The Marriage Rescue

by Shirley Jump

  “A little.” But the admission warmed her, and erased a little of the uncomfortable air between them. “But I appreciate it. I tend to get quiet when I’m nervous, or out of my comfort zone. And this whole situation is on another planet from my comfort zone.”

  He leaned against the wall beside his door, his hands in his pockets, looking so casual and comfortable that Beth wanted to lean into him and soak up some of that. If this had been a normal relationship, she would have, drawing strength and warmth from her man.

  “I’ve never done anything remotely like this before,” Grady said. “I’ve never lived with a woman, and I’ve sure as hell never lived with one with her father under the same roof.”

  “And pretended you were engaged,” she added softly.

  “That, too.” Grady scuffed at the wood floor. “Listen, I know this whole wedding thing and moving in with me was my idea, and you kind of got swept up into it, but you can call a halt to it at any time. I never meant to put you in an awkward position. I just—”

  She put a finger over his lips in a quick, impetuous move. She’d meant only to stop his protests, but the movement brought her within inches of him, and as he cut himself off, his mouth moved against her finger. Her pulse accelerated, and it seemed every nerve ending in her body was in that touch against his lips.

  “Don’t, Grady. Please. This is the happiest I’ve seen my father in years. I would give up pretty much anything to keep him feeling that way. You’ve done something so...” she bit her lip “...selfless, and I can’t thank you enough.”

  He cut his gaze away, as if he was embarrassed by the praise or uncomfortable with the emotion in her voice. “No problem. I, uh, have work to do, Beth. I’ll see you at dinner.”

  Then he was gone, and Beth was left alone in the hall. She picked up her suitcase and ducked into her room, telling herself that she was more relieved than disappointed that he’d walked away without welcoming her into his home with a kiss.

  * * *

  As much as Grady had worried about running into Beth and having to pretend like they were madly in love, they were rarely in the same room, and so the need to pretend didn’t come up as often as he’d expected. For his part, Grady stayed busy with work. He’d set up an office in the den, and spent most of his day on the computer or on the phone, avoiding another moment like that one in the hall. The house was on the market but there’d been minimal interest thus far, which Savannah said would change soon. Beth busied herself with training Monster, taking care of grooming appointments and arranging her father’s doctor’s visits and physical therapy. At the end of the day, she was often so exhausted that she went to bed soon after her father did, leaving Grady as the only one awake in a house that felt bigger and emptier in those dim hours. The only time they had to keep up the sham of being a couple was at dinner. Her father insisted on a family sit-down meal every single night, and that was where Grady and Beth flirted and feigned a relationship, while Reggie regaled Grady with stories about his fights.

  The more time he spent with her, the more clearly Grady saw the toll everything took on Beth. She was constantly running between places, worrying about her father, trying to keep her clients happy, helping with the housework... It was a lot for one person’s shoulders, so Grady opted to take over the meal planning and prep.

  He was surprised when he turned out to be a pretty good cook. Maybe it was a trait he shared with Nick—whom he’d begun texting often for advice on recipes. For Grady, cooking proved to be a relaxing, enjoyable activity, and a means of rebuilding his bond with his brother. That was a win right there. Grady reached out to Ryder, too, and after a hiccupped start, the two brothers talked and texted and vowed to get together soon. Grady vowed to never let that much distance get between him and his brothers again.

  Over dinner the first night, they’d talked about favorite meals, and Grady had made mental notes. Beth loved pasta, hated mushrooms, was allergic to raw onions, and was a fan of anything with cheese on top, even if Grady nixed the heavy layers of cheese as unhealthy. Her father was on a heart-healthy diet, which meant low in sodium and high in vegetables. Armed with that information, Grady had scoured the internet for recipes and how-to videos. By Wednesday, he was whipping up stuffed peppers with brown rice and a grating of parmesan on top, then a stir-fry for Thursday’s dinner. With Beth just a few feet away at night, Grady rose before the sun and spent his time making breakfast, so he wouldn’t think about slipping into bed with his wife-to-be.

