Chapter 7

MARI

Pierce paused outside the bakery door with his hand on the latch. "You remember our answers to the FAQs?"

I never housed the notion I would fall in love with Pierce during our fake engagement, but it was good that he was handling things in a true businesslike fashion. Or maybe he was always this calm and calculated in everything.

"Yes." He'd made me memorize and recite an answer for any question someone in the small town of Pelican Bay could come up with when they saw us together. It was as if he planned for me to be interviewed by the local paper. He'd finally let me out of the house when I answered correctly for each one. Our fake relationship officially had a very real narrative.

Still, as he opened the doors of the town's bakery on the corner of a short side road and Main Street, nerves tickled my stomach. This would be our first actual test. Oliver wasn't here to deflect any blows and use his carefree smile to calm my shaking hands.

Pierce and I were left to our own devices and we needed to do our best to pretend to be a happily in love, about to marry, couple.

It sounded easier in my head before we left his mansion.

With a deep breath I walked to the bakery door when he held it open for me, and we were greeted by an enormous smile of a woman wearing a pink apron with the name of Anessa embroidered on the front.

Pierce, with calm and determined steps, made his way to the bakery counter and ordered through a quick conversation with Anessa.

We'd agreed on the food before entering the shop because Pierce said he didn't want me to dally in front of the racks too long as it gave people time to ask me more questions. The man thought of every angle. We'd settled on two muffins and coffee. Pierce learned the way I took mine during our relationship interview and then waited beside me as I smiled, hoping my voice wouldn't squeak when she asked a question I'd prepared so diligently to answer.

"You're the only one here today?" Pierce asked as Anessa poured our two cups of coffee in to go containers.

She nodded as she passed over the coffee to each of our hands and then opened the bakery showcase sliding door. "Yup, Tabitha's coming in later, and with Katy losing her job, she's been picking up shifts in the evening until she can find something."

Pierce became incredibly still as he stared at the lovely woman. "She didn't tell me she lost her job, only that they reduced her hours."

Anessa paused mid cookie grab and her eyes grew wide as if she was concerned she'd given out state secrets and now there would be a punishment, like a beheading. "Oh, I'm sure she'll still be able to pay rent. I wouldn't worry about it. They lowered her hours earlier this year, but her boss decided to officially retire now, so the office is closing."

"Yes, I heard the news on his wife." Pierce turned to me with concern in his eyes. "Rebecca, his wife, received a breast cancer diagnosis last year, but after a few bouts of chemo she's been in remission and they've been talking about traveling. They decided to take the leap." He filled in the rest of the story for me.

"Oh, that sounds wonderful for them." My words were honest when I answered, and I continued to keep my smile bright. Everyone in Pelican Bay would think of me as a Valley girl with too much Botox, but I wasn't ready to answer anything deeper yet.

The nerves were high, and as long as we kept talking about someone else, that sounded better to me than the quizzing Pierce prepared me to face.

The coffee, which I held in one hand, warmed my skin and Pierce dropped my other when Anessa handed over the bag of muffins he ordered without having to ask my favorite flavor. It definitely made us appear as a legitimate couple. Muffin preferences were part of our new couple interview. He memorized my favorite cookie, bread, basically every food choice imaginable.

In ways it felt like he knew what information we'd need to have in order to help me acclimate to the town. He went about our fake relationship as if he'd acquired me in a business deal and needed to check off each agreement point.

Which, in a way I suppose he did.

Anessa and Pierce chatted for a few more moments as they discussed the Labor Day parade, which would happen in two weeks' time and the surge in holiday business the bakery prepared to experience over the leaf viewing months in the upcoming fall.

"And you'll have your standard cookie order ready for the Christmas celebration?" Pierce asked, leaving me wondering how many parades and celebrations one small town had throughout the year.

"Yes," Anessa beamed as she answered. "I'm thinking this year we'd up our game and make gingerbread houses. Maybe a class for the kids."

Her eyes crinkled in excitement, and Pierce only chuckled as if he'd grown used to these kinds of conversations. "Tell the girls I said hi," he said before turning and walking out of the bakery.

We sat outside on the bench on the sidewalk and ate our muffins quickly in companionable silence as I mulled over what just took place.

"It didn't sound like she considered you the town bad guy." Anessa was downright friendly.

