“When I get married, it’ll be forever.”
Tanner winked at her. “I’ll make it feel like forever, honey. I’m that good.”
Emma sighed, her head pounding even more. “Are you ever serious?”
“Not if I can help it,” he shot back. “Emmie, baby, you will not regret a moment you spend with me. I guarantee you that. I’ll make it well worth your while afterward too. I promise.”
Emma was afraid to ask for clarification for fear she’d hear the words she didn’t want to hear, such as he’d pay her off when they divorced.
That wasn’t how she’d pictured a proposal or a marriage. She’d pictured forever, true love with the man who was “The One,” both of them united toward a single goal. Tanner’s goal was cleaning up his image with a nice girl for a temporary period of time. Her goal was forever.
How did a girl who’d always dreamed of Happily Ever After come to terms with convenience for now? And how did she come to terms with Tanner? He didn’t love her. No matter how she spun this, Tanner wouldn’t be marrying her for love.
Emma sank down into the chair opposite Tanner, forgetting about making coffee. Tux sensed her despair. After casting an accusing glare in Tanner’s direction, he crawled into her lap and curled in a ball, purring happily. If only she could be a cat. She stroked his soft fur but derived very little comfort from the act.
She glanced at Tanner. He sat on the couch staring out the window. For a brief moment his guard was down. He looked worried and confused, like a little boy whose mother had abandoned him, and he didn’t believe anyone could possibly love him. She wanted to know that little boy, know what made him tick, know what made him so sad. Call her a rescuer, but she wanted to fix him like Avery had fixed Isaac.
And as crazy as it sounded, she realized she wanted to go through with this. She wanted to fix Tanner, to prove to her family she was her own woman who made her own decisions, and for once to take a risk despite the possible outcome.
Tanner rose to his feet and stood beside her chair. He knelt down, his lips so close she could almost taste him.
“You are absolutely nuts,” she declared and tried to pull away from him, but he slipped his arms around her and held her loosely. Their bodies weren’t touching but they might as well have been.
“Yeah, but you could use a little nuts in your life, couldn’t you, Emma?”
She didn’t answer because he was right.
“You’re always doing what’s right—for everyone else—not for you. When does Emma get a vote in her life? Are you going to spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been instead of knowing you lived life to its fullest? Are you going to be an elementary school teacher dealing with brats all day or are you going for it and following your dreams?”
The urge to fall apart in this man’s arms overwhelmed her. She buried her face in his chest and let the tears flow. He held her to him, gently, carefully, as if he were afraid she’d run at any moment.
She wasn’t about to run. In fact, she wasn’t going anywhere. At least, not right now.
Finally she lifted her face to meet his concerned gaze.
With a gentle smile on his handsome face, he wiped her tears with the pad of his thumb. “Feel better now?”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. In fact, I liked it.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, weird, huh?”
“Pretty weird,” she agreed.
“So what do you say? Shall we go through with this?” Tanner watched her intently, his arms still holding her to him.
“What are the—the parameters?” She couldn’t believe, she—Emma the Romantic—was discussing marriage as if it were a business deal, even though it was to him.
“Parameters? Baby, you want to discuss parameters with me? That isn’t very romantic.” He read her mind so perfectly.
His wide grin sucked her in. When he lowered his head to kiss her, the first touch of his lips obliterated all rational thought from her mind. His kiss was slow and easy, as he leisurely explored with his lips and tongue. A warm, lazy desire spread over her, so different from the hot ignition of that first kiss, but equally explosive in its subtlety. Finally he lifted his head, leaving her woozy and her heart fluttering.
“Did it work?” His hopeful half-smile flopped her heart on its back like her old Golden Retriever begging for his belly to be scratched.
Emma could still feel him on her lips and in her heart, deep down where he’d lived for a long time as an ember of hope. Sometimes embers start fires, and he’d started one within her. She didn’t have enough experience with guys like him, but she’d seen her two sisters capture the hearts of men who couldn’t be caught. Why not her? Why not Emma the hopeless romantic finding the man of her dreams?
