A Wife by Accident

by Victoria Ashe

  Hayely studied the panic on his face. “I think I like your usual grouchy, antisocial self better.” She turned on her heel and walked off ahead of him toward the first boutique. “Come on,” she called with a laugh.

  Gary breathed a sigh of relief and caught up to her with only a few long strides. Was she as nervous as he suddenly was? He wasn’t sure if he could make the charade believable in front of an audience. He caught her hand up firmly in his grasp and held on to it with far more strength than was necessary.

  “What happened to the charm?” she whispered.

  “You’re my wife,” he growled. “Should I ask permission to hold your hand in public?” Despite his tone, there was the sound of a smile in his words.

  “There now. That’s the fictitious husband I know.” Hayely gave Gary’s hand a quick squeeze and walked into the shop with him in tow.

  As a little bell on top of the door rang, the salesclerk immediately recognized Gary and rushed toward the door. Her short black hair was so dark that it might look almost blue in the right lighting. Spiked with a hard styling gel, it shook with the impact of her heels on the floor as she nearly tripped over herself to reach Gary first.

  “Mr. Tarleton, welcome. What can we help you find today?”

  “Evening gowns,” came his clipped answer.

  “Evening gowns we’ve got,” the clerk said as she clasped her red-tipped fingers together and visibly fought to calm her nerves. “We had a whole new line come in just this morning. Is the dress for your … sister?” She looked meaningfully toward Hayely and waited.

  Gary smiled stiffly at Hayely, his teeth held a bit too tightly together. “Would you mind handling this alone, honey? I’m out of my element amongst women’s clothing, and I need to pick up a few things.”

  Hayely frowned. Would he leave this woman with the impression that he was her brother? What was she supposed to say to her if he did?

  “I can do it,” was all she responded.

  “Good.” He leaned down and planted a sweet kiss directly on her mouth. Then he turned toward the awestruck clerk as he placed his credit card into Hayely’s hand. “We’re a really close family.”

  Hayely suppressed a shocked smile as Gary walked back out the door. Her hand flew to the place his lips had just touched. Already she could hear the other clerks whispering frantically from behind the counter. At first they thought Hayely was a girlfriend, but one of them had spotted the matching platinum wedding bands.

  “Can you help me find a dress?” she finally asked.

  The clerk came to her senses as Hayely held up the plastic card with a credit limit she could only imagine in her hand. “I think we can find something suitable. Is it for the Chamber banquet?”

  Hayely nodded and said quietly, “I’ve never been to one before. I really could use your advice on what to wear.”

  The clerk took a look at Hayely and desperately wanted to dislike her. After all, she’d come in on the arm of the man she and her friends had fantasized about for years. But in spite of herself, one look at Hayely’s sincerely warm expression and a new train of thought crossed her mind.

  “Mrs. Tarleton, I presume? By the time we get through with you, every snobbish, highbrow socialite is going to turn green with envy. Just you watch.”

  “Thank you,” Hayely whispered. “You have no idea how much I appreciate it.”

  The clerk held out her hand, “I’m Carla.”

  Hayely shook her hand. “Hayely.”

  “First things first. You’re going to be surrounded by a lot of bleached blonde testaments to plastic surgery. They’ll all be wearing black, red, or if this year is anything like last year—pink. The sequins and spaghetti straps will all start to look the same. You’ll want something different. Something classy.”

  “Sounds fine with me. I don’t go well with glitz.”

  Carla escorted Hayely into an enormous, posh dressing room. “You wait right here and I’ll bring the dresses to you. I’ve already got a few ideas.”

  Hayely unbuttoned her clothes and took the first gown over the curtain from Carla. There was lavender followed by something scarlet. Black, silver, and green all fell by the wayside. Velvet, satin, and a filmy material like gauze were all cast aside in no time. Some of the outfits were too revealing, others not revealing enough, and still more hung all wrong around her curves.

  “We don’t have time to specially design something for you by Wednesday night, but we can alter anything you’d like,” Carla offered hopefully.

