Chapt er 8 Rex I PICKED EVIE up late Sunday afternoon. Rather than drive my car, I called the family driver, a young woman putting herself through law school named Adaline. No one would ever guess Adaline hadn’t been a pro driver since birth. She was one of the best I’d ever met, always charming, always professional, and skilled behind the wheel. With Adaline driving, I could better answer any last - minute questions from Evie before we jumped into the fire together. Evie had hesitated when I said I’d pick her up at her home. Maybe she didn’t trust me all the way yet, but as we arrived, I thought perhaps she didn’t want me to see where she lived. Her house was small. The front door opened up to a rickety porch that was begging for a fresh coat of paint. In fact, the entire house could probably use some new paint. Its dusty blue color was faded and worn, chipping off in a few spots. But there were t wo flower beds out front that popped with carefully chosen color, the lawn was wellmanicured, and there was a cherry tree in the front yard. Quaint. Cute. A little quirky. Oddly like Evie herself. Adaline pulled up to the curb, which was cluttered with cars. None of the homes seemed to have driveways. I wondered which of the cars was Evie’s. I texted to let her know I was outside. Seconds later, the door opened. While she locked it behind her, I noticed the dress she wore — knee length, black with white polka dots. She had worn skirts to work, but not like this. This one fit to her body and flowed around her shapely legs. Her hair was loose over her shoulders. She wore bright red low heels. As she turned to wal k toward the car, I noticed a de
Ep V - neck and cleavage that I would rather not have noticed, but it was too late. At least I was behind darkened windows while my eyes lingered on her chest.
She climbed into the backseat with perfect grace, crossing her legs and tossing her hair back over her shoulders to get it out of the way for the seatbelt. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. “You look nice,” she said quietly. “Is that okay to say?” “It’s fine to say,” I said, trying to look away from her legs. I saw Adaline smile in the rearview as she pulled away from the curb. The car was one of my father’s, and Adaline’s favorite to drive. There was no finer way to impress a date than showing up with this car. I watched Evie, ready to field questions about the car or watch her take in the luxurious leather interior or the cool blue ambient lighting. She only briefly took the car interior in, tapped her fingers lightly on the console between us, and didn’t even seem to notice the fact that she was sitting in one of the finest cars known to man. Instead, her eyes fixed onto me and sparked with curiosity . “So, where are we going?” I took a moment to process that. I’d picked up many dates in this car. Never had any of them looked at me first before admiring the car. The car was there to impress. But she had looked at me, and that realization left an unfamiliar flutter in the pit of m y stomach. “Mercer Island,” I r eplied. “My parents and my siblings all still live in the home I grew up in.” “Really?” she asked, surprised. It dawned on me that, to her, a home meant where she lived, a place so tiny it might fit into someone’s pocket. I doubted she had any conc ept of the home she was about to see — a sprawling estate on five acres of land and shoreline on Lake Washington. While I had grown up there, I recognized that to someone like Evie, it might not seem like a home at all — the main house was massive, there were outbuildings, the grounds were sprawling. There were multiple fountains outside and a pier out back for boats. She might think it was all a bit much, but it was normal to me. I thought of how I might pr epare her, but then, I didn’t want to be condescending. Maybe her parents or grandparents were rich. Maybe this was normal to her, too. Plus, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see the look on her face when we pulled up. The car hadn’t gotten her attention, but surely the mansion would. I wanted to see how she reacted. So when we pulled up and the split staircase with a fountain at its center greeted us, the first thing I did was glance at her.