Or was she heading for a heartbreak of massive proportions once Tanner got what he wanted? And what exactly did he want? With nothing left to lose, she might as well ask him and get everything out in the open.
“Why do you want to do this?”
He grinned like a man with all the answers. “Because, you said you were abstaining until you were married.”
“You’re doing this for sex?”
“Hey, as good of a reason as any.”
“You really are nuts.”
“Yeah, maybe, but I’m fucking adorable.”
Emma rolled her eyes. He pulled her to her feet, causing Tux to tumble out of her lap. Tanner guided her to one of the barstools, sitting her down as he sat opposite her. He ignored the death glare Tux sent him as he stalked off toward the bedroom in a huff.
“Seriously, I need to settle down, or so the Steelheads say. I’m at a crossroads in my career. No more partying, no more random women.”
“So you picked me?”
“Why not? We’re hot together, and we also get along pretty well. You’re perfect.”
“How do you know that?”
“I know stuff like that.”
Emma opened her mouth to tell him about her own intuition, then decided against it. She did have a history of some accurate predictions, but it wasn’t as if she were clairvoyant.
She’d known from the first moment she’d seen Tanner slinging a football across the field during his freshman year of college that he would be somebody special to her. How weird would it sound to tell him that? He’d think she was batshit crazy. Emma cringed. She didn’t swear, yet for some reason the more she hung out with this man, the more she’d let loose, which wasn’t all bad.
“Emma, you want to sing, don’t you? Marriage to me will raise your visibility, get your foot in the door. In fact, screw the door, go independent. I’ll pay for it.”
“You’d do that for me? You could be throwing your money away.”
“I won’t be, and I’m going to demand my cut.”
She didn’t ask him what exactly his cut would be. He was right. Fate had put her big break right in her lap in the form of a high-profile, bad-boy quarterback. She’d never been an opportunist, but she recognized a golden opportunity when it smacked her up the side of the head—or would that be heart?
“So what do you say? Let’s run off and get married?” He waited, and she could tell he was holding his breath.
“I won’t get married in Vegas.”
“Your call. I’m along for the ride.” Tanner blew out his breath and his grin would light up the entire city of Seattle. “You won’t be sorry. I’ll be the best husband ever.”
She snorted at that.
“You don’t believe me?” He held his hands to his heart. “You wound me, sweet Emma.”
“All I ask is that you stay faithful.”
“Ah, baby, that won’t be a problem at all. With you in my bed, what more could I possibly want?”
“You’re a sweet talker and a liar.”
“On this, I’m not lying.” He sobered, going completely serious. “I won’t cheat on you. I promise, even if marriage as an institution means very little to me,
your trust means more.”
Not exactly the concession she wanted, but she’d work on him a little at a time. Tanner grew up in the same dysfunctional household as Isaac, which meant he didn’t give his love easily. She knew very little about Isaac’s childhood, and what she did know was more tragic than her own upbringing, which consisted of neglect but never abuse.
Feeling better about this whole situation, Emma turned to Tanner. “Okay, let’s do this, but I’m not living in a condo.”
“Now you’re getting demanding.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet, buster.”
He chuckled, his green eyes lighting up. “Okay. Deal. We’ll find a place that works.”
“Sounds good.”
He stood and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “So that’s settled. You figure out the where and the when of the wedding, I’ll pay for it. But nothing big. On this I insist. And it has to be within the next couple weeks before training camp starts.”
“You want me to plan a wedding in two weeks?”
“I want you to plan a short ceremony with a couple dozen people at most. You pick the place.”
“But everything is already booked by now,” Emma heard herself whine.
He grinned at her. “Baby, I have no doubt you’ll come up with a plan. Hell, we could have it on Coop and Izzy’s lawn overlooking the bay.”
