Two Truths & a Lime (The Love Game Book 3) Read online

  I nodded but otherwise didn’t respond.

  He turned to Brody. “What do you think of running a bar?”

  Brody hesitated for a moment, looking around at all of us before responding. “I think I’m good with people and would thrive in something fast-paced. I’d expect it to be a good fit for me.”

  Mr. Mason sighed and stared us down for a second. “I still don’t love your chances of being successful, but I’ll tell you what,” he said, and I allowed a spark of hope to light a small fire inside me. “If you two come up with a business plan—a real business plan—I’ll take a look at it, and we can go from there. If it seems like it might have potential, I’d consider investing some money to get you guys started.”

  There was a knock at the door, which allowed Brody to jump up without making it seem like the sudden movement was a direct result of his excitement, though he probably wouldn’t have cared either way.

  “Yes, definitely,” Brody said. “We’ll get you that tomorrow.”

  “Not tomorrow,” I told him. “A business plan is going to take some research.”

  I turned toward Brody as he opened the door, and though I couldn’t see his face, I assumed his expression looked a lot like mine probably did. Why the hell was Veronica back?

  “Sorry,” she said, already heading into the apartment.

  I saw the moment she noticed Mr. Mason, not that she knew who he was.

  “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I forgot my laptop bag. I’ll be out of your way in a minute.”

  “It’s okay,” Mr. Mason told her. “I was just getting ready to leave. I’m Brody and Sophia’s father. I’m assuming you’re a friend of theirs.”

  She stopped walking and turned to face him. “Actually,” she said with a hint of a smile, “I’m Brody’s wife.”

  Chapter Two

  S O P H I A

  I’d never seen my dad reach the level of red he was exhibiting. He was spluttering like a faulty sprinkler as he looked back and forth between Brody and Veronica.

  Finally, my dad pointed an accusatory finger at Brody. “Start talking.”

  “Dad, I—”

  “I can’t even believe this,” my dad interrupted as he began to pace. “To think I actually thought you’d finally grown the hell up. I should’ve known better. You’ll always pull stunts like…this.” He waved a hand toward Veronica. “And again you’ve dragged someone else into your mess.”

  “I can explain,” Brody tried again.

  But then our dad did something that made us all look at one another in fear. He began laughing.

  “You know,” he said between chuckles that didn’t sound all that pleasant, “your mother and I talked about this day. A day when you’d meet a girl and tell us you were finally settling down.” He sobered. “But never in our wildest dreams did we expect you to take off to Europe, hide your return, nearly get your sister thrown out of school, and then, after all that, introduce us to a wife. Not a fiancée or a girlfriend you were serious about. A wife.”

  “If you would just listen, I—”

  “What’s your name, dear?” my dad asked Veronica, his tone softening when he addressed her.

  Her eyes were wide as she put her hand in my dad’s outstretched one. “Veronica. But I was—”

  “Veronica. Beautiful name.”

  “Um, thanks.”

  “And where did you and Brody meet? I’d like to assume in class, but Brody never went there.”

  “Uh, no, I…I don’t go to school here. I was just in town for an internship opportunity.”

  “Oh, how great. What field are you interning in?”

  “International law.”

  “That’s very impressive. Are you an undergrad?”

  “Yes, but I graduate in May. I’ve been accepted to a law school nearby, so I figured I’d try to get my foot in the door at one of the local firms.”

  Dad couldn’t hide his delighted surprise as he cast a quick glance at Brody. “How wonderful. Your parents must be so proud.” When he focused on Veronica, his smile was genuine. “Did you move here to be closer to Brody?”

  “No, not exactly. I—”

  “Of course not.” My dad turned to Brody once again. “So this is another mess your mother and I need to clean up, right? You need money for a divorce? Or an annulment? I guess that’s convenient, since I came here ready to finance a business. May as well finance your latest disaster instead.”

  “Dad, if you’d just—”

  “To think I’d been willing to bet on you this time,” my dad said, seemingly determined to let no one else get a word in, his voice low and dripping with disappointment. “I really thought…” He lifted his hands before letting them drop just like the end of his sentence. He sat down heavily on the couch and reached into his inside coat pocket, removing his checkbook and tossing it onto the table. “How much will it cost me this time, Brody?”

  Brody stared our father down, his hands clenched in fists by his sides. “Nothing.”

  Dad rubbed his hand across his eyes, squeezing the bridge of his nose before looking up at my brother. “Don’t give me that. Just tell me how we fix this, so I can leave and forget I was dumb enough to ever have any faith in you at all.”

  I saw when my dad’s words hit their mark. Saw Brody flinch even though his posture didn’t flag.

  My parents had never come down very hard on Brody, despite numerous instances where it would’ve been warranted. But the one time it wasn’t was the time my dad decided to heap every ounce of frustration and anger he’d ever felt onto my brother.

  For the first time maybe ever, I felt bad for Brody.

  “You about done?” my brother asked, his voice steely even as it was raspy with unshed emotion.

  “I’d like to be, Brody. I’d really, really like to be.” My dad sounded defeated.