  He looked forward to the evening meal the most. There was something homey about sitting at Ida Mae’s mahogany dining table under the soft glow of the chandelier, saying grace and passing the rolls to the woman across from him. It felt like it transported Grady into a whole other world than the one he’d always known. A world that was temporary, he reminded himself, when the dishes were done and the dining room was empty.

  Every day, he talked to Dan, who was back at work, but with reduced hours. The deadline to buy the company in Manhattan was Monday, the day after Grady’s “wedding.” So far, he’d ignored Jim’s repeated attempts at contact to talk about the buyout offer. There was no way Grady wanted to concede defeat or give up the company he’d worked hard to build.

  A few people had come to look at the house, but even though Savannah had created an aggressive marketing campaign, no offers had been made. Grady had lowered the price, and talked to the Realtor often, but except for one very lowball offer that was laughable, there was zero activity on the sales front. Grady couldn’t understand it—a family home sitting on the water in a small town seemed like the quintessential purchase.

  “Not sold yet?” Cutler Shay had asked this morning when Grady was outside, sweeping the driveway.

  “Not yet.”

  Cutler smiled. “Probably Ida Mae’s doing. I bet she’s up there in heaven, shooing people away. She would want you to stay here, son.”

  Grady just nodded, instead of debating ghostly interference in real estate deals.

  Friday night, two days before the “wedding,” Grady couldn’t sleep. Hell, he’d barely slept since Beth moved in. When he did, she starred in his dreams, long blond hair spread across his pillow, with her wearing that smile he loved so much...and nothing else. Those were the good dreams. The bad ones were about everything falling apart.

  After an hour of fitful sleep, he’d jerked awake, caught in that spiral of panicky thoughts about Dan, the business and the deal. He paced his room, concentrated on his breathing. Read a little, but didn’t retain a single word. Checked his email, surfed the web, but his mind kept drifting back to money and choices. Finally, he gave up and went downstairs. The house was silent, the world dark. The grandfather clock in the hallway ticked past two in the morning.

  In the kitchen, he put two pieces of bread into the toaster and got the peanut butter out of the cabinet. While he waited, he poured a glass of milk, then set it on the counter and watched the toaster count down to zero. He wasn’t even hungry, but figured maybe the carbs and dairy would make him sleepy.

  “Can’t sleep either?” Beth’s soft voice filled the kitchen, and the tightness in Grady’s chest immediately began to ease.

  He pivoted toward her. “Nope. You, too?”

  “I don’t sleep, period. I’m either worrying or working.” She nodded toward the carton of milk. He handed it to her, then reached past her head to retrieve a glass from the cabinet. When he did, he could smell the warm fragrance of her laundry detergent, and almost feel the softness of her T-shirt. She was wearing a pair of pink plaid pajama pants, slung low over her hips and secured by a drawstring. Her feet were bare, her toes painted a bright coral. There was something so intimate about those bare feet and this moment, so...long-term couple.

  “You worrying about your company?” she asked.

  “Always. And sleeping even less than normal.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s all this fresh air. Or the sound of n
ight birds outside my window instead of traffic.” Or the woman sleeping across the hall from me.

  “I toss and turn, always feeling like there are ten million things I should be doing and not nearly enough time to do them. And I worry that my dad is doing too much. I wish...” She shook her head. “It’s not really your worry. Sorry.”

  He started to say lean on me, Beth, that’s what I’m here for, when the toast popped and interrupted him. He’d lost the appetite for the snack, but assembled it just to have something to do. If nothing else, it would keep him from making promises he couldn’t keep.

  He poured some milk into her glass, put the container back in the fridge, then turned to go before he did something stupid like kiss her. Because he sure wanted to. He wanted to do a hell of a lot more, things that all began and ended with Beth in his arms and a smile on her face.