Emma shook her head. “No, my sister has controlled the majority of my life. I won’t let her control this.”
“Fair enough.” Tanner shrugged. “Let me know tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Emma was appalled.
“Yup, tomorrow.”
Tanner walked out the door without another word.
Emma stared at the door long after he’d gone and racked her brain for a place to hold her wedding of convenience. And like most good romance novels, she hoped this one also ended with a Happily Ever After.
* * * *
Tanner crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn to go fishing with his buddies. First, he paid the condo maintenance guy a generous amount to return Emma’s car. He couldn’t leave her without transportation. She had a lot of planning to do. Thinking of Emma in a long white gown and how much fun it’d be to take it off made him smile, but he was jumping the gun. He had lots of things to do first, starting with telling his wingmen.
He waited until he had them in a boat in the middle of Lake Washington before he spilled the news, making sure they were wearing lifejackets.
“You’re what?” Grady spit out his beer and squinted at his buddy, reacting exactly how Tanner would if one of his wingmen had told him the same thing. Grady’s gray eyes narrowed, and he scratched his head, causing his spiky brown hair to stand on end.
Tanner glared at him and threw an empty beer can at the ill-mannered jerk. Not that Tanner had better manners, but he was trying to clean up his act. After all, he was going to be a married man. He should’ve shuddered at the thought, but he wasn’t nearly as mortified as he’d expected. In fact, he somewhat liked the idea.
He glanced around the deck of his small fishing boat, looking at each of his buddies, Hunter, Grady, and Cam, along with Brick, the Sockeyes’ young goalie, and Rush, the Sockeyes’ second-line center. He’d met the two Sockeyes doing some charity work. Since they all loved partying and chasing women, and were essentially the same age, they started hanging together as a group, often going fishing together, though they drank more than they fished. No one took his fishing as seriously as Tanner, except Hunter, who had seriously mad fishing and hunting skills, living up to his coastal tribal heritage.
“I’m getting married. Soon. Within the next couple weeks. I want you guys there.”
Brick snorted and shook his head. “Funny, Tan. You’re the last guy here who’d be dumb enough to get tied down.”
Tanner bit the bullet and told the truth. “I’ve been put on notice by Steelhead management.”
“They’re making you get married?” Rush shook his head in disbelief. He did a piss-poor job of baiting his hook. For once, he didn’t get tangled in the line before he cast it into Lake Washington. Tanner had tried to teach the Russian to fish, but so far it was a lost cause. Even so, the guy had this weird beginner’s luck and often caught the biggest fish of the day.
“Who?” Cam asked as he gnawed on a piece of Grandma McCoy’s homemade beef jerky. Tanner, Hunter, and Grady had been together since their U-Dub football days first in the same frat, later sharing an apartment together. They adored Hunter’s grandma, who’d routinely plied them with care packages of homemade goodies. Tanner pretended she was his grandma, had even spent holidays with Hunter’s family because he sure as hell wasn’t spending them with his family, such as it was.
“Emma Maxwell,” Tanner said.
Every head in the boat snapped toward him, and the boat rocked from the motion.
“Emma? Avery’s sister?” Brick asked, recovering first from the shock.
Tanner nodded, feeling an odd lump in his throat.
Grady shook his head in disbelief. “She’s hot, but she’s also a nice girl. Why would she ever agree to something like that?”
“You don’t even know what ‘that’ is,” Tanner bristled, protective of Emma.
“Marrying your sorry ass,” Brick shot back, grabbing one of Grandma’s cookies from a picnic basket.
“It’s more than that.”
“So explain it to us,” Hunter challenged.
Tanner rubbed his face, wishing they’d all go away. They didn’t.
“I need to clean up my act for the new ownership. Emma wants to escape out from under her big sister’s thumb and do her own thing instead of what Izzy wants. It’s a win-win for both of us.”
