No Rings Attached: A Novel (Ms. Right) Read online

  Lia’s eyes were gritty behind her glasses as she made her way down the jet bridge into Heathrow Airport. Her flight had been delayed out of New York, and consequently it was already past noon here in London. Lia never slept well on overnight flights. She’d watched two movies and dozed a bit here and there, and now, she was exhausted.

  Still, she was excited to be back in the UK, and she had the rest of the day to herself in London before she drove to her parents’ house in Sevenoaks tomorrow. She’d hoped to spend the afternoon at the British Museum. Lia’s love of museums—and this one in particular—was legendary among her friends, but with her delayed arrival, there probably wasn’t time. Maybe she’d nap instead.

  Lia yawned as she inched through the customs line, scrolling through notifications on her phone as it pulled in everything she’d missed while she’d been over the Atlantic. There were several texts from Rosie, an email from her mother, and a text from an unknown number. Lia clicked on that one first.

  Unknown:

  At long last we meet! Dinner tonight to get introductions out of the way? ~ Grace

  Lia Harris:

  That sounds perfect. Just name the time and place, and I’ll be there.

  Lia stored Grace’s number in her contacts, too tired to work out how she felt about seeing Grace tonight. While she was undeniably curious and even a little bit excited to finally meet Rosie’s elusive friend, she wasn’t sure she wanted to spend several days with her at her parents’ house, pretending Grace was her girlfriend. She had serious doubts that Grace would even agree to the plan, but at least they’d finally meet.

  Lia sent off a quick message to Rosie and one to her mom, letting them know she’d arrived safely. What felt like a million hours later, she finally left the airport and made her way to the underground. From there, she rode the train downtown and checked into her hotel. Her room was small but clean, and right now, that bed was calling her name. She freshened up in the bathroom and climbed right in, then set an alarm to wake herself in an hour so she wouldn’t sleep through dinner with Grace.

  When the alarm jolted her awake at four o’clock, she grumbled into her pillow, reaching blindly for her phone to shut it off. She felt groggy and out of sorts, with a dull headache from her disjointed sleep and probably some dehydration from the flight. She got up, drank a glass of water from the sink, and took a shower.

  Grace had texted her the name of a pub in Covent Garden and asked if Lia wanted to go with her to a show afterward. Apparently, Grace’s roommate was one of the performers. Lia sent her a quick confirmation, and then she finished getting ready and headed out. She hopped on the Tube and rode across town, taking a quick detour to walk through the gardens along the Thames for some much-needed fresh air before she made her way to the Flying Pig.

  The pub was loud and crowded, and God, she’d missed this. She did love an English pub. There was nothing quite like it in the States. She’d arrived right on time, but there was no sign of Grace, so Lia made her way to the bar and ordered an amber ale. She and Grace were Facebook friends, so Lia was confident she’d recognize her when she saw her . . . if she saw her.

  Because it wouldn’t surprise Lia a bit if Grace bailed on her, and this time, she could hardly even blame her. It couldn’t be Grace’s idea of a good time to spend the weekend with Lia and her family, pretending to be her girlfriend. She sipped her beer, relaxing on the stool as the noise of the bar swallowed her up.

  She was halfway through her beer before she saw a familiar figure slip through the door, and . . . wow. Grace was a striking woman. Her hair was dark brown, hanging almost to her waist in loose, shiny waves. Her complexion was several shades darker than Lia’s, and her lips were painted a vivacious red. She wore a black knit dress that clung to her figure, and as she scanned the bar, her gaze settled on Lia.

  Grace’s smile brightened, and she crossed the bar as Lia stood from her stool to greet her. She was significantly taller than Grace, who leaned in for a quick hug and an air-kiss on each cheek, reminding Lia of how long she’d lived in Europe.

  “So you do exist,” Lia said as they faced each other.

  Grace’s expression hardened, just slightly, just enough for Lia to realize she’d offended her, which was not at all the first impression she’d wanted to make. “I sure do,” Grace said lightly. “And you—as I had apparently forgotten—are British.”

