“I’m not on social media. Waste of time.” Freddie felt like he was watching someone else get down on one knee in high definition. He clicked off the video. “That’s enough,” he said and handed Charlotte her phone. He unbuckled his tool belt and closed up his toolbox.

  “Done for the day?” she asked.

  “I wish. I’m heading to Windswan, and then I have that cake tasting thing.”

  “Back in the city?” Charlotte asked.

  “Yep,” Freddie sighed. “I’m going to be doing a lot of driving back and forth for the next little while.”

  “Wait one minute,” Charlotte said. “You two are splitting the money fifty-fifty, right?”

  “Yep. A hundred grand each.”

  Charlotte leaned over, her elbows on her knees, “Why are you the one doing all the work then?”

  Freddie paused. He hadn’t really thought about it, but Charlotte was right. “I guess that’s where all the wedding crap is.”

  “How much sleep did you get last night?” Charlotte asked.

  “I don’t know, an hour, maybe. This helps.” Freddie held up his giant thermos of coffee.

  “I have an idea.” Charlotte’s eyes flashed. “Why don’t you invite her up here for the weekend. Megan can bake some cakes for the tasting, you can visit the lodges and the resort, you know, scouting the location for your wedding. She’s got to be able to stretch out a weekend’s worth of photo opportunities over a couple of weeks. That will save you from having to drive back and forth.”

  “And spend as much time with her,” Freddie grumbled.

  “She’s that bad?” Charlotte asked.

  “I mean, there’s just not much to her,” Freddie replied. “I like your plan, but there’s one big problem.”

  “And what’s that.” Charlotte stood up and smoothed out her skirt.

  “If she comes here, I’m going to have to actually tell people that I’m engaged.”

  Charlotte snorted and held out her phone. “She’s got three million followers, I’m pretty sure that cat’s out of the bag.”

  “Did you just snort?” Freddie asked. “And what’s the chance that anybody here in town follows her?”

  Charlotte sighed, ignoring the snort comment. “Did you think that you were going to be able to keep this a secret?”

  “That was the plan, I guess.”

  “Oh, Freddie.”

  “Don’t ‘oh Freddie’ me. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Okay,” Charlotte rubbed Freddie’s shoulder. “It’s all going to work out, but the first thing you need to do is tell that brother of yours. If he finds out through the Chance Rapids rumor mill, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

  Freddie knew that she was right. He was going to have to own this fake engagement, and the first thing he had to do was tell his brother. The second was to bring his fake fiancée to his hometown.

  Twelve

  Serena had spent the morning meeting with her dad’s specialist, Dr. Wiseman. They had a lengthy meeting about a new clinical trial, and while it was risky, Serena had decided that it had to be better than what they were doing now, which was waiting.

  When she agreed to go to the mountains for the weekend, she hadn’t anticipated the number of clothes she would need. At first she had resisted, but realized that they could create a boatload of social media content over a weekend and probably not have to see each other again for another month or so. She carefully packed her giant suitcase with her ‘picking out the cake outfit’ options, her ‘touring the wedding location’ outfits, and her yoga clothes for all of the great mountain shots she was going to take.

  She navigated her Prius out of the city and punched in the address Freddie had given her. The sun was shining as she exited the main highway onto Route Nine which snaked into the mountains. She turned off the air conditioning, rolled down the windows, and let her hair whip in the hot breeze. She stopped at every scenic checkpoint to take photos, but none was as scenic as the view of Chance Rapids from the roadway above. The colorful houses looked like they came from another era or Iceland. The river that had gurgled along beside the highway fell off into a huge waterfall, pooling several hundred feet below, before running smack dab through the center of the town. She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up over her hair to protect it from the mist of the waterfall since she didn’t want to show up with frizzy hair. She hadn’t realized that it was going to be twenty degrees cooler in the mountains and shivered and wished that she had thrown her cute down puffy into her already bulging suitcase.