Pierce nodded. "Yes, Anessa is wonderful. She rents the bakery space from me, so she has to be nice to her landlord," he said, laughing as if he didn't quite believe it to be the only reason she found herself so friendly. "She's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet."

I expected a pang of jealousy, but none came.

"It is odd that she did not ask questions about us." He finished his muffin and put the wrapper back in the brown bag Anessa wrapped up for us.

"How so?"

Pierce shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, a mysterious woman they've never met before sweeps in from out of town and then they learn you're my fiancée. You'd think they would have questions."

I chuckled. "Maybe you're not as popular in the town is you think."

Pierce rolled his eyes and held the bag open as I dropped my muffin wrapper inside, and then he walked it to the nearest trash can. "I highly doubt that's the problem. Now, future Mrs. Kensington. Let's introduce you to more of the locals."

Two stops from the bakery, a small locally run gift shop named Good Stuff was the store Pierce led me into next. A small bell above the door rang as we walked inside and the owner greeted Pierce as Anessa did in the bakery.

"Another renter?" I asked.

He winked, and it resembled the same expression his cousin gave me the day before, but it didn't create the same emotions in me as it did when Oliver looked at me that way.

The shop was full of small curiosities, including bouquets of fake flowers, which didn't smell like real flowers. In one corner different crystals and oils hung from the ceiling, catching the light from the large window. A section held crafts, including large signs painted in farmhouse looking decor. But the section that drew my attention the most included the glass cases of handmade jewelry. These pieces weren't the sparkly diamond type I used to look at but unique pieces of sea glass with a wire wrapped around them before they looped into a chain to be worn as a necklace. She also had a few rings with earrings to match.

My eye caught on a matching particular green set. The sea stones, glass weathered by the sand and the roar of the ocean waves over it sparkled even under the harsh fluorescent lights.

"See something you like?" Pierce asked, leaning over me.

"These green ones are gorgeous." And they would match my eyes and set off nicely with my red hair. Everyone knew the best color for a redhead was green.

"Then they're yours." Pierce tapped on the glass to get the owner's attention and she smiled at the two of us as she boxed them.

"Are you getting your future wife all set up in town?" the shop owner who didn't wear a badge or any name plate asked.

Pierce's smile grew. "You've heard the news?"

The older woman shook her head. "Oh yes, anything that happens in that bakery makes its way around town soon. Katy made her usual stops, and I heard it again from the phone tree last night."

Pierce snorted and then covered his mouth. "It wouldn't be a week in Pelican Bay if I didn't do something to make the phone tree."

The two of them laughed at their inside joke and I stood beside my fake future husband doing the one thing he'd hired me to do—smile.

"Well, she's gorgeous and you two make a wonderful couple. I hope you will enjoy it here in Pelican Bay," the woman said to me as she handed the bag across the counter at the same time Pierce exchanged it for a credit card.

I nodded and dropped the bag to my side, gripping it. "Absolutely, it's a beautiful city." I hadn't seen much of it, and it was different in so many ways from San Francisco. The downtown could be a picture on a postcard and the whole thing would fit in one shot.

"Good, you'll fit in here just fine," she said with another smile as we walked out the door of the little shop.

I'd expected jealousy at Pierce's earlier positive comments of Anessa, and I'd had a bit of nerves as we made our way into the bakery, but right then the only emotion I experienced was… guilt. We were lying to an entire town on what I was doing here, and if I succeeded and earned the two million dollars for my project in Guatemala, it would mean I duped these people into believing I was here to stay.

Maybe Pierce was a villain after all because what man would promise so much money to a woman for her to pretend to be engaged to him? Getting the town to like me had been one of his top priorities as well during our negotiations. It was double deceiving.

And how would I survive an entire six months of lies if I already had tons of guilty after two shops?

Pierce led me onto the street and we walked a few steps where a banner for an antique store hung from the window. It wasn't your typical junk shop or rummage place where everyone took their old junk and called them antiques. Shelves lined the shop walls and antique items were displayed prominently. Each piece more perfect than the next.

"Are we going to all the stores in town?" I asked, taking a glance on the street and the long strip of them that ran to the ocean.

Pierce ran his fingers through his gelled hair. "Yes. This is your official introduction to the town. It's a wonderful sign we've already made the phone tree, but after today's expedition we'll make sure absolutely everyone has heard of you, even the people in Clearwater."

The guilt bubble grew. Pierce was going to a lot of trouble to win over the hearts of the town, which already seemed to respect him.