  Lia nodded with a smile. “We make an interesting pair, a Brit from New York and an American living in London.”

  “Yes, we do,” Grace agreed. “Should we get a table, or do you want to stay at the bar?”

  “A table,” Lia said. “I’m starved. I haven’t eaten since my flight.”

  Grace led the way to the hostess desk, where they were shown to a small table against the back wall. Grace settled across from her, and for a moment, they regarded each other in silence. Lia wasn’t shy, and she didn’t get the impression that Grace was, either, but something seemed to be making this awkward. Maybe it was the way they’d known each other peripherally for so many years through Rosie without ever meeting in person, or maybe it was the fact that Grace had come here tonight because Lia needed a wedding date.

  Grace lowered her gaze to the drink menu in front of her. “You must be tired after your flight.”

  “Exhausted,” Lia confirmed. “But I had a nap at the hotel, so I’m hoping it will fuel me through the evening.”

  “That’s good,” Grace said, toying with a strand of her hair as she studied the menu, and well, this conversation was off to a stilted start.

  “How do you like London so far?” Lia asked.

  Grace immediately brightened, looking up with a smile. “It was love at first sight. I’d forgotten how much I love city life. So yeah, I think this was a good move.”

  “I’m glad,” Lia said. “I’m a city girl as well. Do you know many people here yet?”

  “Mostly just my roommate, Oliver, so far. We met through a mutual friend in Spain. He’s a dancer, so he’s introduced me to plenty of his theater friends, and they’re a lot of fun.”

  “Is Oliver just your roommate?” Lia asked, because a boyfriend would make her request even more awkward, and she wasn’t sure of Grace’s sexuality. She’d always had the impression that Grace was queer—and Rosie probably wouldn’t have suggested this if Grace were straight—but Lia couldn’t actually remember her mentioning Grace’s dating anyone.

  “Roommate only,” Grace confirmed. “He’s gay. I’m gay. My ideal roommate situation. No potential for awkward attraction.”

  “That’s good,” Lia said with a laugh. “Somehow, I share an apartment with several other queer women, and we’ve managed to avoid any uncomfortable attraction between friends.”

  “I’m super intimidated by your roommate situation,” Grace admitted. “Ollie’s actually my first roommate since college. I lived alone in Spain, but I think I prefer rooming with a man for that very reason.”

  “Luckily, I’m not prone to crushes on my friends,” Lia said.

  “Never?” Grace asked, eyebrows raised.

  Lia spun her beer glass, thinking. “No, actually. Never.”

  “That’s impressive,” Grace said. “I thought it was, like, a lesbian requirement to fall for at least one of your friends.”

  “Well, I’m not a lesbian,” Lia told her.

  “Bi?” Grace asked.

  “Yes. So you have, then? Fallen for a friend?”

  “Once,” Grace told her, dropping her gaze to the menu again.

  “Hello, ladies,” their waiter said, interrupting their conversation before Lia could ask more. “Can I start you off with another pint? Or are you ready to order?”

  Grace ordered a lager and a chicken salad, while Lia got another ale and the steak pie, because she was famished, and it was an indulgence she missed in New York.

  “So,” Grace said after he’d left, propping her elbows on the table as she stared at Lia. “Let’s talk about this wedding.”

  “Please feel free to say no,” Lia told her. “I’m really glad I got to meet you tonight, but the wedding involves a whole weekend with my family and letting them think you’re my girlfriend, so it’s kind of a huge ask.”

  “It is,” Grace agreed, looking none too thrilled at the prospect. “And for the record, I hate weddings.”

  “Then let’s just have dinner and leave it at that,” Lia told her. It was one thing to bring an actual girlfriend with her to London. It would be another thing entirely to pretend with Grace, who was essentially a stranger. There was a lingering awkwardness between them that made Lia think she might prefer to spend the weekend on her own, even though her mother would be insufferable if she showed up alone.

  “Rosie was awfully persuasive on the phone on your behalf,” Grace said, sounding skeptical. “Aren’t you even going to try to convince me?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Give me your best pitch,” Grace told Lia. “Maybe I’ll say yes.” She didn’t want to go to this wedding with Lia, not even a little bit, but she was curious why it was so important to her that she’d even consider taking Grace.