  ‘Well, here goes,’ she said to herself. She got back into the car and made her way down the steep incline into the town.

  She checked the time. With all of her stops, the drive had taken double what she had planned. Her navigation system directed her down the main street of town. Quaint shops lined the street and flower baskets adorned the iron lampposts that stood sentry along the street. When she got out of her car and stretched, her stomach let out a huge growl. She spotted a coffee shop across the street and made her way to the only traffic light so that she could cross. She was supposed to message Freddie when she got into town, but wasn’t quite ready to jump into their weekend just yet.

  Just ahead of her, a man with a cane and a fedora was making his way along the sidewalk very slowly. She was itching for the first opportunity to sneak around the old guy and felt like she was going to die from starvation inching along at his snail-like pace. The opportunity never presented itself. She joined him at the corner, and they waited for the light to change together. He turned to face her and smiled a denture filled grin, “Hello.”

  Serena looked behind her, there was no one there. She pointed to herself, “Are you talking to me?” she asked.

  “Of course,” he croaked. The crossing signal turned to WALK. “You have yourself a great day,” he said and slowly stepped off the curb.

  Serena had grown up in the city; strangers didn’t say hi to her, or wish her a good day. She took a deep breath, feeling like an alien in the small town. “Allow me?” she stepped beside the old man and crooked her arm.

  “Thank you dear,” he said. Together the two of them set a slightly faster pace across the road.

  As the reached the other side he smiled and tipped his hat at her, “Thank you, Miss.”

  “Have a good day,” she said, feeling proud of herself for her good deed.

  She stepped into the log cabin café and was surprised by the variety on the menu. She could easily have been in one of the trendiest coffee houses in the city. She ordered a latte and scrolled through her phone while she waited for the pretty blonde girl to steam the milk. She snapped a few photos of the coffee shop and a couple of the leaf pattern in her latte.

  She reached for her cup, but hesitated, “Miss, could I get another to go? Just a coffee?”

  “Black?” the girl asked.

  Serena had no idea what Freddie took in his coffee. “Yeah,” she replied. “But, maybe a couple of sugars and cream on the side. I’m not sure what he takes.”

  The girl nodded, her voluminous ponytail swinging down her back as she poured the coffee.

  “He takes two cream and three sugars,” a deep voice said from behind her.

  The barista nodded and Serena caught the blush on her chest before she turned to face the bulkier, slightly taller version of her fiancé.

  “I hear you’re in town for the weekend,” Logan smiled and ordered an Americano.

  “I am.” Serena replied. “Lots of stuff to get done.”

  “Oh really,” Logan grinned. “I’m sure that Freddie has lots of, stuff, planned.” He laughed slightly as he said the word stuff.

  ‘Is that all men think about?’ She wondered. “No, wedding stuff,” she said, and pressed Logan’s chest with her palm, a well practiced ‘you’re so silly’ gesture.

  As Serena reached for the second cup of coffee, her ring glinted in the pendant lights of the café, and she saw the color drain from Logan’s face.

  Thirteen

  Freddie stepped out of the shower and checked his phone. Serena was four hours late, which suited him just fine. He toweled off his hair and wiped the steam from the mirror. The weekend was going to be a tough one, but if he could get through the next forty-eight hours, everything was going to be fine.

  He heard footsteps on the front porch and rushed to his bedroom to throw on some clothes. They had planned to meet here, take some casual photos and then head to Charlotte and Logan’s place for dinner.

  Now, the cozy photo shoot would have to wait. He heard the knock again. “Hold on,” he shouted. The knock on the door was a full out cop knock, and he swore that she was trying to pound the door off its hinges.

  He pulled his jeans up over his wet legs, arching his back as he gingerly zipped them up over his package, boxers would have to wait. His bare feet patted on the floor as he jogged to answer the door, but before he got there, the door burst open. It wasn’t Serena.

  It was Logan. And he looked pissed.

  “When were you going to tell me that you proposed to that twit?” Logan’s nostrils flared as he slammed the door, shaking the little bungalow.

