“And I brought the shoes,” Vienna adds, patting her own bag. She looks so much better than she did after her injury a while back, although she’s glowing from pregnancy hormones too, so that’s probably helping.
I turn to my best friend. “You brought in reinforcements?”
Laney plants her hands on her hips. “Uh, yeah. This isn’t just a typical date you’re going on. This is dinner with the Thornes. Your appearance matters.”
“Trust me, I’m aware,” I grumble under my breath. “But this isn’t a date.”
“Then what do you call it?” Elodie asks. “Because you’re pretending to be engaged to the man and getting all dressed up for him. Sounds like a date to me.”
I arch a brow at her. “Did my brother ever bring Carol and Nick on one of your dates?”
“Well, no…”
“Exactly. Parents being in the vicinity nixes that definition. This is just to appease his dad, which reminds me…” I take a deep breath and say, “Elliot overheard a conversation between his dad and Tori the other day that caused some concern.”
Laney clears her throat and juts her thumb over her shoulder. “Not that I don’t want to discuss this, but we’re running short on time. Can we continue chatting while we start getting Dilynne ready, girls?”
Elodie and Vienna nod, and then the four of us head toward the other side of the house, stepping into my room that looks like a tornado swept through it.
Vienna’s eyes go wide when she sees the state of the floor. “Uh…”
“Sorry. Laney was throwing dresses at me to try on and I just threw them back to her.” Rushing to provide a walkway, I bend down and pick up Laney’s clothes, putting them in a pile in a corner to be dealt with later.
Elodie bites her lip in thought. “Let me go get some chairs from the dining table so we have somewhere to sit.”
Once everyone has a chair, Elodie makes me sit down in the bathroom with her facing me to start on my makeup. “Okay, so back to Elliot’s dad and Tori. What were they talking about?”
“Something about a deal they made and how they need Elliot to get married to both get what they want.”
Vienna is standing in the doorway, holding a glass of water while listening, and Laney is ironing the little black dress we settled on in the main part of my room.
“Huh,” Vienna hums. “Any idea what their deal could have been?”
Trying not to move too much while Elodie works on my eyeshadow, I say, “Knowing Tori and how calculated that girl has been since she was in high school, it could be anything.”
“Well, in my experience, people are willing to do some twisted stuff for money.”
My eyes pop open and meet hers. “You think it involves money?”
“I’d almost bet that it does.”
“But Elliot’s family is rich,” Elodie interjects. “Right?”
“I mean, he comes from a generationally wealthy family, yes. But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be something going on behind the scenes that no one’s aware of,” I reply.
Laney steps up behind Vienna in the doorway to the bathroom. “What does Elliot think?”
“He’s just confused right now,” I say, thinking back to our conversation the other night. “But I told him that I would come up with a plan to help him figure out what’s going on.”
Laney smirks. “Aw, what a good fake fiancée you are.”
I blow a raspberry at her. “Come on. You know the last thing I tolerate is my friends being taken advantage of. Remember how I threatened Fletcher when you two started messing around leading up to Elliot’s wedding?”
She rolls her eyes. “Yes, which is why it doesn’t surprise me that you want to help Elliot with this. You’ve already helped him with so much.”
Elodie tilts her head at me. “What have you helped him with?”
Myeyes meet Laney’s and she gives me a curt nod of encouragement. Bouncing my gaze between Elodie and Vienna, I admit something out loud to them that very few people know. “I’ve sort of been checking on Elliot ever since Tori walked out on him.”