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

did my best to pretend I didn’t see them and hurried over to sit down in the lobby. Mr. Sexy Pants nodded at me as though telling me that he wanted me to sit with him. Not one to defy such a sign, I did so, marveling at the timing.

The hottest guy I had ever seen was hitting on me six months after I’d sworn off guys altogether. At the same time, my back-stabbing sister and fucking bastard of an ex had turned up to try and ruin my life all over again.

I tried to deny it, but they had clearly spotted me. I could smell them as they approached. They both stank of Kenny’s drugstore cologne, which had been her idea, no doubt. She could always be pretty tacky.

“Well, hello, sister dear,” Raquel said, in a way that made me want to slap her.

“Excuse me, Miss. Who are you here to see?” the receptionist asked brusquely, as if she was already sick of Raquel.

“Dr. Anderson,” Kenny said, after coughing slightly.

He looked at me a bit forlornly.

Why the heck were they there to see the couples’ therapist?

Were they having trouble already?

I would be lying if I said that idea didn’t make me smile a bit.

“For pre-marital counseling. There’s nothing wrong, of course,” Raquel quickly followed up. “Everything’s great, and we can’t wait to get married.”

She shot a glance my way. “It’s just standard procedure in our church to have all the couples go through counseling before getting married.”

“What church is that?” I blurted out, “the First Congregation of the Backstabbing Harpies?”

Under the admittedly clever vitriol, I was hurt. Not just from the fronting— Raquel had always been an atheist and had hardly lived life as some kind of religious person, so this must have been Kenny’s parents’ doing since they were pretty devout— but because they were getting married so quickly.

“Everything okay, darlin’?” Mr. Sexy Pants asked, no doubt noticing the shade of red I had turned.

But what I couldn’t help but notice was his soft but deep Irish accent. It drenched my panties right away.

I glanced in his direction.

“That’s my scumbag ex and my scumbag stepsister, Raquel,” I whispered. “He cheated on me with her.”

“Oh.”

He looked concerned, as if he couldn’t possibly fathom someone cheating on me, which was nice of him.

“Can we pretend to be deep in conversation?” I asked, feeling desperate.

“Anything for you,” he said, with a wink that made me want to kiss him right then and there.

“Thank you,” I said, my cheeks getting redder by the second. “My name’s Maggie.”

“Gavin,” he whispered and cleared his throat. “I really think it was a mistake, casting fecking DiCaprio as the lead in Gangs of New York.”

He quickly improvised as if picking up a conversation we had been in the middle of.

“He did okay, but come on. There are lots of bankable actors with real Irish accents. And having Daniel Day-Lewis play the true blue American, well, it felt like opposite day. But somehow, it worked. Saved almost single-handedly by Liam Neeson.” He grinned. “The less said about Cameron Diaz, the better, though.”

“Agreed,” I said, as he pretended to be enraptured. “I mean, I get why they cast American actors for most of the roles, but at least they tried to get actual Irish and British people where they could, and most of them didn’t do too badly. I was put off at first by the historical inaccuracies. But then I read the book it was based on and realized that most of the stories were greatly exaggerated from the beginning.”

“Like how?”

“Well, for starters, Bill Poole, who Bill the Butcher is based on, is not known to have killed anyone.”

“Well, blow me down,” he said, sounding genuinely surprised. “Look at you. I’m impressed. I never knew a film buff could be so beautiful. Today is for sure my lucky day.”

I beamed at the compliment and glanced over at Kenny and Raquel, who both scowled in our direction. I really hoped they would be called in before my appointment. It would be mortifying if they knew I was there for counseling. On the upside, I caught a look from Raquel, and she actually looked like she was jealous because I was with such a hot guy.

I started to get scared then because I wasn’t ready for a confrontation, but Mr. Sexy Pants remained calm, as if he had seen situations much worse than this and just kept going. He continued talking about the movie as I basked in his beautiful lilt, getting lost in his gorgeous eyes that were as relaxing as lying back and watching clouds float past on a warm summer’s day.

A girl could get used to this, I thought, before following up with a second thought.

Well, I shouldn’t.

I could only be so lucky.

And so far, I’d only had a string of bad luck, so I wasn’t expecting that to change any time soon, even though I really wished it could.

Chapter Four – Gavin

Today was turning into an adventure I hadn’t expected.

I had just walked into the building to see my immigration lawyer to talk about extending my visa and applying for a Permanent Resident’s card. I wasn’t expecting to see such a beautiful woman the second I walked through the door.

Curvy in all the right places, with dark hair and dark eyes, she was just the sort of woman who got me hard. She was also friendly and knew about movies, which was always a plus since it saved me from making silly small talk.

I seriously wanted to head-butt this douche bag of a guy who was staring at her with lost puppy dog eyes. But that could have gotten me arrested or, at a minimum, deported, and I really