  This entire thing was a dumpster fire, and I wished I could look away. Drew, who’d moved to stand beside me, grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze, which helped me find my voice.

  “Dad, you really don’t understand. Just let Brody talk.”

  My dad leaned back into the couch. “I’m all ears.”

  Brody’s jaw worked, and he looked as if he was struggling to get words out.

  Veronica must have noticed because she took a step forward. “Mr. Mason, I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I didn’t mean—”

  “For you to find out this way,” Brody interrupted.

  I widened my eyes, and a quick look at Drew and Veronica showed their reactions mirrored mine.

  “Brody,” I said, my voice holding a hint of warning.

  But just like usual, my idiot brother ignored me.

  “I don’t need you to pay for a divorce or an annulment. There’s no mistake here for you to fix.” Brody walked over and took Veronica’s hand, a move she likely only tolerated due to the immense shock she was in. “Veronica and I have been together for a while. Long distance. But now she’s here, for good. We’re staying married. To each other. Forever. Right?”

  Brody had been going strong until the end, when it appeared as if his nerves started to fray. He turned an imploring look on Veronica, who gaped at him like a fish.

  But to her credit, she recovered quickly. I could see the muscles in her arm flex as she tightened her hold on him and turned to my father. “That’s right. Married forever.” She nodded like a bobblehead who’d been shaken too hard. Then she regained her composure, pasted a cool look on her face, and walked over to my father. “It’s great to meet you, Dad.”

  Then the Meryl Streep of my generation leaned down and kissed my dad on the cheek.

  D R E W

  All I’d wanted was a college education. That was it. Just a simple guy with a simple goal.

  Instead, I’d become a formerly gay doppelgänger who’d fallen in love with his “sister” before almost dying and then nearly getting said sister expelled from school due to a stupid idea with an even stupider name. Though that wasn’t fair. The idea had bee
n a good one. But getting involved with these people clearly hadn’t been.

  What the hell did it say about me that, despite that knowledge, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else?

  It took a while for Mr. Mason to leave. In his defense, he had a right to be wary, since it was all a big lie just like pretty much everything else his children had told him over the past six months. But in the end, he’d seemed to buy that Veronica and Brody were actually married, which was mostly due to Veronica, who’d sold their relationship like a professional con artist.

  I watched Sophia close the door behind her dad as he left, and then we all whirled on Brody. But Veronica was the first to get actual words out.

  “What in the actual fuck, Brody?”

  Brody glared back at her. “I could say the same to you. Why the hell would you think it’d be a good idea to introduce yourself to my dad as my wife?”

  Veronica faltered on that one, her shoulder slumping. “I thought it’d be funny. Your friends’ reactions were priceless. I thought I could recreate the magic.” She offered a small, hopeful smile, but when Brody didn’t return it, it slid from her lips. “I don’t know when to quit, okay? I take things too far. Happy now?”

  “No. I’m actually pretty miserable,” Brody said as he slumped onto the couch, resting his elbows on his thighs so he could drop his head into his hands.

  “I think we can all agree,” Sophia said placidly, “that Veronica created a bit of a shitstorm.”

  Veronica looked like she wanted to argue, but really, what could she say? So she crossed her arms over her chest in what seemed to be more of a soothing gesture than a defensive one.

  “But Brody, why the hell did you keep the lie going?” Sophia sat down beside her brother, so close that their thighs touched.

  “I don’t know,” he groaned, his head still facing the floor as he gripped his hair with his fingers. “I just… He was being such a dick, but he also…wasn’t wrong. I know how irresponsible I am.” He lifted his head and looked at me. “But I also know that Drew and I can make a business work. It’s the closest to wanting to be an adult I’ve ever been, and I felt it slipping away. Even though he was wrong about what was going on this time, it was still like he was reminding himself of all the reasons I was a bad bet. And I didn’t want to lose his support, because that doesn’t just affect me.”

  I couldn’t help but be touched. Brody had endured all that shit from his dad because he didn’t want me to lose out on the opportunity the man was offering. But I still didn’t understand why he went about it the way he did. “But why not tell him the truth?” I asked. “If you’d said it was all a joke, we could’ve avoided all of this.”

  Brody shrugged. “I panicked, okay? Sometimes the simplest solution isn’t what pops into my brain. Besides, maybe if he thinks I’m settling down with a woman, he’ll think I can settle down enough to run a business. And Vee’s smart and responsible, and if my dad thinks she took a chance on me, maybe he will too.”

  “So you’re using me as a pawn in your Peter Pan is Finally a Grown-Up crusade against your dad?” Veronica asked.

  “You put yourself in that position. I just ran with it.”

  Veronica took a step toward the couch, and I became a little concerned she was going to go after Brody like a spider monkey. “Yeah, there’s just one problem with that,” she said. “I’m on my way out of town, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to come back. So you’re going to have to admit you lied when there was no reason to.”

  “I did have a reason,” Brody argued as he stood up.

  “Not a good one. You could’ve told the truth, but you chose to lie instead. That’s going to go over spectacularly with them.”

  “You lied first!”

