Chapter Eighteen—Jace

I'd seen Lidia in many different states of emotion. I'd watched her spill tampons, put her foot in her mouth and embarrass herself more times than I could count, but this was a new one.

She was quiet. Lidia Lambert, my assistant that can't keep her mouth closed suddenly turned silent. I cracked a smile as a grimace flashed across her face at the sight of her parents in front of us.

They looked like down-to-earth people, unlike the social club parents that I grew up with. Her Dad's skeptical look made me laugh, but I could tell he was a nice guy.

His dad jeans looked worn at the knees, and bucket hat with hooks and bottle caps attached, looked out of place in the gallery. She looked like her mother, short with a small frame. I noticed immediately that her mother wasn't wearing a dress—or anything overly modest—and I wondered briefly, what caused Lidia to cover herself so much.

"Lidia," her mother said. I watched her gaze travel back and forth between us until she sighed loudly. "Aren't you going to introduce us to your … fiancé? We had to find out from Aunt Kami, who just so happened to see the magazine at the salon last Tuesday."

Lidia puffed out her cheeks and drew out her breath slowly. "You couldn't have given me a warning that y'all were coming?"

Her dad scoffed. "I guess we could say the same for you. Who is this?" he pointed at me.

My turn. I stepped forward before Lidia had a chance to answer and offered him a handshake. "I'm Jace Archer, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Lambert."

He lifted a skeptical brow at me but shook my hand. "Well, it's about time since you're engaged to my daughter. Back in the good days a man asked permission from the father to ask their daughter to marry them."

Traditional, nonetheless. Her Mother sighed. "Leo, give them a break. I'm Catherine, Hun. It's nice to meet you. We're sorry if we dropped in unannounced but we were hoping to take you two to lunch."

Leo eyed Lidia standing off to my side as if I was holding her hostage.

"It's a little early for our lunch, Mom—"

"Nonsense," I said, turning and buzzing Rebecca. "We're taking the day off. Call me if anything important comes up."

Lidia's mouth dropped opened. "Do I need to check your temperature again? We're taking a day off work? Are you ill?"

I braced my palm against her lower back and guided her closer to her parents. "Why don't we show your parents to a good meal and get to know each other?"

Lidia's hazel eyes searched my face for any sign—of what I didn't know—but she slowly nodded. "I guess that's okay," she said. "Where do y'all want to go?"

Leo sighed. "I need a beer."

"It's ten in the morning," Lidia said. "No place is open to drink right now, Dad."

"Actually," I said, grabbing my keys. "La Carafe is open. You can have a beer there." Leo didn't seem too interested in anything I had to say. "You can follow us there."

We walked past Rebecca's reddened cheeks and grim look toward my car. Lidia slammed the door and sighed. "Ugh, I wish they would have called."

I started the engine. "It's fine, Lidia. They seem nice enough. What are you worried about? My parents are the worst."

She mumbled beneath her breath. "My Dad is protective."

I turned onto the road. "As he should be. You're his daughter." I watched her closely. "Is something else bothering you? What's wrong?"

She shrugged.

I reached over and clasped my palm around her thigh. "Tell me."

Lidia sighed deeply. "My mother … she looked relieved."

"Relieved, what do you mean?" I asked.

Lidia leaned her head back against the seat and chuckled. "I feel bad for lying to her, Jace. This … she has never pushed me to get married and I never thought she cared much about it, but the way she looked at me when she saw you, she was relieved … excited. I've never brought a boy home, not since prom."

"It's going to be fine Lidia—"

"She's going to be heartbroken when we fake break up." She turned to look at me. "I'm breaking up with you by the way."

For a brief moment, I wanted to laugh but then I realized what it actually meant. There wouldn't be any more Lidia and me. No more appearances together.

We'd still work together and reign in the same room but with no hugging or kissing. She told me herself she wasn't into a physical relationship without the intentions of getting married.