  Lia sat back in her chair, giving Grace a long look as she drank her beer. She was an attractive woman, with wavy, light-brown hair and glasses that gave her a bit of a studious look. In fact, Grace had always gotten a serious vibe from Lia’s Facebook posts, but she didn’t come across that way in person. There was humor lurking behind Lia’s words, and her clothing suggested she was more of a free spirit. She wore a blue skirt with an off-the-shoulder white top that flattered her figure, and her accent was sexy as hell. Grace had always been a sucker for a British accent.

  “Here’s the thing,” Lia said finally. “I’m the middle child in a very traditional, career-oriented family. My young
er sister, Audrey, is married and working as a psychologist. My older brother, Colin, is getting married this weekend. He and his wife-to-be work in the financial sector. My parents are both doctors. And I, as my mother so eloquently puts it, moved an ocean away to work in retail while sharing an apartment with four other women. Perhaps, if I put my degree to better use, I’d be a museum curator by now. Maybe then I’d be able to find a man willing to settle down with me.”

  Grace flinched. “I’m sorry. I’ve known families like that. Are they not supportive of your sexuality?”

  Lia shrugged, pushing at her glasses. “On the surface, they’re very supportive. But while they’ve welcomed my girlfriends, they’ve also dropped some not-so-subtle hints that they’re hoping I’ll marry a man.”

  Grace sighed. “And that just makes me want to flaunt my very gay self all over that wedding this weekend.”

  Lia’s lips twitched with a smile. “Earlier this year, I dated a woman for a few weeks. I thought it might be the start of something serious, and when my mum started needling me, I just blurted out that I was seeing someone. I usually don’t tell her unless things are serious, but God, it was so nice to have a reprieve from her constant inquiries into my relationship status.”

  “But you and this woman broke up?” Grace asked.

  Lia nodded. “We broke up, but somehow . . . I never told my mother.”

  “Oh jeez,” Grace said.

  Lia sighed. “Right. So she thinks I’m bringing this girlfriend to the wedding. I never gave her any specifics, so she has no idea who my girlfriend is. It could easily be you.”

  “Hmm,” Grace said. She could totally understand how that had happened, and while she balked at anything resembling an actual relationship, maybe she could handle a fake one.

  “The real kicker is that my ex will be there, as well as his parents,” Lia told her. “Both of our mothers are still convinced we’d be the perfect couple, and I have a feeling that he agrees with them.”

  “He’s still into you?” Grace asked.

  Lia’s lips pressed into a thin line. “According to my mother, he’s still interested, but I don’t know for sure. It’s been a long time.”

  “How long?”

  “Secondary school. We dated for three years in our teens, and I did love him, but I didn’t feel like he was the one, you know? Our families were talking about sending us to the same university and planning our eventual marriage. I felt suffocated, to the point that I broke up with him and enrolled in college in New York.”

  “He’s the reason you moved to New York?” Grace’s eyebrows rose. “Wow.”

  “He’s a big part of the reason,” Lia said. “I had a very sheltered upbringing, and I wanted to see the world. I wanted to have an adventure. Plus, I’d just realized I was bi, and I wanted the chance to date girls.”

  “Well, good for you. Was the adventure worth it?”

  “It was.” Lia stared into her beer, lips pursed, looking suddenly less confident.

  “You sure about that?” Grace asked.

  Lia lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “I guess the adventure didn’t play out exactly how I’d envisioned it, but I have no regrets.”

  “What part didn’t go to plan?”

  “Traveling,” Lia said. “I wanted to go places. I wanted to explore museums in every city I could find.”

  “Interesting,” Grace said, and she meant it. She sipped her beer, picturing young Lia exploring museums around the world. The image made her smile. “So why didn’t you?”

  “Rosie’s mum got sick right after we graduated, and then she and I took over the bookstore together. That store keeps us busy.”

