Lucky This Isn't Real: MacBride Brothers Series St. Patrick's Day Fake Fiance Romance by Jamie Knight (digital e reader .TXT) 📕

We were really little more than strangers when you thought about it— even calling us friends would be pushing it— and our relationship was supposed to be fake, a ruse to fool Kenny and Raquel and make them jealous and let them know that they couldn’t kick me around anymore. That I was better than that.

If I couldn’t be sure of anything else, it was that. They had tried to destroy me with their affair, and dammit, they had gotten close, but I wasn’t going to let them do that to me.

My dad used to say I was like a willow.

I might bend, but I would never break.

Which didn’t help much with Gavin.

I really did feel like I was starting to fall in love with him, but I had no idea if he felt the same. He had said that thing in the shower, but that could have been just a joke or maybe pillow talk, so to speak. He had laughed, but only after I had.

It was possible that he had been serious and didn’t want to admit it. I wasn’t sure that I did either. Not even to myself. It seemed really big and scary. Kenny was the only boyfriend I’d ever had, and look how that had ended.

Was it really possible to find another love so quickly?

To fall in love in the blink of an eye?

What did that mean about my previous relationship?

That I didn’t really love Kenny, I supposed.

It was surprising to consider, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. It was really romantic, at least early on, but it wasn’t really love.

I was just too young and innocent to see it. I had no indication that Kenny ever really loved me, either.

He tried to woo me, alright, but that could just have been so that he could have my body. Dad would have kicked his ass if he’d been around. He wasn’t a violent man, but he was really big and wouldn’t have taken too kindly to someone in his thirties exploiting his teenage daughter.

My mind spun, and I was beginning to feel sick. I needed to leave and get some air. I turned off the stove, threw away the food, and cleaned up before I went into the bedroom to get my clothes.

While I was in there, I noticed that the bed was unmade. Unable to leave a chore undone, I threw on my clothes and started making it. I had just tucked the last corner when I heard a knock on the front door.

I figured it was Gavin’s housekeeper. He was certainly rich enough to have one, and, being a bachelor, it made sense that he would. I wondered why she didn’t have her own code, but then figured that maybe she had forgotten it.

I grabbed my purse, planning to leave once I let her in, and opened the door. It wasn’t the housekeeper. Instead, a guy who looked an awful lot like Gavin stood in the threshold.

He was a couple years younger than me and had the same MacBride height and coloring. For a second, I thought the kid might be Gavin’s son, but then I did the math, and it seemed very unlikely.

“Hello there,” he said, his Irish accent unmissable.

His eyes didn’t meet mine. They were too busy ogling my tits.

I couldn’t really blame the kid. To a teenage guy like him, I was sure they would be pretty mesmerizing.

I sort of doubted he had seen many like them, at least not in real life, and I wasn’t even wearing a bra. He could no doubt see my nipples pressed up against the thin material of my shirt.

I ignored his innocent staring and tried to get to the matter at hand.

“Where’s Gavin?” he inquired of my boobs.

“He’s not here. May I ask who you are?”

“Eoin,” he said, as if suddenly remembering his manners, and then he looked up at my eyes. “Eoin MacBride. I’m Gavin’s youngest brother.”

“Number six?” I asked.

“Aye. Did he tell ye about me?”

“Kind of. I mean, he said he had five brothers.”

“You’re one up on me then, ‘cause he never told me he had a smokin’ hot girlfriend.”

I blushed a bit at the compliment. No one but Kenny had used those exact words to describe me, and I now suspected he had had an agenda. Eoin had no reason to lie and was clearly speaking the impulsive truth.

Except maybe for the girlfriend bit. I still wasn’t too sure of that one but saw no reason to overcomplicate things.

“I guess not, and thank you, Eoin. My name’s Maggie.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Maggie.”

“What brings you by?” I asked. “Gavin didn’t mention any of his brothers were in L.A. like him.”

“I wasn’t. I-I came all the way from Ireland. I had to. I really need to talk to Gavin, but I think he’s screening my calls. I used the money he sent me to pay for the flight. Our dad is in a bad way.”

“Oh no. What happened?” I asked, my fingertips flying to my lips.

He took a small step back, as if clearly shocked that I didn’t know anything about his father.

“He didn’t tell you?”

“No,” I said, my heart sinking into my stomach.

“Our dad. He’s not well. Kind of brought it on himself with the booze and the smack.”

My jaw dropped.

“The smack? Like heroin?”

Eoin nodded.

“Aye, he’s a lifelong addict. Keeps disappearing and turning up odd places. A gutter, a rooftop, in the forest passed out. It’s gotten to be like a macabre game of Where’s Waldo? Anyway, last time he went on a bender, he OD’d and was dead for ten minutes.”

He paused then, and I could tell what was coming. He put on a brave