Chapter 27
Ava
I was still smiling when I got off the phone with Bennett. There was something about him that made it impossible for me to stay angry with him. Yes, he’d lied to me about being married, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t spent the night screwing him in every position imaginable. I had done that before the lie, and when I thought back on his behavior after it, I remembered how reluctant he was to do it again. It wasn’t until I practically forced the issue, and that’s what seemed to make him come clean. So it wasn’t like he was doing it to take advantage of me. I could believe it really was a stupid, misguided, terribly timed prank that got away from him.
Not that I had completely forgiven him, but maybe I’d taken the whole thing just a little bit too seriously. He really was doing a great job of making it up to me, and he really didn’t have to. If he really didn’t care about me, I doubt I would have ever heard from him again after I left his ranch.
Still, I didn’t have time to dwell on that. There was still a lot to do and precious little time to do it.
For starters, I was going to have to tell my parents something, and it certainly couldn’t be the truth. My mother would have a heart attack if I admitted to spending a week at a secluded ranch with someone I’d just met, let alone that I was now in cahoots with him over some massive media prank. And that’s even if I didn’t tell her about the lie he’d told me.
No, unfortunately I was going to have to keep them as much in the dark as everybody else. Besides, the last thing I wanted to do was put my parents in a position where they felt like they had to lie for me, and telling them the truth would most assuredly lead to that.
Once again, my thumb moved to stroke over the smooth underside of my ring. I still hadn’t gotten rid of it, and I wasn’t quite sure why. I think I just found the weight of it comforting. It had become like a talisman, something to ward off all the shit that had been thrown at me lately. Only now, as I moved it back onto my ring finger, I was glad I had kept it.
I could hear my mom downstairs, puttering around in the kitchen, and I hoped she wasn’t baking again; my dad had run out of people at work to give treats to.
It was almost impossible to look at either of them lately and not think of how awful I’d been to them, how I’d let Ken manipulate me until I no longer believed they had my best interest at heart. There had been so many times over the past few years that I’d missed them terribly, wanted to talk to my mom or hug my dad, and not being able to had been awful. I’d let Ken take them away from me.
I’d let Ken do a lot of things. And not just Ken. Fiona too, and the producers.
I just let people do things to me. My whole life was just a series of things I’d let happen to me.
I made a resolution right then to make a change. I wasn’t going to just let things happen to me anymore. I was going to be the one to make them happen. And that meant taking control over my own image, directing the rumors in a way that worked for me instead of against me.
Even if it meant I had to make up stories. And why not? The media does that all the time. Fiona’s upcoming book about me was likely packed with them. The only guilt I’d feel over any of it would be the lies I’d have to tell to my parents, but after everything else I’d done and come back from, I knew they’d eventually understand and forgive me. Not that knowing that made it any easier. Either way, there was no point in putting it off any longer.
Dad had come home from work about half an hour ago, but I hadn’t been downstairs yet, too busy talking to People and then Bennett.
This wedding may have been something I’d let happen to me initially, but now I was going to take charge of the situation. I intended to own it, just like I owned that audition so many years ago. Shooting off a quick text to Bennett to invite him to dinner, I braced myself and headed downstairs.
“Hey, Ava-bean,” Dad said from where he stood, chopping vegetables to grill.
“Hey,” I said, sliding onto a stool at the breakfast bar. Mom was by the stove, peeling potatoes. “Can I talk to you both for a sec?”
Immediately they both put down their utensils and turned their attention to me. I wondered how I had ever believed that they didn’t care. “What’s the matter, honey?” Mom asked.
“Nothing’s the matter,” I quickly assured her. I didn’t need them worrying more than they already were. “I just... I have a confession to make.”
Now they both looked worried, and I knew I’d gone about it all wrong. If my dad was looking worried, things were really bad.
“Are you pregnant?” Mom asked, hesitantly.
“No!” I blurted out. “No, god… Mom. I know better than that.”
“Oh, thank the Lord,” she said, a hand on her heart. “Then what is it, sweetie?”
“I... it’s sort of about Ken. It wasn’t just recently that things started going sour. Only I... I wasn’t talking to you, and I wasn’t sure how to apologize, and….” I swallowed, looking down. This was my Emmy-winning performance. “And then I met someone, and we... fell in love, and, and….” I held up my left hand to show my ring.
I heard my mom’s gasp across the kitchen, and her hand flew to her mouth. My dad just looked at me with a bemused expression.
“Say something?” I asked, when the silence had stretched on too long.
“You’re... engaged?” my mom asked, looking hopeful.
“I’m... actually married,” I said, grinning, and I found that my heart lifted a little just saying those words, thinking of Bennett. That was surprising.
My mom was grinning as well, and my dad looked gruff but pleased. “Well,” he said. “Well. That’s something.”