Her mouth hung slightly open, her lips delicately parted. Her eyes were fixed on the grand staircase, but then followed it all the way up to the house with its massive glass windows and a drop - off area designed to impress with its high arches and decadent light fixtures. I found myself wanting her to look straight at me again, like she had when she’d gotten into the car. But she did not. Perhaps I’d misread that moment. Maybe she knew little about cars, but a mansion could dazzle anyone. I didn’t expect to be disappointed. I didn’t want to be. This was a fake date. “This is your home?” she almost whispered. “It was my home. I live in a condo downtown now, but my family is still here.” “Your family!” she said, her eyes suddenly wide. “I’m going to meet your family tonight. Is it just your parents?” Adaline pulled into the covered drop - off area, but I didn’t get out of the car immediately. It occurred to me that Evie deserved a rundown of what she was about to experience. I’d never had a fake girlfriend before. I didn’t exactly have a plan for what to tell her and when. “No, not just my parents,” I said. “I actually have a large family. Maybe you know that, but if you don’t — my parents are Reginald and Elizabeth. My mother’s maiden name was Quinn — that’s where Quinn Financial gets its name.” “Elizabeth Quinn?” she squeaked. “As in the actress?” I frowned. I should have pr epared her better. I assumed she would know about my family. Most people do, after all. “Yes, the actress. Or former actress. She hasn’t acted in many years, and she hasn’t gone by Elizabeth Quinn in just about as long. She’s Eli zabeth Claremont now.” Her mouth continued to hang open, and I wondered if she was going to do this all night. “I have two brothers and two sisters who still live here as well. I am the oldest. You know Rebekah; she’s the next after me. Then my brother Ronan, brother Remington, and last is my sister Raven. You’ll meet them all tonight.” “Have you mentioned me to any of them yet or will we be dropping a big surprise on them?” she asked. “They know I have a date. They don’t know it’s my new assistant.” I glanced at Adaline. Evie might not realize I didn’t want our faithful driver to know all of the subterfuge we were about to
undertake. I could have requested the privacy partition go up, but instead I thanked Adaline and ushered Evie out of the car. When Adaline drove away, we lingered in the drop off area. Soon enough, Dennison, the butler, would get a notification from the cameras that we were there, if he hadn’t already. We had little time. “Are you sure it was a good idea not to let Rebekah know it’s me you’re bringing to dinner?” “She would have tried to stop me,” I said, because she would have. Rebekah was wickedly intelligent and persistent. She would have been on my ass the moment I mentioned I was bringing Evie. I wanted to go into this without her opinions and unsolicited advice. “Well, that’s comforting. Tonight should go great, then.” “It will be fine.” I didn’t even buy what I said. She was right. “This house is amazing, though. Can we just skip dinner and you take me on a tour of it? Like, all of it. Every inch of it.” Her eyes darted to me, and she gave me a she epish smile. “Sorry. Maybe that’s weird to say. This is your home, not some kind of the me park.” I couldn’t help a soft laugh. I didn’t hate her openness. Her casual tone as she apologized for something she seemed to perceive as a fault was strangely endearing. Maybe it was because I’d lived my life trying to be perfect. Here was this woman who just p ut herself out there, failings and faults and all. Dennison opened the doors to greet us. “Good evening,” he said. “Good evening, Dennison,” I r eplied. “This is Evie. Evie, this is Dennison, our long - time butler.” “Oh, a butler,” Evie breathed. Dennison was a master at hiding his thoughts, but I noticed a twitch in his eyebrow at her comment. I couldn’t help a smile. At least if this evening was a disaster, it would be an amusing one. With every st ep Evie took into my world, I became more certain that my parents would be horrified that I’d brought her for a date, and that maybe they would reconsider their marriage requirement. We st epped into the foyer with its shining chandelier hanging down in front of five large arched windows — another one of those things I’d rarely thought about. This had always just been the place I grew up. But watching Evie take it in, her every thought s o plain on her face, I realized how much I took for granted. I thought about her tiny flower gardens in front of her house and how much care she put into them. What would she do with a house like this?
I already knew. She would turn it into a warm and welcoming place for everyone she knew. Dennison walked in front of us, leading us toward the dining room where my family waited. He turned his back, and I peered at Evie, to find her gaping again, her eyes fixed on the chandelier and then traveling up the grand staircase to the upper floors. “Come on, Evie,” I said. “It’s time.” I didn’t say anything else, afraid Dennison would hear. He opened the double doors leading into the dining room and then st epped aside for us to enter. The ruse began.