  But this wasn’t a long-term relationship. Come next week, if all went well, Grady would be on a plane back to New York and Beth would be back in her little house, playing the part of a new bride with a husband in another state. What was the sense in starting something he couldn’t finish? With the kind of woman who deserved more than just a few-nights stands?

  “Sleep well, Beth.” He started to walk away.

  “Grady.”

  One word, a soft whisper in the dark. He turned back. “What?”

  She dropped her gaze to the floor and paused a second before speaking. “I should say something before I lose the nerve. If you want to bow out of this whole thing, I’d understand.”

  “Bow out of our wedding?”

  “You offered me an out, and I should have said the same to you.” She nodded, her face serious, unreadable. “Marrying me, even if it’s for only a day, is so far above and beyond what anyone would do for me, or my father. I think it’s a great thing, I really do, and I’m incredibly grateful, but this isn’t necessary. You have a life somewhere else. A life you are missing because of this. Truly, don’t worry about me or my dad. We’ll be fine regardless.”

  She was telling him to go. To head back to New York, and leave her and this town in his past. If he did, he’d be free to concentrate on his business again, instead of wondering if he should roast a pork shoulder for dinner or whether he took the trash out before coming to bed. Once the house sold, he’d be on his way back in his world of taxis, household help, and meals that appeared after a single phone call. It would take some time to rebuild, but eventually, he’d even have enough money to go back to his expansive thirtieth-floor apartment with a view of the Hudson. An apartment so empty that it echoed when he walked through it.

  An apartment where he wouldn’t run into Beth in the middle of the night. A dining room where he would eat his meals alone instead of with her and her father. A bedroom a thousand miles away from her. Yes, he was going back to New York. But he wasn’t doing that today or tomorrow, and he didn’t want to think about returning to the city until he was boarding a plane. Right now, all he saw was Beth, looking vulnerable and unsure. All he knew was how much he wanted to hold her tight.

  “I don’t want to bow out.” Grady set his plate and glass on the counter, then crossed to Beth. He took her glass out of her hands and placed it on the counter in turn. She stared up at him, her eyes wide, and his heart flipped.

  Damn. He was falling for her.

  The realization hit him hard and fast. When had that happened? When had this whole thing gone from a business arrangement to something more? And what the hell was he going to do about that?

  He took her hands in his and tugged her close. She let out a little squeak of surprise, but fitted into the space between his legs and against his chest like she was the other half of his body. In the weeks since he’d walked into her grooming salon, she’d become the other half of his thoughts, his brain, easing the parts of him that tightened and panicked.

  Maybe it was the intimacy of the dark kitchen, or the fact that they were getting married in two days, but the words that his mind had been dancing around all those hours when he couldn’t sleep, the words that had just formed in his head a second ago, slipped out. “I’m falling in love with you, Beth.”

  “You...what?”

  Holy hell. Did he just say that out loud? Way to leap without thinking again. But this time, it felt different, felt right, to tell her what had been bubbling in his heart for days. He was falling for her, and leaving was going to be oh-so-complicated. Later, Grady decided, he would figure that out. For now, there was Beth.

  “We’ve spent so much time together, and you’re even more amazing than you were in high school,” he said. “So different from any woman I’ve ever dated. You’re not just smart and funny and beautiful, you’re real and grounded. You ground me, when I’m ready to jump out of my skin with worry. I didn’t even realize I wanted someone like that until I met you.”

  She backed up until she hit the countertop, her hands in the air and her head shaking from side to side. “Grady, we’re not doing this for real. Whatever you’re feeling is just an illusion created by all that flirting and close proximity.”

  “Is that what you think, Beth? Because that’s not even remotely close to what I’m feeling right now. Or, I suspect, what you’re feeling.” He closed the distance between them again, reached up and cupped her jaw, then kissed her, slowly and sweetly. She yielded to him, clutching at his back, deepening the kiss until they were both breathing heavily and he couldn’t see straight.

