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She had a point Katie was good at that sort of thing

Here went nothing

“It’s about e” I looked around to make sure that no one was in the booths around us “And you need to keep this to yourself, obviously”

Katie folded her ar”

Nothing else to do but get into it I started with the fake fiancée plan and went froested and why, and what I was getting out of it Katie listened in total, rapt fascination, her eyes wide The tater tot nachos were soon brought, but neither of us paid thehtest bit of attention

Once the fake fiancée part was handled, I went into the next portion of the fun—where Josh and I had sort of fallen for each other Katie was obviously thrilled to hear it, thinking itafter all

Then there was one more detail It was the one I’d only recently learned But I decided to give Katie athat bomb

“Cass, that’s about theI’ve ever heard in - is a lie? I ?”

“There’s not going to be any wedding We’ll ‘break up’ at some point soon, and that’ll be the end of it And I’ll probably be the one to have to do it so Josh’s dad can see that he illing to go all the way At least, that’ll be how the story goes, I guess”

“But the lies, Cass Do you have any idea how happy Mo sister finally getting married?”

“‘Finally’?” Ito lighten the mood

She popped a cheese-covered tot into her mouth “You knohat I mean”

“I get it, I do When Josh and I planned this thing, I thought—I don’t knohat I thought I guess my mind was on the firm, how successful it’d be in a year And with Mom and Dad, maybe after it was all said and done, they’d be happy that I even ca hitched”

Katie glanced down at the giant rock on ured he’d pull out all the stops for this thing”

“Yep” I twisted the ring around on ot even more on the line than I do”

“Do you wish you’d done differently? I can’t help but think it’s on your mind”

“Of course it is And I figure it’s pointless to think about it Ito have to deal with the consequences, and that’s even assue to pull it all off”