Substitute Wife For The Blind CEO

Rayna unlocked the front door, still faintly smiling as she stepped inside. The warmth of the evening lingered in her skin, in the soft fluttering in her chest, in the memory of Ethan’s touch—so gentle, so deliberate—as he’d tucked that stray hair behind her ear.

She sighed quietly and leaned against the door after closing it, kicking off her heels with a soft groan of relief. Her heart still hadn’t slowed down, and it wasn’t from the walking. It was something else. Something headier, lighter. Something she hadn’t let herself feel in a very long time.

"Finally."

Rayna jumped, her eyes flying to the couch where Ruby sat cross-legged with a bowl of popcorn in her lap, wrapped in a throw blanket like a late-night gossip fairy waiting to strike.

"Ruby!" Rayna pressed a hand to her chest. "You scared me! I thought you would already be asleep."

Ruby grinned impishly. "Please. As if I could sleep knowing my best friend was out on a date with her ’Mr. Ethan’ after vanishing for two hours."

Rayna chuckled, kicking the shoes farther into the corner before making her way toward Ruby. "It wasn’t two hours."

"It was three and a half, thank you very much. You left at seven. It’s past ten-thirty."

Rayna sat on the armrest beside her sister-friend, tossing her bag onto the nearby armchair and reaching into the popcorn bowl without asking. "What are you, my parole officer?"

"Nope. Just the girl who had to sit here replaying the last five years of Grey’s Anatomy to stop imagining you locked in a trunk or spiraled at the back seat of your car, smashing him," Ruby quipped, then narrowed her eyes teasingly. "So... how was it?"

Rayna popped a piece of popcorn in her mouth, chewing slowly and pretending to be bored. "It was fine."

Ruby’s brows shot up. "Fine? That’s all I’m getting after waiting this long?"