  Dress after dress, Hayely tried them all on until at last she and Carla found the perfect design. Just as the decision was made, the bell over the door told them Gary had returned to reclaim his wife.

  “Hayely Tarleton, just you wait until your husband sees this dress—sees you and that cute little figure of yours shown off in this dress,” Carla whispered with a contagious excitement. “He won’t even notice the rest of the party.”

  “You have to promise not to show it to him. I want it to be a surprise.” She couldn’t wait to see the look on Gary’s face when he saw the dress she’d chosen. She only hoped it would live up to his expectations—that she would.

  Carla splayed her long fingers out over her heart. “Oh, it’s so romantic. I wish I had a nice man to be romantic for.” On impulse she gave Hayely a quick hug. “You’re going to do great. And if you ever need anything else, don’t hesitate to ask for me. Good luck.”

  Hayely thanked her and signed the credit card slip while trying not to look too closely at the obscene total printed on it. Good luck? She had the feeling she was going to need it.

  Chapter Five

  Monday morning started with its usual amount of chaos. For the first time, Hayely left her wedding band securely on her finger. She’d been careful to take it off and hide it in the zipper compartment of her purse before work each day. But she knew she had to tell the human resources department about her marriage, and just seeing the ring on her finger brought Gary’s confident voice of reassurance to mind. They’d laughed all the way home from the boutique the day before just from imagining the reaction their news was sure to get.

  Hayely locked the big front doors of the house and tugged on them for good measure. She’d hurried getting ready for work that morning, but found she had missed Gary by an hour or two. He always left so early. She wanted to get to the office as soon as possible anyway. As self-defense, she’d begun sending Kathy a good morning greeting via e-mail so that the time of day marked plainly on the printout would show she’d come in early. Hayely could only imagine what Kathy’s new tactics would be once she caught on to Hayely’s job-preservation strategy.

  As she stepped down into the circular driveway, she froze. She scanned the curb up and down, but her old rattletrap car was nowhere to be seen. Had someone stolen it? Mistaken it for junk and towed it? Her mind reeled. The only vehicle left in the place was a shiny new BMW parked where her poor car used to be. She wondered where the car could have come from—it didn’t look like something Gary would drive. He would barely fit inside it!

  A bit of white paper flapping from under the windshield wiper caught her attention and she walked hesitantly toward the car. Its silver paint sparkled in the morning sunlight. She could imagine someone driving in it high along winding ocean cliffs with the water churning far below. If she had a car like this, she’d put the top down and tie a long silk scarf around her neck just to feel it blow along softly around her.

  She sighed, pulled out the note and read it aloud. “Hayely,” it began in Gary’s handwriting, “I want you to have this car. Call it a job perk. The keys are in the ignition.”

  Hayely folded up the note calmly and stuffed it into her purse. Then she pulled open the car door with a giggle and jumped inside. The smell of new leather surrounded her as she ran her hand over the seats. New red leather. “Wow,” she said to herself, “the seats are even heated.”

  And then another thought struck her. He’d gotten rid of her real car. The irri
tation from that notion sent tiny stabs through her insides. She’d scraped together the five-hundred-dollar down payment to buy that car on her own, and then eked out the remaining five hundred dollars in monthly payments all on her own, too. It was the first thing she’d ever completely earned by herself. And Gary Tarleton hadn’t even bothered to consult with her about it before giving it away.

  As she turned the key in the car’s ignition, she couldn’t help but sigh again. It truly was a gorgeous car—exactly what she’d drive if she were really the wife of a wealthy businessman. Maybe she would drive it for a day or two until Gary could get her real car back for her. After all, when people saw her in a car like this, there would be no doubt she’d really married the renowned Gary Tarleton. Maybe that’s what he’d been thinking all along.