  “I was kidding around. How was I supposed to know you had decades of daddy issues going on?”

  “I do not have daddy issues,” Brody growled.

  “Sweetheart, you have issues of just about every kind imaginable.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said, stepping between them and lifting a hand in each of their directions. “Arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

  Veronica and Brody continued to glare at each other like they were each trying to immolate the other, but they were thankfully silent.

  “We need to figure out what we’re going to do,” I continued.

  “I don’t need to figure out anything,” said Veronica. “I know what I’m going to do. I just came back here because I forgot my messenger bag.” She pointed to a bag that was leaning against a wall. She walked over and picked it up, hiking the strap onto her shoulder. “Have a nice life, everyone.”

  As she started for the door, I felt a flood of panic rise in me. My brain whirled as I tried to channel my inner Doctor Strange and figure out what all the outcomes of this moment could be. Because as much as I didn’t want to lie any more to Sophia’s parents, I also didn’t want to lose my dream when my fingers had just barely had the chance to ghost against it.

  “Wait.”

  Veronica sighed heavily, but she did stop in her trek to the door.

  “What if we can make this work for everyone?”

  Sophia stood, looking at me with concern. “Drew?”

  “You need a place to stay in the city,” I said to Veronica, who’d turned her head enough that she could probably see me in her periphery. “And Brody needs a fake wife. At least until we can figure out how to undo this mess without obliterating our chance for a business.”

  “Drew, you can’t be serious,” Sophia said. “We’ve seen how lying to my parents goes. And not to be an asshole, but you also made it clear you didn’t want their money.”

  “I didn’t want to be bribed. But as a step to making something great with Brody? Yeah, I’m up for that.”

  “What exactly are you proposing?” Veronica asked, and when we all looked at her blankly, she laughed. “Okay, maybe proposing was a poor choice of words. How about suggesting? What are you suggesting we do?”

  Brody looked at me for a second before giving me a slight nod and returning his attention to Veronica. “He’s saying that you move in here with me. I’ll pay for all your living expenses so you can take the internship. In exchange, you pretend to be my wife for the summer.”

  Veronica was silent for a minute as she looked around the room at all of us. “You’re all crazy, you know that?”

  “You’ll get used to it,” Sophia said.

  “I doubt that,” Veronica replied, but she said it softly and with a slight quirk of her lips that made the comment more of an endearment than an insult. “You’re serious about this?” she asked Brody.

  “Absolutely.”

  Veronica took another moment before she approached Brody with an outstretched hand. “Then you’ve got yourself a deal.”

  We all breathed a collective sigh of relief, until Sophia said to Brody, “It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to start thinking of what lie you’re going to tell Mom and Dad when Veronica eventually leaves.”

  Brody groaned.

  Veronica smiled. “And you also have to figure out how you’re going to tell your girlfriend.”

  Brody groaned louder.

  I couldn’t help but give a small snort and look over at Sophia, who I figured would love to bear witness to the disaster that would be Brody relaying this news to Aamee.

  But Sophia wasn’t smiling. “Drew?”

  I looked over at her.

  “If Veronica’s moving in, where are you going to live?”

  Well…shit.

  Chapter Three

  S O P H I A

  Drew paced around the living room. “Okay, so this is okay. I’ll just go home. It’ll just be for a couple months. I’ve survived longer than that under their roof. And I’m almost all healed now, so it’s not like I need to depend on them for anything. It’ll be fine. Totally fine.”

  Watching Drew ramble was painful.

  Brody had escaped to his room soon after Veronica had left to hea
d back to New York, and I’d been watching Drew slowly descend into panic ever since.

  “Seriously, you can stay at my apartment when Taylor and I find one. Veronica won’t be back until the end of the semester. You’ll be able to go right from here to there.” It wasn’t the first time I’d offered this as a solution, but he hadn’t been receptive. “I'll miss living with you.”

  I felt the need to wrap my arms around his waist and make myself comfortable against his chest as he pulled me against him.

  For the first time since Taylor and I had agreed to live together this summer, I regretted that we’d decided to go through with it. While Taylor was my best friend and I missed her terribly when she was at school out of state, I worried about how to juggle my time between her and Drew.

  I felt Drew shake his head and knew he still wasn’t convinced. He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead before looking down at me. “Your dad said he didn’t want us living together, and I’d really like him not to hate me forever. Not to mention that I don’t think Taylor is going to want to share a one-bedroom with your boyfriend. That’s not fair to ask of her.”

  Those things were all true, but the thought of Drew having to move back home made me not care about them as much as I should. Which was unfair to my dad and Taylor, but I couldn’t bring myself to care as much as I knew I should’ve.

  I opened my mouth to continue to argue, but Brody rushing out of the bedroom stopped me.

  “Okay, I called in reinforcements,” he said.

  “What? Who?”

  “Our Scooby Gang,” he replied as he headed into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. He grabbed a water and unscrewed the cap before taking a long drink.

  “And that would be?”

  “Everyone. Aamee, Carter, and those nerds you guys hang out with.”

  My brow wrinkled in confusion. “But…they were just here a little while ago.”