Rush started grinning from ear to ear. “I get it. You vant in her pants, and she’s the type of woman who vill insist on a ring?”
That about summed it up, but Tanner wasn’t admitting to it, especially not to these clowns. “Nah, nothing like that,” he lied. He caught Hunter’s quick smirk, Grady’s cough, and Cam’s roll of his eyes. The other two didn’t know him well enough and fell for his bullshit, which must be why Tanner kept them around. That, and he often got the dirt on his brother through them, even though they were clueless they were betraying their teammate by giving Tanner insider’s info.
And why the hell did Tanner care what was going on with Isaac? Hell, Isaac hadn’t cared about him since he’d left for the juniors, nor had he cared when he’d gone on one of his drunken binges, incited an argument with his girlfriend and their sister, resulting in both their deaths. Tanner had never forgiven Isaac, just like he’d never forgiven himself for once again not being there when someone needed him the most, like their little brother, Zeke. To this day, Zeke hated both Tanner and Ice, not that Tanner blamed him.
Tanner had always seen Isaac, the oldest, as the protector, the guy who stood between them and their father’s abusive rage. Only that protector hadn’t really existed except in Tanner’s vivid imagination. It’d been every brother for himself. As the baby, Zeke had been left to endure without them.
Tanner was the only one who still stayed in touch with dear old Dad, and that in itself said a lot about Tanner, and his screwed up need to be loved, even by a man who didn’t deserve his love, especially considering it was common knowledge the man killed Tanner’s mother and got away with it. Yet, Tanner maintained a relationship with him, while refusing to have one with Isaac. Not rational, but it was what it was, and it’d been that way for three years.
“Hey, man, where’d you go?” Hunter snapped his fingers in front of Tanner’s face.
“Thinking about his wedding night,” Brick teased as he tugged off his tank top. Brick hated clothes because the guy overheated like a polar bear in the Mojave Desert. Everyone else wore sweatshirts while Brick wore a pair of swim trunks. And the guy was a goalie, for God’s sake. Tanner never understood why he’d picked the position that required the most clothes.
Grateful for the distraction, Tanner baite
d his hook and cast his line. Typical guys, they’d moved on to discussing the fishing, expectations for their teams, and a heated debate about the best microbrew in Seattle, capped off by Rush losing his pole in the water and falling in when he tried to retrieve it. Good thing Tanner made them wear life jackets because Rush swam like a concrete block. Of course, the dumb shit also caught the biggest fish—again—despite his bumbling.
Not that Tanner cared. He was too busy lost in a fantasy of getting Emma naked.
And the guys thought he was concentrating on his fishing.
Yeah, right.
* * * *
Emma hadn’t slept at all the night before. What woman could possibly sleep the evening after she was engaged, despite how abnormal said engagement? Emma couldn’t.
She’d just dragged herself out of bed when Bellani, the middle sister and wild child of the four sisters, surprised her by showing up on her doorstep and inviting her for coffee. First of all, Bella never got up before noon if she didn’t have to, and second Bella rarely drank anything milder than beer. Considering it was eight A.M., Emma wondered if Bella had even gone to bed yet.
Sensing a possible ally against her other sisters, Emma agreed.
She waited for Bella to broach the subject as they sipped their coffee and made small talk about very little of nothing. The two sisters had never had much in common being such opposites, though Emma had secretly idolized her nervy, devil-may-care older sister, living vicariously through her escapades and wishing she had Bella’s nerve.
“So enough bullshit,” Bella cut to the chase, setting down her coffee mug with a resounding thud and eyed Emma with a shrewdness which had Emma squirming. “You do realize I’ve had wild monkey sex with your fiancé several times, don’t you?”
Emma blanched, not expecting this at all. “I, uh, I suspected so.”
“You don’t think it’s weird that you’re having my leftovers?”
“Uh, I hadn’t thought of it like that.” Emma wanted to crawl under the table and pretend she was invisible.
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