by Abby Brooks
I fiddled with my straw, glancing up to meet his gaze. “I do think we should kiss in public,” I said slowly, “at least every now and then, just to make everything seem real. But I meant what I said at Amelia’s. We can’t keep doing that when we’re alone. Not if we want things to stay professional between us.”
“Yeah. Sure. Fine. We’ll only kiss when people can see us.” Jude’s focus was everywhere but on me and when he added only public kissing to the list, he stabbed an angry period at the end of the entry.
Somehow, that vicious little dot on the screen had me fighting a smile.
“We’ll obviously have to live together at some point,” I said, biting my lip, “since that’s what married people do. Which one of us sells their house?”
Jude put the pencil on the tablet and sat back. “Obviously it’ll be you who sells. My place is awesome. Plus, I have all the space we’ll need. You can sleep in one spare room. Brennen can have the other. And I’ll convert the office into a room for the baby since I do most of my work at the bar.”
“Holy shit. We’re negotiating how to set up our family.” The thought hit me hard. Everything was happening so fast. I was suddenly about to be a mom, a wife, and a stepmom to a teenager I’d never met. There was no way I was ready for this. Our burgers arrived and I crunched into a fry, chewing thoughtfully while Jude bobbed his head.
“That settles it. You’ll move into my house. My offer the other night was genuine. I’ll pay your mortgage while you’re with me, or maybe we can find someone to rent it. I mean, if we still think we should divorce after Brennen turns eighteen…”
“It’ll kind of be hard for both of us to be involved parents if we divorce.”
Jude nodded, sighing as his eyes locked with mine. “This marriage seems less and less fake by the minute. We’re really talking about forever.”
I sighed as I bobbed my head. “It looks like maybe we are.”
CHAPTER TEN
Jude
I fucking loved my bar. I loved the energy of people coming together to have a good time. I loved the music. The sound of overlapping conversation and laughter. It was my way of contributing to the peace and well-being of my hometown by giving us a place to unwind and have a fun night with friends.
Which was exactly what I planned on doing tonight.
Jess—my most experienced waitress—had been training to run the place on my days off, and tonight was a test run with her in charge. She’d hold down the Cheers ‘n Beers fort, but I’d be completely available if something went wrong, since I’d be hanging out and having drinks with the gang.
With much trepidation on my part, Izzy and I had decided we needed to tell our friends about our plans. She insisted they deserved to understand why we were suddenly in love and then boom! Married out of the blue. I agreed, albeit reluctantly. Alex would hate me for dating his little sister, but our friendship dictated that he deserved the truth. The rest of the town, however, would not know our relationship was fake, and tonight marked my official first date with Izzy.
Complete with public displays of affection…so we were all in for a ride.
Alex and Evie arrived first, and the three of us claimed a table big enough to fit everyone. Jack and Amelia, having had the good fortune of actually finding a babysitter on a Monday night, showed up a few minutes later. Obviously, that meant Austin would be next because Izzy was chronically late to everything…
Only, the next time the door cracked open, she stepped through.
My heart jumped in my chest and I swallowed hard. The future Mrs. Malone and mother to my unborn child looked unbelievable, and I guaranteed all she had on under that coat was jeans and a long-sleeved tee. I’d never understood how she did it—making tomboyish clothes look sexy as hell—but it happened every time. Anyone else would have looked childish in the Izzy Prescott uniform, but she never did.
She met my eyes as she approached, slipping out of her coat and wow…
Instead of her standard t-shirt, she’d chosen a fitted button up with several of the buttons undone, revealing an obscene amount of cleavage. Even her jeans seemed to fit her differently, and the belt cinched at her waist accentuated her figure. Though she’d rolled up the cuffs of her pants to show off a pair of Converse, as if to say, I am who I am. Deal.
