    “Elena?”
    He snorted. “Funny. I love you, baby.”
    “Love you too,” she echoed, ignoring the
growing certainty that she was lying with those words.
    Or maybe he was right and it was just the
chaos of the last few weeks. The publicity nonsense. She would
watch the show. She would remind herself who he was and why she
loved him.
    They said their goodbyes and Caitlyn turned
back to the window as Daniel rushed back to watch the ball drop
with his important people. The torchlight parade was over. She’d
missed it. Moments later, the first boom of the fireworks lit the
night. Midnight in New York. A New Year. A new slate. Full of
possibilities.
    The year she would get married.
    Her stomach roiled. She was going to have to
stock up on Tums.
    #
    Will collected the last of the LED torches
used in the New Year’s Eve processional each year, shoving off hard
and skating smoothly over the snow toward the storage locker where
the rest of the ski patrol guys were already stowing the other
torches and bragging about which of the out-of-towner snow bunnies
they were going to be kissing at midnight at the Lodge Gala.
    “That blonde was giving you the eye,
Hamilton,” Ray Schaal said as he took the torches from him so he
wouldn’t have to pop off his skis and trudge down the snow bank to
the locker.
    “She’s just a flirt,” he said, brushing the
comment aside even though he had no idea which blonde they were
talking about. He hadn’t really been paying attention to who he was
talking to as he handed out the torches at the top and collected
them at the bottom.
    Ray shrugged and joined the others, comparing
the various attributes of the snow bunnies. There was never a
shortage of girls to kiss at the Gala, but the idea of flirtation
and forced laughter and barely disguised desperation to escape the
loneliness for a little while just made him feel old.
    Which wasn’t far off the mark since most of
the ski patrol guys were barely old enough to drink.
    He was supposed to be past that stage of his
life. Dating and playing romantic musical chairs. He