I couldn’t give her that. At least it'd never been in my plan to do so. I bit my bottom lip hard, feeling my fingers tightening against the steering wheel.

What would I do about my Grandfather? After the wedding, I had two months to come up with a plan. Part of me wanted to wait the two months out and see if … I didn't know what.

I didn't want to marry Lidia Lambert. I hardly knew her … well, mostly. I knew more about her than I planned to learn. Feeling her eyes on me, I glanced over.

"Why the crinkle?" she asked, pointing toward her brow.

"What crinkle?"

"The one you get when you're deep in thought. I didn't mean for you to strain a muscle over there."

I chuckled. "I just don't want you to feel this way."

She shrugged. "I knew this would happen if they found out. I should have prepared myself better for it. It'll be fine," she said more to herself.

We parked at the restaurant and all got a table together. Lidia quietly sipped her tea while her mother stared at me from over the top of her drink.

Leo couldn’t be bothered with anything but his mid-day beer.

"So, Jace," Catherine said. "How old are you, Dear?"

This caught Leo's attention. I swallowed my tea and smiled. "I'm about to turn thirty-five."

Leo's gaze danced between the three of us before he chuckled humorlessly. "Lidia is only twenty-two. What could you possibly want with her besides a young lady to sleep around with?"

"Dad!" Lidia exclaimed. "I haven't slept with him!"

"Bull—"

"Stop it, Leo," Catherine hissed. "What is the matter with you today? You're on one! Who cares how old he is—she's got someone finally."

Lidia's eye bulged from her head. "Mom, I'm in my early twenties, it's not like I'm forty and single."

She waved her hand at Lidia. "I know that, Dear, but you're always covering yourself up and hiding away with Scotty, I didn't think a man would ever notice you."

Lidia's face turned red, and she pressed her mouth into a thin line. I felt like I needed to defend her, but I didn't know what to say. Truth was I didn't know too much about it prior to her becoming my assistant.

"Lidia is," I said, leaning forward. "Not your average girl, I'll agree, but that's what attracted me to her. She doesn't worry about what other people think of her, and she's…honest. I haven't seen that in a long time."

Lidia eyed me before turning her eyes down to her plate. "Anyway, now we're engaged so y'all can get over it."

"Don't be ugly," Catherine said. "Your dad is just cautious, you know that."

Lidia mumbled something beneath her breath. Once the food arrived, a silence overtook our able, and I could sense the unease of her dad.

I wanted him to trust me, but Lidia was right. If this wasn't going anywhere, and it was all a scam, it would only hurt them worse in the long run.

"I'm going to run to the bathroom," Lidia said. "Don't have too much fun without me," she said sarcastically.

Catherine watched her walk around the corner and turned back to me. "I'm so happy for you both. I would never let her know this, but I've worried about her since she started covering up so much."

I licked my lips unable to stop myself from asking. "Why is it that she does that?" I leaned forward. "Why does she always cover everything up? I thought it was religious at first."

She sighed. "When she was in high school there was this boy that she liked. He took her out a few times, tried to … you know, and she realized at school the next day that he had a list of girls that he was going to sleep with, and she was on it. Ever since then she's been closed off to boys, and very picky on who she dates. I'm not one hundred percent about the details, but she started covering up more after that."

Teenage boys could be serious dicks. I leaned back in my seat and found myself aggravated that she would let some prick affect her like that.

Leo emptied his beer and glanced over at me. "Here is my card, Catherine, I want to have a talk with Jace alone."

"Leave it be, Leo—"

"I planned to pay," I said, pulling out my wallet.

Leo leaned forward and shoved a finger in my face. "We don't need your money. Come on outside, the girls will meet us there."

I gave Catherine a smile to reassure her I wasn't afraid. Leo walked over toward his old pickup and leaned against it. He looked concerned and I admired him for it.

"Listen, I don't know much about you, and I don't really think this will last, but I'm telling you now if you don't love my daughter, don't pull her along. She's a sweet girl, always has been. She wears her heart on her sleeve and doesn't realize her worth." When he looked over at me, he looked sad. "Don't hurt Lidia."