  As usual, Hayely was nearly the first person to arrive in the office. She would have arrived earlier if she’d been able to find all the gears in her new car a little better. Someone had already put a pot of coffee on to brew, but the lights in her area were off. No sooner than she’d turned on her computer, sent out the routine e-mail and sorted through the faxes, the rest of the staff began pouring in.

  Her hands were almost clammy as she watched the human resources staff settle into their chairs. She drew in a deep breath and walked into the manager’s office.

  “Do you have a minute?” Hayely asked. “I just need to make some changes to my paperwork.”

  “Sure. What kind of changes?”

  There was no backing out now. “I got married,” she answered, running the three words together as if they were one syllable.

  The human resources manager got up from her desk and walked over the Hayely. “Congratulations,” she squealed. “I had no idea you were even engaged. What’s his name? What does he do?”

  “Well—”

  The sound of Kathy Mark’s demanding voice rang from the doorway behind her. “There you both are. I don’t like to see empty chairs. You know Dee, don’t you? She’s just made senior vice president and isn’t it wonderful, she’s here from Arkansas this week.”

  Hayely smiled at Kathy’s stout, square-faced daughter. It was common knowledge that Dee Mark’s brief stints as a bartender and used car saleswoman had hardly prepared her for an executive position. It grated on Hayely’s nerves whenever she was asked to prepare documents that Dee should have been doing herself. With her meager month of experience, Hayely thought it was like the blind leading the blind—except one of the blind was making about six figures a year more than the other for the same expertise. No wonder the company scrambled for work.

  Dee gave a hearty laugh and thumped Hayely on the back. “Good to finally see you in person.”

  “Nice to meet you, too,” Hayely replied. Was that beer she smelled in the air?

  The human resources manager spoke up. “Kathy, Hayely was just telling me she’s gotten married.”

  Kathy’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?”

  The manager asked, “What’s your new last name?”

  “I haven’t decided to change it yet. I might keep my maiden name for a while.”

  Dee hooted again. “That’s what I did, too. Mercy, we Mark women don’t stay married long enough for it to be worth a name change anyway!” Her ruddy face turned even redder as she laughed at her own joke. “What’s his name?”

  “Gary,” Hayely answered softly. She had definitely picked up the scent of alcohol again. She’d seen Dee’s brother, Darryl, in the office from time to time and thought she’d caught of whiff of booze on his breath, too. It was sad really, and in spite of herself, Hayely felt her dislike turn to pity.

  Kathy looked coolly down her nose at Hayely. “Speaking of men named Gary, I hear Gary Tarleton is going to the Chamber Banquet this Wednesday evening. I’d like you to see if you can find a good hairdresser for Dee.”

  Dee pointed to her short sandy blonde hair. “Can’t go looking this way in front of Gary.”

  “You know Gary—Mr. Tarleton well?” Hayely asked.

  Kathy interrupted the start of her daughter’s answer. “Of course we do. We’ve been friends for ages. From the impression I got, he’d like to spend some time with Dee this year.”

  “I see.” Hayely fought to keep a laugh from building inside her. If she knew anything, it was what Gary would think of the entire Mark family. With his sense of family values and business protocol, he wouldn’t so much as look in their direction.

  Kathy squinted at Hayely’s clothing again and gave a tight little smile. “To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have thought you’d have heard of Gary Tarleton or the Chamber Banquet for that matter. I’m surprised.”

  “I only recently heard of both.” Hayely smoothed her dark grey skirt and checked very, very subtly to see if her yellow silk shirt was still tucked in correctly.

  “Well then I’m sure you’ve heard how prestigious it is for a firm to be invited to attend the event.”

  Hayely bit into her lower lip and looked demurely down at the floor to keep from laughing. Gary had already told her that every business in the state was allowed to attend virtually at will. All they had to do was pay a membership fee.

  She breathed and said, “Does Dee have a dress? I know of a very nice, exclusive boutique downtown. I can write down the directions if you’d like.”

  Dee pounded Hayely on the back again. “That would be great. I’d love to find something that would really stand out—maybe a little strapless number with red sequins. Or how about pink? I know Gary’s mad for that color on the ladies.”

