Page 7 of Impossible Rapids

Julie’s heart raced out of control. This moment was a reenactment of every daydream she’d had for years. Shawn would confide in her that he and Mercedes were like brother and sister, that it had always been Julie he’d been interested in, and then their lips would meet …

“I think I’ll call you unnasti,” he murmured.

“What?” she gasped out. The way he said the term was sultry and appealing, but the word itself? All ideas of romance with her dream man faded. “Un-nasty? I sure hope that means the opposite of nasty because that is a very un-appealing nickname.”

He laughed. He laughed loud. Julie wasn’t sure if she should laugh with him or be completely offended. He’d just called her something nasty, and now he was laughing about it.

“Goodness.” She tried to laugh with him and act like she hadn’t just had her dreams crushed. She shouldn’t be dreaming about him anyway. “Are you working to offend me?”

“No. Julie, no.” His smile still lingered on his fabulous lips and the corners of his eyes, but he studied her with a meaningful depth that she felt clear down to her pink shellacked toes. “Unnasti.” He slowed the pronunciation down, and it was different from un-nasty. He said it in a deep voice, ‘ooh-na-sstae.’ “It is from Old Norse. It means?—”

Voices carried through the arched doors and then two very surprising people walked into the spacious study.

“Cash and Brylee?” Julie cried out. “Oh my! I didn’t get a chance to talk to you earlier. You both look fabulous.”

Captain Cash Trapper and Brylee Auburn were the first couple on Mercedes and Julie’s brainchild and past two years of work, the reality television show A Chance for Charity. The two were married now and a fabulous and beautiful couple. Cash was a tough, tall, sandy-blond, former Green Beret Captain. He’d served with Grayson. Brylee was a gorgeous redhead with a vivacious personality who loved to imitate accents. Cash had pancreatic cancer, but he didn’t want anyone to know that. Julie wouldn’t reveal his secret and thankfully, he looked the epitome of health.

“Crikey.” Brylee’s eyes were perceptive as she stared between them. “Sneaking into the parlor for some tomfoolery, are we now?”

“No! Brylee. Oh my!” Julie didn’t dare look at Shawn. She’d been hoping for some tomfoolery, and that was awful of her. Even if Mercedes could approve of them being together someday, her friend certainly wouldn’t condone them flirting on her funeral day. ‘Crikey’ was right. Julie didn’t actually know what ‘crikey’ meant, but it seemed to fit.

She hurried to hug Cash and Brylee, her cheeks hot. Hopefully Shawn didn’t know where her thoughts had led her. She was humiliated by how drawn she was to him and here he’d called her some nasty nickname. What did it matter if she’d always had a secret crush on him?

She glanced over as he shook Cash’s hand and the men talked in quiet tones.

As if he could sense her looking at him, he looked at her and gave her a compassionate smile. Compassionate. Embarrassed by her longing for him. Was she that transparent? She’d have to hide her feelings better.

If only there was a chance Shawn would look at her as something more than a friend.

But she knew the truth. Shawn was committed to Mercedes even after death.

Julie could not be infatuated with her friend’s man at the tackiest time possible. It was all kinds of wrong.

End of tragic romance before it even began.

Chapter

Three

Shawn glanced around Franz’s spacious office. He was chafing to get done with this reading of the will. Uncomfortable didn’t begin to describe how he felt about what Wallace would soon reveal to Julie. His discomfort was about to quadruple.

He couldn’t be flirting with Julie. Not now. Maybe not ever. It was fortuitous they’d been interrupted. If he would’ve admitted to her that ‘unnasti’ meant ‘lover’ in Viking Norse. While he leaned in close and stared into her alluring brown eyes, what would she have said?

The hilarious Julie might have either laughed at him, kissed him, or slapped him for hitting on her at Mercedes’s funeral. Everybody in the world, except Jagger and Hays who saw straight through him, thought he and Mercedes were a couple. As far as he knew, Mercedes had even hidden the truth from her closest friend Julie.

It’s not actual lying, Mercedes had said, because I do love you, just not in the way everybody thinks I do.

He supposed she was right. Most of the time, his role as Mercedes boyfriend slash bodyguard fit him just fine. Except when it made it impossible to tell Julie the truth. Would there ever be a time he could confide in Julie about this elaborate stratagem of Franz and Mercedes? Shawn had been involved in the initial planning four years ago when Mercedes’s body had rejected the second donor heart, and part of the implementation of the plan for years.

The role he played felt natural and real. He’d played it so long he didn’t give it a second thought. It had been awkward when he and Mercedes had to kiss in the exotic kingdoms of Augustine and Magna for some photo shoots, but they had gotten through it. If he’d ever questioned whether he truly had platonic feelings for Mercedes, he only had to meet Julie’s gaze, or touch her hand or her lower back. He was instantly reminded of what a man should feel when he locked gazes with or touched the woman he longed for—warmth, joy, tingles—not that he’d ever tell anybody he knew what ‘tingles’ felt like.

Franz had asked him not to reveal the truth and even appear to be dating anyone until everything was in place, every legal t crossed and i dotted and they were certain Lucas and Arianna had no recourse. It was funny that Julie had teased that he and Wallace knew each other so well. Brandon Wallace was the only person besides Franz, Mercedes, and Shawn who knew the plan. Wallace had researched the structure of their family fortune and the particulars of how it was inherited down to every last word. He’d advised the legal course they’d taken, dealt with all the paperwork and structure, and was certain the judges would give their approval.

Soon, the world would know the approved version of the truth about Shawn and Mercedes. He would be the legal heir to an enormous and diversified family fortune. Truth be told, Shawn didn’t want wealth. He was uncomfortable with it. He never wanted something he hadn’t earned. Growing up with nothing but his pride and his ability to fight, he’d learned to loathe any well-meaning handouts. Except for his Mama T’s generosity, but it had been obvious from the start that Mama T helped him out of love, not pity. Any friend of Grayson’s is part of our family.

But this was for Franz and Mercedes, to protect their legacy from falling into the filthy hands of Lucas and Arianna Belle. Franz had it on good authority that they were in league with the vicious and deceitful Catherine Oliver. Franz used to consider Catherine a friend and had made the mistake of telling her that her son Thomas Oliver, aka Quaid Raven, was on Mercedes’s reality show in the mountains of Augustine.

Everything had exploded after that. Franz had felt horrible, and luckily Cash, Sutton Smith, and Aiden Porter were able to help rescue Quaid.