  “It’s not what it looks like,” Freddie said, holding his hands up defensively. It had been a long time since he and his brother had exchanged blows, but he remembered who came out on top, and it wasn’t him.

  “Is that what you spend your money on? A ring?”

  “No, Logan. Calm down.”

  “Calm down? That’s rich Fred. You’ve made some stupid decisions in your life, but this, I mean, man, this takes the cake.”

  Freddie remembered Charlotte’s words, Logan would understand the situation when all was said and done, but Freddie didn’t know how to calm down the beast that stood in front of him today. Instead of matching the raging hulk in front of him, he sat down on the sofa. “Logan, I love her.”

  “How can you love her? You’ve been on what, two dates with her?”

  “When you know, you know,” Freddie said. He hated lying to his brother, and he hated spouting out old clichés that he didn’t believe in. “You’ve just got to trust me on this—"

  A light knock at the door interrupted Freddie. “That’s her.”

  Logan threw his arms up in the air. “I’m out of here.”

  “See you at dinner?” Freddie said, as he walked to the door.

  “Is that tonight?” Logan grumbled. “Yeah, whatever. See ya bro.” Logan pulled open the door and stormed past Serena, who stood shell shocked in his wake holding two cups of coffee.

  “Two cream and three sugars?” she said quietly and handed him the cup.

  “Thanks,” he said. “Come in.” He opened the door wide and Serena stepped inside the house trailing a giant suitcase on wheels.

  He set the coffee down on the counter and opened the fridge. “It’s too late for coffee. Beer?” he held up a bottle.

  “Sure,” Serena replied. “Where should I put this?” she pointed to the monstrosity on wheels.

  “You can put it in the bedroom there,” he said.

  Serena trundled down the hallway and yelled, “There’s no bed in here, just weights.”

  Logan had lived in Freddie’s spare room when he returned to Chance Rapids, but when he moved into Charlotte’s mansion, Freddie had transformed it into a home gym.

  “No, the other one.”

  Serena returned to the kitchen and Freddie passed her the bottle of beer. “I guess we should talk about the um, sleeping arrangement,” she said and took a sip.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll sleep on the couch,” he said. “It’s where I fall asleep most nights anyway.”

  “What’s up with Logan?” she leaned against the counter.

  She was wearing jeans and white t-shirt again. With the beer in her hand she almost looked like she belonged in his kitchen. If he had to be fake engaged to someone, at least she wasn’t hard to look at.

  “He found out about us before I could tell him.” Freddie said.

  Serena looked to the ground. “I, um…I might have told him.”

  “You what?”

  “I saw him at the coffee shop and mentioned that we had a lot of wedding stuff to do this weekend.”

  Freddie groaned.

  “I didn’t know that you hadn’t told him,” she said, her voice shaking.

  The waver in her voice caught Freddie off guard. She hadn’t done anything wrong; he should’ve told Logan, he just hadn’t figured out the right way to do it. “It’s okay, Serena. He’s just taking his big brother bear role a little too seriously. I just wish that I could tell him the truth.”

  “We can’t, you know how important that is, right? We could lose all the money.”

  “I know, I know.” Freddie muttered. “Well, cheers.” He held up his beer bottle. “To our first weekend together as an engaged couple.”

  Serena tapped his bottle with hers, “To making the best of it,” she replied grimly and they both sipped their beer.

  “Right,” he replied, but felt a touch of sadness. Making the best of an engagement just seemed wrong to him. “Let me get a shirt on, and then we can go be at Logan’s mercy for the rest of the night.”

  “Sounds lovely.”

  Freddie smiled and looked her up and down; she stood leaning against the counter, her arms and feet crossed, eyebrows raised. “Sarcasm suits you,” he said.

  “Thanks. I think?” she replied.

  Freddie pulled on a plaid cotton shirt and tucked it into his jeans, grabbed a flat brimmed black hat off his dresser and swiped on some deodorant.