I wanted to close the distance between us, pound my chest, swoop her into my arms, and carry her out of the bar. Caveman level stuff that basically said she was mine, no one else could even look at her, and I’d fight a man to the death to prove it. I’d never had such a strong urge to protect someone from nothing before.
As I blinked in shock, our friends turned to figure out what had caught my attention. With them looking just as surprised as I felt, I realized it was officially time to turn on the charm. As Izzy sauntered over to the table, I met her halfway and threw an arm around her shoulder. She gave me a sultry smile, though her honey and sunshine eyes told a different story. Little Isabelle was nervous.
I leaned close to whisper, “Don’t you worry. Everything’s going to work out just fine. We’re going to make people think we’re falling in love so hard…”
Damn, she smelled good. I wanted to nuzzle in and kiss the spot just below her jaw. When she put a hand on my chest, pretending to laugh at whatever flirtatious thing I just whispered in her ear, that did things to me that shouldn’t happen in public. Putting some space between us was a travesty…but it was necessary.
As I stepped away, the foursome at the table stared openly, unsure how to digest what they were seeing. I pulled out a chair for Izzy, then took the one beside her.
“What the hell?” Austin asked from behind us. “Why does Alex look like he’s about to murder Jude? And how is Izzy here before me?”
“Yeah, Alex.” I gave him my most innocent look, one I’d mastered over many years of hiding mistakes. “Why do you look like you’re about to murder me?”
Izzy rolled her eyes. “Don’t antagonize him, Jude.”
“Yeah. Don’t antagonize him.” Alex spoke through a clenched jaw. “What the hell is going on here? I was under the impression you of all people knew the rules…”
“The rules?” Izzy gave her brother a withering look. “Come on, Alex. Do you hear how ridiculous you sound? I’m a grown woman…”
He set his jaw. “You’re still my little sister and this asshole—”
“Is one of your best friends.” She arched a brow.
“And that might change if he doesn’t explain what the hell is going on.” His eyes hit mine with homicidal intent. I’d seen that look before…from Izzy. The night I proposed. The ‘I’ll kill you with the power of my glare’ genes ran strong in the Prescott family.
Izzy and I hadn’t officially decided how to tell our friends what we were doing. In fact, after our meeting at Mike’s yesterday, we hadn’t officially decided anything. I’d left with more questions than I came in with and I was sure she felt the same. But, with Alex looking more lethal by the second, I made a spur of the moment decision.
“Izzy and I are getting married.”
She turned to me in shock, while the guys laughed.
“Right. Nice try.” Alex rolled his eyes. “Now tell me what’s really going on.”
“See, I laughed when he asked me, too.” Izzy giggled as she glanced my way.
“And we laughed when she told us.” Evie gestured between Amelia and herself.
“You know about this?” Alex turned to his wife with a scandalized look and Izzy rushed to the rescue.
“I know it sounds like the setup to a bad joke, but it’s a really good idea for some really good reasons, and I bet you’ll feel the same, once you hear what’s going on.” She turned my way, waiting for me to start.
“Me? You want me to explain?”
“This whole thing was your idea.”
All right.
Fair enough.
I took a deep breath and explained to my friends that I had a brother I wanted to adopt. That I’d thought l
ong and hard about my lawyer’s advice and the only person I could see spending the rest of my life with was Izzy. “So I proposed. On your wedding night. I thought the timing would be romantic.” Beside me, Izzy choked on laughter while Alex set his jaw.
“I don’t know if I should be more confused by the fact that you didn’t tell us you had a little brother—” Alex stabbed a finger my way “—or because you’re actually going along with his plan.” He gave Izzy a disapproving shake of his head.
Austin folded his arms on the table and hunched his shoulders. “This feels a lot like that time when we were kids, and he didn’t tell us his mom and Tim were getting married. He just started talking about his stepdad like we were supposed to know.”
“It does feel a lot like that.” Jack nodded, chewing on his bottom lip. “I kinda wish we’d moved past the phase where you kept important pieces of information from us.” He gave me his best ‘disappointed dad’ look.
