The Billionaire's Bought Bride by Holly Rayner

Author:Holly Rayner [Rayner, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

One thing I was learning about Sebastian was that he tended to minimize. He had said lunch at his parents’ place would be a small affair. “Small” turned out to be over thirty people. That meant thirty new names I had to learn, along with their relation to each other, whose husband, wife, and child belongs to whom, and vice versa.

I had always been a visual learner. One of my coaches back in high school had taught me this trick of visualizing my matches. My moves versus my opponent’s. Each corner of the court, the parts of the surface that weren’t completely even or straight. The perfect game. I still had that notebook filled with pencil sketches of so many of my games throughout high school. I won every one that I sketched out.

I wished for a notebook just then to draw Sebastian’s family tree. It would’ve made trying to make conversation with people less embarrassing, after realizing I had just repeated the same information, I had told them earlier. And it wouldn’t be so obvious that I couldn’t remember any of them.

The only good thing about the whole big family gathering was that there was no time for anyone to dig too deep into the “mystery girl Sebastian had been keeping a secret from everyone”, in the words of one of his cousins. At least, I think it was a cousin.

But the extended family didn’t stay long. By four p.m., the last few guests were saying their farewells. This was not what we had planned for—Sebastian had warned me that “lunches” organized by his mother tended to be all-day affairs.

“Which is why this is the perfect occasion for Step One,” he had explained in the car. I didn’t need to ask what Step One was. He had it all outlined clearly in the contract. What I was learning about Sebastian was that he liked having a plan. A very detailed plan.

Sebastian showed me to the tea room on a side veranda, where his mother was doing the last touches on an afternoon treat, as she called it. The aroma of the gardens was strong there. The lush greens and deep browns made for a most beautiful backdrop.

If I lived here, I would never want to leave this room, I thought.

Sofia ushered us in, and I was still holding onto Sebastian for balance when she pointed out our seats. “Please, Elly, sit. What would you like? Coffee or tea?”

“Tea, please.” Sebastian fetched the tea out of his mother’s hands as I lowered myself into my seat. I could feel the fatigue in my legs from standing, sitting, standing, sitting, and standing again for the last couple of hours.

“Cake, Elly?”

“Yes, please.” I looked over at the table and pointed out the cheesecake. It was hard to pick between chocolate cherry, banoffee, and a traditional Colombian treat.

“I knew we would be friends, Elly. I don’t know just how to talk to people who say no to cake.” Sophia Rojas’ smile was wide.

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