Pretend

Excerpt of Make Believe (Pretend Series, Book #2)

“I hadn’t planned to, no,” she replied. I knew that she was smiling; I could hear it in her voice.  

“Good, because dead people can’t do what I plan to do to you later-”

The clearing of a very familiar voice caused me to stop mid sentence.

“You know, even after eight straight years of seeing you two behave like love sick puppies; it still grosses me out.”

“Remind me why you thought that it was a good idea to give my sister a key to our house again?” I asked as April began chuckling.

“In case of an emergency,” she said with a smile on her face.

“Yeah, this isn’t an emergency,” I grumbled as I tried to keep my eyes off April’s bare legs.

“I think that you’ll find that shopping for a wedding dress is an emergency. I’m taking my Maid of Honor role very seriously, Aiden.”

“I didn’t even ask you to be my Maid of Honor yet,” April chuckled.

“But you’re going to. I’m just saving you time since you have so much to do already.”

“She’s your sister,” April said as she smiled at me.

“And your best friend. Anyway, as interesting as it is to be talking flowers and dresses, some of us have work to go to,” I said before kissing April on the lips and planting a kiss on Crystal’s forehead before messing up her hair with my hand.

“Aiden!” I heard her scream before walking out the door with an extremely satisfied smile on my face.

Stepping into my car, I set up my phone on hands free, found the number I wanted and then drove off.

“Hey douche!” The voice came in loud and cocky. No change there then.

“Seriously, Ant, what are we, in high school?” I smiled as I shook my head at my stupid best friend.

“No, I didn’t even use that word in high school but now that Ella-May is here, I need to make sure that I’m down with the kids.” I rolled my eyes.

“She’s one day old.”

“It pays to be prepared my friend. I need to know what lines these little jerks are going to try and use on my baby girl.”

“Not every kid is like you were, and do you even know what a ‘douche’ is?” I asked as I laughed to myself.

“No, what?”

“Google it. Anyway, I didn’t call to talk about your expanding vocabulary,” I said before taking the right turning after the lights. “I called to talk about Leah; she starts today.”

“Ahh, the PA. So, is she hot?” I could hear the sound of a smirk in his voice.

“Ant, you’re an idiot, you know that right?”

“Hey, a guy has to ask. Don’t want her scaring off potential clients, right?”

“Oh, how noble of you. If only I was half the man you were.”

“A dream many share my friend,” he chuckled down the line.

“Anyway, her resume was pretty impressive, and her situation makes her perfect for the job.”

“How so?”

“Well, she only ever intended on staying in California for a month anyway. She plans on moving to Nevada after that.”

“So she’s moving to the desert then?”

“Well, she’s going to live with her father, apparently he’s not too well. He lives there.”