For shit’s sake. Why did it matter when I told them this kind of stuff? I never intended to keep it to myself forever. Besides, these people were my friends, not my keepers.
“Speaking of important pieces of information…” Izzy grimaced, her gaze darting my way and then right back to the table. “There’s the matter of why I actually accepted…”
Alex cocked his head and ground his jaw. “Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like what you’re about to say?”
“It’s actually beautiful news and I’m really happy.” Izzy met his glare head on and smiled. Her happiness didn’t look forced or fake and I found myself grinning, too. “I’m gonna have Jude’s baby.”
Jack’s mouth dropped open and he ran a hand over his stubbled chin to close it. “Like, in vitro or something like that?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
“No, not exactly like that.” Izzy grabbed my hand under the table. I gave it a squeeze and she turned to me with gratitude lifting her face. “I’m already pregnant.”
The words dropped into the conversation like the punchline to a bad joke.
Alex, Austin, and Jack sat back with a collective gasp while Evie and Amelia beamed.
I gave Izzy’s hand one more squeeze, then released it to lean on the table. “And we thought getting married was the best way to make sure everyone’s taken care of. Brennen has a better chance of getting out of his situation—his mom wasn’t great, but now she’s dating this guy and things are getting worse. The baby will grow up with both parents. And Izzy and I are already friends, so how hard can it be to navigate a marriage? It’ll be just like it is now, except we’ll live in the same house.”
“How…? When…?” Alex slumped forward in his seat, flaring his hands as he turned to his wife. “I didn’t even know they’d gotten together?”
Izzy smiled into her lap. “We got a little carried away the night of your wedding.”
I moved the conversation forward because no one needed to get lost in those details—particularly Alex. “Izzy and I want to make this relationship look real. And even though the proposal and baby will come along quickly, we want to make all that seem as natural as possible.” I explained some of our reasoning behind the decision. “You know how this town is for gossip. We don’t want to feed that any more than we’re gonna, so we’re going to pretend to date and then pretend to fall in love. And the rest is history.”
One glance at Izzy made me realize just how easy it would be to pretend to fall in love with her. Part of me had loved her from the moment we met. I stared a little longer. How was I just now realizing that?
“Can you imagine how Mom and Dad would take it if they found out about all this?” Izzy closed her eyes and shook her head sadly. “It’s already impossible for me to do anything right where they’re concerned.”
“I hate that they’re so hard on you,” Alex responded softly, “but maybe you shouldn’t care so much about their opinion.”
She scoffed. “Says the one who never did anything wrong in their eyes. Come on, Alex, think about how Dad treats Mom, then imagine how he might treat the daughter who couldn’t live up to her super star big brother…”
Alex’s lips pressed together. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then exhaled slowly, holding up his hands. “You know what? None of that matters. If you guys are happy, then so am I. Just because your marriage won’t be conventional, doesn’t mean it won’t work.” He shrugged, then shook his head. “If the service didn’t suck around here and we had our drinks, I’d make a toast to your success.”
I dropped my jaw. “The service absolutely doesn’t suck around here. I train my waitresses to pay attention. If heavy conversation is happening, stay away unless it looks like the customers are in need of an interruption.”
“Right.” Austin drew out the word. “Because that definitely sounds like something you’d do.”
It actually was something I did and I was positive it was part of the reason my bar was successful. But sticking up for myself wasn’t worth the argument, so I let the topic drop.
…though wouldn’t you know, just as our conversation moved on to lighter topics, we had our drinks lickety-split. I met Jess’s gaze and gave her a subtle thumb’s up.
Alex made his toast, though he managed to roast me while wishing us good fortune. We laughed and joked our way through the evening and damn, it felt good not to worry about how our friends would handle us being together. Izzy was right, it was better to tell Alex than to keep it secret, but I’d never let her know I felt that way. She’d use it as ammo the next time we argued about how to proceed.