  “Yes, it does,” Grace agreed. She hadn’t visited in a long time, but it seemed like Rosie was always at the store, and she assumed Lia was too. And this was the thing she and Lia had in common . . . their love for Rosie.

  “So my grand adventure began and ended in Manhattan, but like I said . . . no regrets.”

  “Because of Rosie?” Grace asked.

  Lia nodded as she lifted her beer. “I’d do anything for her.”

  That made two of them, and it was the reason Grace was going to say yes. She was deeply uncomfortable with the idea of spending an entire weekend with Lia’s family, pretending to be her girlfriend, but she owed Rosie for all the times she’d bailed on her over the years. At least Lia was better company than Grace had expected. Under different circumstances, she might actually enjoy hanging out with her. “All right. I’ll do it. I’ll be your wedding date.”

  Lia and Grace arrived at the theater just before seven. Lia paused for a moment to study the posters on the building. Grace’s roommate was part of an ensemble musical called Inside Out that Lia wasn’t familiar with. She enjoyed going to the theater, though, so she was looking forward to the evening ahead.

  Actually, she was so relieved that Grace had agreed to be her fake girlfriend for the weekend that nothing could spoil her mood tonight. This musical was just the icing on her London-themed wedding cake.

  “Ready?” Grace asked. The light from the marquee cast a golden glow over her face and highlighted the way that dress clung to her curves. Stunning.

  “Yeah.” Lia pushed her hands into the pockets of her skirt and gave her head a quick shake, because while there was no denying Grace was a beautiful woman, she was also one of Rosie’s best friends, so a real relationship between her and Lia would be extremely complicated, to say the least. She followed Grace to the door, where an usher scanned the tickets on Grace’s phone. “Have you seen the show yet?” Lia asked.

  “Yes,” Grace told her. “This’ll be my third time. I’m kind of a theater buff, or at least I used to be, before I moved to Spain.”

  “Don’t they have much theater?” Lia asked as they stepped inside. She took a moment to look around, because she loved old theaters, although the lobby of this one was fairly small and crowded, preventing her from soaking up the ambiance.

  “They do,” Grace told her, “but I lived too far outside the city to take advantage of it.”

  “So you went to a lot of Broadway shows before you left New York?”

  A funny expression crossed Grace’s face, one Lia couldn’t quite read. She knew Grace’s parents had died in a car crash when she was a teenager and that she’d lived with Rosie and her mom for a while afterward before moving to Spain to be near her grandmother, and suddenly, Lia felt inconsiderate for bringing it up. Rosie had lost her mom at a young age, too, but she loved to talk about her and reminisce on fond memories, to the point where perhaps Lia had forgotten that not everyone handled grief in a similar way.

  “I love Broadway,” Grace said, casual smile back in place. “In fact, when I was a little girl, I wanted to be one of those glamorous people onstage, singing and dancing in fancy costumes. I was pretty smitten with the idea.”

  “Did you ever give it a try?”

  Grace laughed quietly as she led the way into the seating area. “No. I took dance lessons for a few years, but alas, I’m not very good at it. I do love watching, though.”

  Lia paused in the doorway as she swept her gaze around the theater. It was oval shaped with a high ceiling, intricately painted in a baroque style with sculpted molding that was brightly gilded. The seats were a plush rose-colored velvet, and the stage loomed before them, currently cloaked in a white curtain. “Wow.”

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Grace looked around with appreciation. “It took my breath away the first time I stepped inside.”

  “It’s taking mine right now.” Lia stood there another moment while she soaked it all in, loving the rush she got in a building like this, an architectural high. When she glanced beside her, Grace was watching her quietly. “Sorry. Just geeking out a little bit.”

  “Well, don’t apologize for that,” Grace said. “Too many people go through life without taking time to appreciate the little things that bring them joy.”

  “Deep thoughts,” Lia said as they walked to their seats, about midway back in the stalls. “These are great seats.”

  “A few weeks ago, I downloaded an app that has daily lotteries for last-minute free and reduced-price seats to most shows. I’ve been putting my name into as many drawings as I can, and I’ve gotten to see so many shows.”