  “Come on, love of my life, let’s get this over with,” he said and grabbed Serena by the hand.

  * * *

  Serena filmed their trip across town and through the covered bridge. Chance Rapids was a nice town, with cute little houses, but as soon as they exited the darkness of the covered bridge, Serena was shocked by the palatial homes that lined the road as it switchbacked up the mountain.

  “There’s the ski hill,” Logan pointed to an A-frame chalet that sat at the end of a dirt parking lot.

  “Do they leave the little thingies there all summer?” she asked, pointing to the gondola lift.

  “You mean the gondola cabins?”

  “Right, gondola, that’s the word I was looking for,” she replied.

  “They do, the mountain biking season with be starting soon.”

  “People bike down that?” Serena craned her neck to try to see the top of the peak.

  “Yep. And there’s a glacier up there; that’s where the ski team practices in the summer.” As a teenager Freddie had a year-round goggle tan from spending so much time on the mountain.

  “That’s incredible, can we go up there?”

  “I’m sure I could make those arrangements,” Freddie replied. He had a good relationship with the family that owned the resort. Sugar Peaks was one of the last family owned ski resorts in the state, and the small touches, like Grannie Mable cheffing up her chili in the day lodge were what made it special.

  Serena put down her phone and rolled down the window to look higher into the sky.

  “What’s that?” she pointed to the field of wildflowers.

  “That’s Boris,” Freddie laughed, and pulled over onto the shoulder of the road.

  Serena was confused, “Boris?”

  “You know, the bear?”

  “That’s a bear?” Serena gasped and squinted her eyes at the dark blob. “How can you tell?”

  “I’ve lived here my whole life. They’re easy to spot.”

  “He’s moving,” she squealed and rolled up her window.

  “It’s okay,” Freddie laughed. “And look, Boris is a she…”

  The blob was heading toward them, and Serena could make out the rounded ears. Then she saw two smaller blobs. “Are those babies?”

  “Cubs,” Freddie said. “That bear has been hanging out in the Sugar Peaks subdivision for a few weeks now.”

  The bear had come close enough that Serena could make out her face and see the roly poly cubs frolicking behind their mother. “If they weren’t so scary they’d be cute,” she said.

  “They’re more scared of us, trust me. Although, I wouldn’t want to get in between that momma and her babies. They will defend their cubs from anything, or anyone, who gets in between them.”

  The two bears cubs played with each other, following the heels of their mother, who would turn every few moments to ensure that they hadn’t fallen behind. It was the sweetest thing Serena had ever seen. As she watched the Planet Earth episode unfolding right in front of her, a lone tear escaped from her eye.

  Embarrassed, she quickly wiped away the tear with the back of her hand. “We should get going. We don’t want to add being late to the list of reasons your brother is pissed at you,” she said.

  “Right,” Freddie said and started up the engine. “Didn’t you want to get a picture or video of that or something, or is nature not part of the Serena Cruise ‘brand’?

  Serena couldn’t believe that she hadn’t filmed the bears. She scrambled to pick up her phone and roll down the window while simultaneously pushing record. As the bears ambled out of sight, Serena clicked off her phone.

  “Ready?” Freddie asked.

  “To face my fake brother and sister-in-law - as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Fourteen

  Freddie saw the lone tear slip from behind her oversized sunglasses and it shocked the hell out of him. For a city girl, the bear and her cubs seemed to strike a nerve. He liked seeing his town through a newcomer’s eyes, sights that he took for granted. The snow-capped mountain peaks, the early season wildflowers, seemed to be extra saturated in color as he saw them anew. As she watched the bears, she seemed radiant with awe and emotion. The setting sun had cast a golden glow around her, and for those brief few minutes, watching her watch the bears, he felt like he was sitting with an entirely different person.

  He couldn’t believe that he had to remind her to get out her phone. She was completely in the moment, appreciating something while most other tourists would’ve had their cameras and phones in between themselves and the action.