“You do realize you’re the last of us to be single,” Jack said, smirking over his beer at Austin.
“You do realize I like it that way…” Austin shook his head, crossing his tattooed arms as he sat back. “My life is awesome the way it is. You guys all seem super happy, but you know? So am I.”
“You just haven’t met anyone to live up to Mackenzie.” The second the name left my lips, I knew I’d made a mistake.
Evie and Amelia exchanged curious glances. “Who’s Mackenzie?” asked Amelia with a curious smile while Izzy jammed an elbow into my side and shot me with eye-lasers.
“She’s no one.” Austin’s answer was gruff and harsh, and I felt like such an asshole for bringing her up.
As Austin’s smile disintegrated, I hurried on. “That was a low blow, man. I’m sorry. I guess I’m just all caught up in the excitement of finding the future Mrs. Malone and it’s gone to my head.”
Alex dropped his face into his palm. “Oh shit. Isabelle Malone. It’s like my worst nightmare is coming true.”
Austin rolled his shoulders and folded his arms on the table. His smile was sad, but he shook that away, cracking a joke at my expense, and things moved on. Thank God. The mere mention of Mackenzie could set the big guy back for days.
What the hell had I been thinking?
Thankfully, it didn’t look like it would derail him too badly, but damn, I really needed to think before I spoke.
As the night came to a close, Alex hung back.
“Hey. Jude.” He beckoned me close. “Talk to me for a sec.”
“What’s up?”
He leaned against the bar, his arms folded over his chest as he stared at the floor. “We’ve been friends a long time and that means a lot to me. It’s admirable what you’re trying to do for your brother, but you deserve to know, if it wasn’t for the fact that Izzy’s already pregnant, one of us would be in the ER right now.”
I shoved my hands into my back pockets. “And here Izzy said I wouldn’t need to worry about you trying to kill me.”
Alex huffed a laugh. “I know she seems like she has it all together and nothing bothers her, but she’s spent her entire life coming second to me. She’s never felt like she mattered as much as she really does. The two of you could work out and this great idea of yours could be brilliant or, this whole experiment could blow up in your face. I’m beggin’ you, man, make sure it works out.”
“I’ll do ev
erything in my power to make this whole thing successful.” I grinned as I thought about the perfectly imperfect family I’d make with Brennen, Izzy, and our baby. “This is me we’re talking about.”
Alex did not look impressed. “That’s what I’m afraid of. Your great ideas almost always end up with at least one of us hurt or in trouble. So just to be clear, there’s no scenario where that person should be Izzy. Right?” He stepped closer, his voice just above a whisper. “Otherwise, you and I are gonna have a real problem.”
The smile drained from my face. “I’m not gonna hurt your sister. Believe it or not, she means a lot to me.”
“And she means even more to me. I’m trusting you to treat her like a damned queen, and so help me God, if you let either of us down…” Alex shook his head, his lips all but disappearing into a thin line of disapproval. “Our friendship means a lot to me. I’d hate to see it fall to pieces.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Izzy
As the clock ticked past four, the bells over the door at Sweet Stuff jangled and someone stepped into the already crowded shop. When I glanced up, there was Jude, looking like he belonged in a Valentine’s Day photoshoot, his arms filled by a massive bouquet of red roses and a heart-shaped box of chocolates. He wore a blue polo shirt underneath a black peacoat and a sexy smirk that had all the women in range staring. As he swaggered his way over to where I stood behind the counter, all eyes turned from him to me and my stomach did an odd series of flip flops.
That’s right, ladies. Drink it in. Jude Malone has saved all that sexiness for yours truly.
“Hey,” he said as he came to a stop.
How in the world did he manage to make such an innocuous word sound so hot? For a second, I thought it was just me, but a quick glance around the store proved I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“Hey, yourself,” I replied, feeling like I was sixteen again and my crush had finally noticed me. Which, in a way, was true.