  Hayely went back to her desk, cheerfully scribbled out an address, and drew a quick map for Dee. If nothing else, her helpfulness would keep Kathy and her truck-driveresque daughter out of the office and away from her. She wouldn’t hear any threats about being fired that day. She smiled broadly as she watched the loathsome pair walk out the door.

  The day flew by joyfully and before she knew it, she was virtually sailing down the freeway in her new sports car. Too bad she’d have to give it up in just a few more months. It felt as if the machine were designed for her and her alone.

  Hayely sprinted into the house, kicked off her shoes in the marble foyer, and ran upstairs to change clothes. The deliverymen had been at it again. During the day, the formerly empty weight room had been filled with top-notch training equipment and heavy sets of free weights. She’d taken the liberty of ordering a treadmill and exercise bike, too. Thank goodness the delivery company had set up and installed everything. Most of it looked too heavy for her to even budge.

  And the living room furniture had arrived! Hayely was almost giddy. The electricians had obviously been by to wire in the new overhead lighting, which glowed with an understated cordiality. With the intricate carvings Gary had designed into the door frames and windowsills, it was easy to add depth and elegance to the room.

  She had chosen comfortable, richly upholstered chairs and a cream-colored sofa with a sophisticated brocade pattern that stood out just a shade darker against its background. The ornate fireplace screen, coffee table, and end tables hadn’t arrived yet. And more leafy green houseplants were desperately needed. But day-by-day, the empty house was transforming from an unloved address to a comfortable home.

  Dressed in baggy sweatpants with her hair up in a messy ponytail, Hayely surveyed the rooms around her. She was far ahead of schedule, so far that she just might take a break from decorating. She’d picked up another new cookbook at the library on the way home and couldn’t wait to try out the key lime cheesecake recipe in it.

  She hummed along to the tune of the mixer as she whipped up first one cheesecake and then the next. Maybe she was going overboard, but there were three variations she just had to try while she had the time. Besides, she’d taken the easy route with dinner and just made a pot roast with potatoes and carrots for Charlie and Gary. She’d sampled them all until she was stuffed.

  With a smile, she brushed some flour from her hands onto her baggy pants and stood back to admire her work.
Key lime, raspberry swirl, and chocolate chip cheesecakes lined the counter. Right on cue, she heard Charlie walk into the kitchen first, followed closely behind by Gary. Were they coming home earlier in the evenings now? It seemed so.

  She dropped her dishrag onto the counter and looked up. “Dinner’s on the table, guys. Enjoy. I’ve been admiring the pool for the last six weeks and I think I’m finally going to try it out.”

  She grinned and walked past them as casually as possible. Could Gary tell how rattled she got when he walked into the room after a day at some construction site or another? Was it obvious that the dust in his hair and his sun-bronzed skin made it hard not to simply stand and stare at him? He was easy on the eyes, she’d give him that.

  •

  “Who was that woman?” Charlie asked with a laugh.

  Gary shook his head and grabbed a plate. “My guess is a woman whose boss was out of the office all day. I saw the witch driving downtown today.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  Gary nodded between bites. “She can cook. You know, I’d tell her to quit her job and just let me take care of her expenses if I didn’t think she’d be offended.”

  Charlie bit into a juicy, butter-soaked carrot and moaned as if in heaven. “I’ve been looking over the accounting records for all this decorating she’s been doing.”

  “How much has this set me back so far?”

  “She hasn’t come close to spending even half of what we thought it’d take. And you know what? She hasn’t bought a thing for herself. Make-up, shampoo, books—her cell phone bill. Chewing gum, for Pete’s sake. She’s been paying for all those things with her own cash. I saw some of the store receipts sitting in the garbage can the other day.”

  Gary paused with a chunk of onion on his fork. “You’re kidding?”

  Charlie shook his head. “Nope.”

  “I understand independence, but she’s contributing way more than her share to the plan. She’s earned a little fair treatment.”