“Oh!” my mom exclaimed, crossing to me to pull me into a hug. “Oh, my baby’s married.”
I leaned into the hug, trying to remember the last time she’d sounded so proud.
“Well?” she said as she pulled back. “Don’t leave us hanging. What’s his name? What’s he like? What does he do? When can we meet him?”
“And why are you still living here?” My dad piped in, but he was smiling as well.
I laughed, trying to keep track of all the questions. “His name is Bennett. He’s….” I paused, trying to think of how to describe him. “He’s funny. And smart. And he makes me feel... safe.”
Even now, even after everything, it was still oddly true. Thinking about Bennett made me feel safe.
“And happy, so happy,” I said. “Um, he’s sort of an inventor. A tech-head. He’s been off at his ranch getting things ready for us to move in, and we thought it would make sense for me to come home alone first, especially after….” After I had been such a bitch to you. After my life had fallen apart. “Well, after everything, I guess. Anyway, you can meet him tonight… if there’s enough dinner for him?”
Chapter 28
Bennett
Something that I never experienced as a teenager was the ritual of going to meet a girl’s parents. All of my girlfriends either didn’t have parents who cared to meet the boy their daughter was seeing, or they were already friends of my parents, so there weren’t any introductions needed.
I’d never felt like I had missed out on the experience, and now I knew why. I was a grown man, and I hadn’t even met them yet, but I still found myself standing outside their house, flowers in hand, tugging at a collar that suddenly felt far too tight, and a nervous weight churning around in my stomach.
Much to my relief, it was Ava who answered the door. She was smiling, and my heart did a little flip-flop in my chest as my stomach finally began to settle.
“You brought flowers,” she said, reaching up to take them from me. I pulled them back.
“These,” I said, “are for your mother.”
“Suck up,” Ava teased, but she took my arm to lead me into the house, and before I really had the chance to prepare myself, I was face to face with the Cassidys. Her mom was beaming brightly. Her dad looked skeptical. I couldn’t blame him, given the winner Ken had turned ou
t to be. Of course, his doubt may also have had something to do with not even being aware of my existence until a couple of hours ago.
“Mom, Dad,” Ava said. “This is Bennett. My... well, my husband, technically, though we’d still like to do another ceremony for family. Bennett, these are my parents.”
I wasn’t really sure what happened after that. It was all a blur of handshakes and hugs and congratulations and then a maelstrom of wedding planning that was mostly done by Ava and her mom with occasional nods from her dad and me.
At one point, I caught Ava’s eyes as she sipped her wine, and the look on her face was distinctly triumphant.
She was doing this on purpose, the adorable little minx.
After dinner, her mom went out to get some photo albums to flip through. Her dad had a bowling game, so he excused himself. Lucky bastard, although it did give me a few minutes alone in the living room with Ava.
“Nice prank,” I smiled. “Feeding me to the wolves like that. A little warning about what I was in for would have been nice.”
“I learned from the best,” she smirked, and I just couldn’t stop myself from stepping closer. It felt like a win that she didn’t step away, so I pushed my luck even further.
“I’ve missed you, Sunshine,” I admitted quietly, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear.
“I haven’t missed you at all,” Ava answered, turning her face away.
“Oh, yeah?” I said, catching her hand and raising it so her ring caught the light. She turned back to look at her hand. “Then it’s strange you still have this….”
I didn’t let go, and for a long moment, we both stood there, caught, our eyes locked. I could practically hear her breathing.
“Shitfingers.”
I don’t know who spoke, or who moved first, but suddenly we were kissing, hard and urgent. My arms wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her roughly against me just as hers moved to yank up my shirt, tearing the fabric. Fingers tangled in her hair, I tugged her head back so I could reach her throat, breathing in her scent before nipping softly, leaving a faint mark on her skin.
We stumbled toward the couch, and she fell on top of me, straddling my lap. My hands slid up her thighs, and I felt like I couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t touch enough. I arched up against her body, but the friction was just not enough, and before I had time to think about what I was doing, I rolled us over, accidentally falling off the couch and hitting the floor with a loud thud.
I would have kept going even then, if it hadn’t been for the quiet, “Oh, my!” from the doorway. I looked up to see her mom standing there, hand over her mouth.
“Um... hi, Mom,” Ava said, and then we both dissolved in a fit of laughter.
Chapter 29
Ava
"I still don't understand why you're in such a rush."
My mom stood in the hallway of one of the far cabins at Bennett’s ranch, watching as Layla adjusted my veil. “I told you, Mom. People wants pictures to go with their interview, and nobody will buy that we got married by a justice of the peace.”
“Why not?” she asked. “People do it all the time.”