I nodded. My intention wasn't to hurt Lidia. My intention was to pretend with her, but things had started to blur. The idea of her not being around made me sad.

"I can promise you that I won't," I said.

Lidia and Catherine walked up a few seconds later, breaking our awkward conversation. They decided to follow us back to their apartment so they could see Scotty.

Lidia slammed her door. "So what did my dad say to you?"

I revved my engine. "Nothing much, just the normal fatherly stuff."

She gave me a look. "Yeah, like what?"

I sighed and ran my palm down my face. "He just wants to make sure I'm not going to hurt you. Any father would want that."

She pursed her lips. "That's it?"

I nodded. "Your mother mentioned something about a guy in high school being the reason you cover up?"

"She told you that?" she gasped. "Oh my God, why would she do that?"

I shrugged. "I'm glad she did. Why haven't you ever mentioned that to me? You think I'd treat you like some kid from high school? Or are you scared to let someone see the real you? Why are you hiding? There is nothing wrong with the way you dress, I appreciate that you don't flaunt yourself all over the place, but would it hurt to let me see you?"

Lidia's eyes glossed over with tears, but she clammed up and didn't say anything. When we pulled into her apartment complex's parking lot, she hopped out and raced upstairs without me.

Maybe I shouldn't push her? It wasn't as if I cared about her clothing, I just hated that she felt the need to hide from me. Scotty was hugging her parents when I made it up and didn't hide that he disapproved of me being there.

An hour later, her parents said their goodbyes and I felt a weight lift off the room, until Scotty turned a switch on and snapped at me. "Why are you here? You're going to drag her poor parents along too?"

Lidia kicked off her shoes and sighed. "It's not his fault. They saw the art magazine and showed up at work. We had to play it off. What were we supposed to tell them, the truth?" she asked.

Scotty twisted his baseball hat around backward. "Maybe? What is the truth, anyway? You're using her, we all know that—"

I scoffed, feeling myself unhinge. First, a fight with my brother, what would it matter to have another fight with her best friend? "Don't put words in my mouth; I'm not using Lidia any more than she is me. And I've told you that I care about her. I'm not going to try to prove myself to you every time I come around. I don't care what you think," I said.

Lidia stood up and held her head in her palm. "Can you two please chill out? I've been around enough testosterone this week. Scotty mind your own business—"

He scoffed. "Right, take the guy that's giving you dick's side."

Lidia bent down and tossed her shoe at his head. "Ugh! I wish everyone would stop assuming we're sleeping together. We haven't slept together! You want to go there? Why don't you find a new girlfriend, one that doesn't hate me and talk about me behind my back, huh?"

Scotty swallowed hard. "I always stand up for you."

"Yeah," Lidia said. "But she keeps coming over and giving me dirty looks. And if you stick up for me, why does she keep whispering to you when I leave the room?"

"I've told you she just wants time alone with me—"

"Then take her somewhere, Scotty. I can't be gone every time that she comes over."

He tossed his arms into the air. "Why are you turning this all on me. We're talking about this guy using you and now we're talking about Daisy."

Lidia pressed her fist against her eyes in frustration. "You're getting on my nerves. We're in the same boat. You don't like him, and I don't like Daisy. I have to get over it, which means so do you!"

I cleared my throat. "Do you want to stay with me tonight? Maybe give them a night to themselves?"

"Yeah, a night of pretend sex, right?" Scotty asked.

Someone knocked on the door before I had a chance to let Scotty have it. Daisy walked in a couple seconds later with a box of pizza and wine. She looked completely pissed off that we were there.

"Oh, I didn't realize you had company," she said.

Lidia laughed, throwing her head back dramatically. "I'm not company, I live here, but anyway," she looked at me. "I'll most definitely stay with you tonight if the offer still stands."

"Grab your bags," I said.