  Damn, she was addicting and intoxicating. The desire that had simmered between them from that very first day came to a full boil, and Grady stopped giving a damn about what was real and what wasn’t.

  He hoisted her onto the counter, slid between her legs and slipped his hands under the cotton T-shirt. When his palms cupped her breasts, Beth let out a gasp. He was already hard, desire raging in his body like a fire ripping through a dry forest. Every woman he had ever dated paled in comparison to Beth, who was the first woman he’d ever met who made him want—

  More. More of her. More of this. More of everything.

  He lifted the shirt, exposing her bare skin to the air. Her nipples hardened, inviting him to drop his mouth to her breast, tasting, then teasing the hard nub until her legs wrapped around him and her hands tangled in his hair, and all she could say was his name in one long, desperate breath.

  He kissed her again, his hands lifting the pale gold tresses from her neck, then letting the silky waves run through his fingers. When that wasn’t enough, he thought about taking this further, taking it—

  Where? Upstairs? To his bed and a one-night stand? Hadn’t he just been thinking that Beth wasn’t a love-and-leave kind of girl? And if there was one thing Grady was doing next week, it was leaving. No matter how he felt, no matter what happened Sunday, he had to go back to reality on Monday. And yet, knowing that didn’t negate what he could feel growing between them every time they connected. Something that neither of them could keep on denying.

  He drew back. Beth’s eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed, her breath coming in heavy gasps, and he wanted to kiss her all over again. Instead, he planted his hands on the counter on either side of her. “Was that an illusion?”

  She shook her head, more in disbelief than in argument. “If it wasn’t, then what was it? Because we’re getting married Sunday and then you’re leaving, last I knew. This isn’t love, Grady, it’s...something else.”

  “Come to New York with me,” he said. “I sublet my place, but I can end that lease. I have plenty of room in my apartment and we can even keep that silly dog and—”

  “My father is here, and I can’t leave him when he’s so sick and needs me so much. My business is here.” She sighed. “And my heart is here, in this town, with my dad.”

  Which meant her heart wasn’t with him. She wasn’t falling in love with him, and she wasn’t about to. To Beth, this was still a business deal.

  He’d let
himself get caught up in the moment, which had him acting irrationally. Believing something that wasn’t true. Once again, Grady had taken a risk without thinking it through.

  And it had backfired. Again.

  “You’re right.” He stepped back, and cool air invaded the space where Beth’s warm body had been a second earlier. He grabbed the milk and toast he no longer wanted, then headed up to his room.

  Chapter Nine

  Beth slipped into the white dress, feeling like a fraud. The reflection she saw in the mirror said bride—with her mother’s A-line wedding dress accenting her figure—but her mind said liar. She could justify the dress and the ceremony all day by saying it was for a good reason, but the fact remained that the entire wedding was a sham.

  After that night in the kitchen, when Grady said he was falling in love with her, a part of her had dared to hope the fiction might be turning real. Until he’d asked her to go to New York with him. That was when she’d realized that they were two very different people who wanted two very different lives. Grady wasn’t the settle-down-in-a-small-town type, and there was nothing Beth wanted more than a place where she felt settled. She’d spent the first half of her life with her father gone, her mother incapacitated and her home anything but a place of refuge or comfort. Now that she had what she’d always wanted—time with her father to build a relationship—there was nothing that would get her to leave that behind.

  She suspected her dad felt the same. For all his faults when she was young, he’d made up for it in spades over the last few days. He’d insisted on taking on the wedding planning. It had done him good, giving him a purpose that he had long been without. With the wedding details off her to-do list, Beth had put her head down, concentrating on her business and managing her father’s appointments, and just agreed whenever Reggie asked her questions. Yes to flowers, yes to getting lasagna from Viv’s café. Yes to a cake from the new baker in town. Whenever Beth offered to help, her dad told her not to worry about anything more than putting on her dress and showing up on time. “This gives me something to do, Bethie,” he’d said. “Something that makes me happy. I haven’t been this happy in a long, long time.”