“Yeah,” Layla said with a grin, tweaking my hair a little. “But not America’s Sweetheart. Fairytale star needs a fairytale wedding.”
“Oh, please,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Bennett is no prince charming.”
Layla tutted softly, touching up my makeup a bit. “Oh, he’s not so bad.”
“He’s lovely,” Mom said, stepping to help. She still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Layla, and Layla was enjoying that a little too much.
“He’s a dude,” Layla pointed out. “They’re pretty much only good for one thing anyway.”
“Well, I never!” Mom said, and I couldn’t help laughing
“Okay, okay,” I said. “The photographer’s waiting. Let’s get this show on the road.”
“You look amazing, boo,” Layla said, giving me a quick hug.
“You really do,” my mom said, giving me her own once-over, tears welling in her eyes. I felt another twinge of guilt about lying to her, but this had to be done, and my mom would never be able to lie to the press when they inevitably contacted her for a quote—not convincingly, anyway. She had to believe it was real.
“Great Aunt Agnes really wanted to be here,” Mom continued, and I leaned in to hug her, knowing that this was all a bit much for her to take in all at once.
“We can have another one later, for the whole family,” I said.
Maybe that one will be real. The thought came to my mind unbidden, but I couldn’t shake it, even though I knew I was being ridiculous.
A moment later, one of River’s friends was coming by to escort Mom to her seat. We’d needed guests on short notice, so River had called up his drum circle. They mostly cleaned up well, and this particular friend, Tristan, charmed the pants right off my mom as he led her to her seat.
“Smile for the cameras,” Layla said before she stepped out of the cabin too.
I could hear the cameras going off before I even got outside. We’d hired one photography crew, they were actually friends of Layla, people she said we could trust not to run to the press, especially given how we were having to fudge the date a bit on these pictures. Our actual wedding had supposedly taken place more than a week ago, after all.
I took a deep breath and exited to find my dad standing there, waiting for me. He fiddled with my veil for a moment, adjusting it unnecessarily. “You know,” he said. “It’s not too late to change your mind. I mean, I know you’re already married and this one is for show, but if you’ve changed your mind, no point in making the same mistake twice. I’d be happy to beat you an escape route through the crowd.”
“Dad,” I said, laughing a little. It made me happy, though, that after everything he was still ready to save me if I needed it. It made me even happier that I didn’t need saving.
“Just saying,” he shrugged, and then he offered his arm, and we were off down the aisle.
Chairs had been set up on either side of the courtyard, and Bennett was waiting at the top of the stairs. River had been drafted into service as the officiant. He wasn’t licensed or anything, so this wedding was just as fake as the one that hadn’t happened, but it didn’t feel fake. Not really. Not after the way Bennett and I had kissed that night at my parents’. Not after he had come back to rescue me from all of the problems in my life that had existed long before he’d come into it. If he had really just been in it for the prank, it would have been very easy for him to disappear from my life after I left the ranch. That was his perfect out. He didn’t need to get mixed up in my mess.
But he had come back anyway.
There were flashes from cameras on all sides of me, and I felt more like I was walking down a red carpet than a wedding aisle. I looked up, then, and caught Bennett’s gaze, and I forgot everything else.
He was looking at me, really looking at me, like I was everything he’d been waiting for. His smile was tentative, but genuine, and his eyes bright as if they were holding back tears. I couldn’t remember seeing a more earnest look on the Cowboy’s face.
I left my father at the bottom of the steps with a quick hug and a kiss, and then I was climbing up to Bennett. He took my hands when I reached him, and I leaned up into a kiss without thinking.
His arms went around my waist easily, naturally, and our kiss deepened even further until I heard a soft throat clearing at my side.
“That part’s later,” River said, smiling lazily. “Trust me.”
Chapter 30
Bennett
Ava’s cheeks were beautifully pink when we pulled back from the kiss, and it was hard for me to find my voice.
Hell, it was hard for me to catch my breath, and it had been since I saw her coming down the aisle. I knew this wasn’t real, that she only agreed to it to get her out of the situation she was in.
But I also knew how she’d kissed me at her parents�
�� house, and I couldn’t believe that was just acting. If I had any chance with her at all, this was it.
River led Ava through her vows, with her repeating after him as practiced, and then he turned to me.
Clearing my throat, I pulled a paper from my pocket.
“I... wrote my own vows,” I said, and Ava looked at me, incredulous. This hadn’t been part of the plan, but I was going with it anyway.
“Ava Cassidy,” I said, clearing my throat again, struggling to speak around the lump in my throat. “When we met, I had no idea who you were, and I think that’s why you liked me. Now, I know exactly who you are, and that’s why I love you. I know I’m far from perfect, but I also know I’m a quick study, and that means I can become perfect—because all I need to do is learn from you. You’re more than perfect, Ava.
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