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

Dressed up as best we could, I drove us down to the garden party at my parent’s Palm Springs mansion.

“Ready?” Sean asked.

“Does it matter?” I replied.

He squeezed my hand, and we ventured toward the armed guards, positioned to check invites, and then into the viper den.

It was even worse than I remembered. The smell of bullshit mixing revoltingly with the reek of overpriced perfumes and cologne all applied a little too liberally.

“Darcy, darling,” mom said, appearing from the throng of L.A. power elite.

“Hi, mom.”

Mom was my kryptonite. Whatever issues I might have had with my dad, I couldn’t cut all ties with him because it would mean cutting my mom out of my life as well, and she didn’t deserve that. Yeah, she’d married him, but that was before he’d made his money and made a name for himself.

According to her, he changed a lot after that happened. I couldn’t fault her for not seeing the future or seeing the man he would become. She was intuitive, not clairvoyant. She wanted to honor their marriage vows. In some ways, she was as trapped as I was. My dad marched toward me. A class of bourbon clasped in his hand.

“What’s this I hear about you rejecting Harry again?” dad thundered.

I steeled my spine. “When exactly was it I was consulted about this marriage of convenience? You live in Victorian times, dad. Time to come into the present.”

Sean squeezed my hand, which helped me simmer down before I said something so mean and nasty, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady.”

“Young woman actually, not young lady. Young lady is what you say when scolding a child. I’m an adult, albeit a young one, which is more than I can say for some. Before you ask, no, I am not going to quit my job or move back home.” I glanced at my mother. “Sorry, mom.”

My dad rocked back and forth on his heels. “Have it your way. I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but you’re an adult now, like you said. That still doesn’t explain why you were rude to the Ashtons? I got quite a distressing call saying there was a scene at a restaurant.”

It was all I could do not to let my jaw drop open. “And they said I was rude to them? That’s odd. I remember them being rude to me and Harry very nearly insulting Sean.”

“Sean? Who’s Sean—”

“MacBride, straight from Belfast City. It’s an honor to finally meet you, sir,” Sean said, offering his hand to shake.

Acting on what looked like autopilot, fake civility part of his stock and trade, dad shook hands with Sean.

“Have we met before, Mr. MacBride?”

“I don’t think so, sir. I’d remember such an auspicious occasion.”

“Funny, I usually meet the men who take my daughter out.”

“Not for a while now, I’d imagine, what with her being outside your legal control and all,” Sean said with a flattering wink.

“Quite,” dad said, doing a poor job of hiding his irritation, “still you should be aware that Darcy has a very serious boyfriend and—”

“We’re hungry,” I said, pulling Sean toward a massive table of food.

I would never say I was perfect, no matter what aspirations my dad might have had. I did my best to be as good as possible but still had flaws like any flesh and blood mortal. Among those was my habit of eating when I was stressed.

“Feel better?” Sean asked after my third plateful.

“Much,” I said, leaning back and stifling a belch.

“That’s my girl,” he said and grinned.

Most people I knew would have criticized me for shoving down the food, seeing it as a flaw or something to be fixed. Many of them had in the past. It was often out of genuine care for me, but it didn’t hurt any less. It was like they thought I needed to be fixed. I was far from a mind reader, even with my inherited intuition, but Sean seemed to accept it as part of who I was. I didn’t think my feelings for him could get any stronger, but they did.

I felt gloriously relaxed, despite the surroundings, all the pomp and bullshit seeming to fall away whenever I looked into Sean’s eyes as we ate and drank freely.

“Jesus, Darcy, stop making such a spectacle of yourself,” Harry hissed, appearing next to me, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Bit too close, mate,” Sean said, standing.

“Get lost, asshole. This doesn’t concern you.”

“It does actually, yank.”

“Don’t call me yank, you paddy piece of shit.”

“Fair enough. Call me ‘paddy’ again, and I’ll break your nose. That’d be a real spectacle.”

Harry took a small step back, his eyes going wide, despite him also trying to glare, the result looking pretty funny.

“Mind your own business, Harry,” I said, stepping between them before things could get ugly. I turned to Sean. “Ready to go?”

“Aye.”

We were heading out when the familiar and annoying sound of a fork striking a wine glass filled the garden. I froze, having a pretty good idea about what would be coming next.

“Hello everyone,” dad started, turning on the fake friendliness, “and thank you for coming. As you’ve probably heard through the grapevine, I have a bit of an announcement to make. A big one, actually.”

“Fuck, he’s doing it,” I whispered. “I can’t believe it. I thought after our little talk earlier, he’d let it go. More fool me.”

“I’ve got this, sweetheart.” Giving my hand a squeeze, Sean made for the head table, grabbing a champagne glass from a passing waiter on the way.

My dad continued. “This is an announcement I’ve wanted to make for a long time.”

I could see Harry from the corner of my eye. Sitting