Beefcake & Retakes

by Fennell, Judi

  No, he laid his cards out on the table. And in forty-five days, he’d toss a big check on top of them and get her—and her father—out of his life for good.

  Gage stuck his head in the dressing room. “Hey, Tan—”

  “Not interested.”

  “Good. You know the rule.”

  Gage was one to talk. He’d made a beeline for Lara one night at a bachelorette party and that’d been it for the guy. But the partners didn’t have anything to worry about in that department when it came to him.

  “However, she says she knows you and isn’t leaving until you come out. We don’t need a scene.”

  Tanner exhaled and lost count of the tens he was unfolding from the Stetson. One of his better hauls, so of course Juliet would interrupt. “Fine. I’ll be right out. Let me get dressed.”

  Gage, thankfully, didn’t ask any questions, and nodded before pulling the dressing room door closed.

  Taking another breath, Tanner stood up and undid the towel from around his waist. At least Gage had given him some warning so he wasn’t meeting Juliet for the first time in seven years with barely anything on.

  Though she’d certainly seen enough from the audience.

  He wondered what she’d thought, watching him dance for other women like he’d once danced for her.

  He’d once done a lot of things for her, and with her, and to her… And it’d all been built on a lie.

  Tanner shook off the bad memories. He’d put it behind him and moved on with his life; Juliet was part of the past and in another six-and-a-half weeks, that’s where she’d stay. He already had the papers being drawn up.

  “Yo, Tan. The blonde. If you’re not interested, can I get her number?” Markus walked in their shared dressing room, whipping the stark white towel off his dark body way too far from his clothes for Tanner’s liking. Markus was always willing to prove the stereotype. Well, with everyone but him.

  Tanner chuckled. Markus had seriously been bummed that he wasn’t the biggest one in the club and bitched at him constantly that he was wasting the opportunity.

  “You don’t want her number, Markus. Trust me. I’ve got it and it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be.”

  “I didn’t say I wanted to marry her, I just want to, you know.”

  Tanner looked away before Markus gyrated. He’d seen it more than he cared to.

  He pulled the t-shirt over his head, then punched Markus in the bicep as he headed toward the door. “You’ll thank me for it one day, bro.”

  “I’d thank you for it today if you’d just give me her number.”

  “Not happening,” he said, pulling the door closed behind him. Markus was a friend and he wouldn’t sic Juliet on his worst enemy.

  “Hello, Tanner.”

  She was standing at the bottom of the steps leading to the stage.

  Damn, she was pretty in this light without the smoky dark lighting of the club that’d thrown shadows on her face.

  Juliet had always been gorgeous. Big smile, big blue eyes, big blonde hair, big boobs, tiny waist. She was the quintessential Texas beauty queen. Which she’d been. They’d been the perfect couple.

  Then she’d blown it.

  “Didn’t expect to see you for another month and a half.”

  “A month and a half? Why? I could’ve shown up anytime.”

  “But you haven’t.” He put his cowboy hat on his head as he passed her, symbolic and practical all at the same time. He didn’t have to look at her, and it let her know he didn’t want to. He took the stage steps two at a time. Easier to leave through the club than answering the questions from the guys in the back.

  “Tanner, we need to talk.”

  He kept walking downstage. “We don’t need to do anything, but if you feel the need, I can’t stop you. It’s a free country.”

  He jumped off the stage, then turned around to make sure she could get down.

  Damn his innate chivalry.

  And damn the fact that touching her still had the ability to send molten lava through his veins.

  He helped her off the stage then let go of her arms, stepping aside to let her pass.

  She turned around and blocked his path between the tables. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

  “No.” He skirted a table and chose another route to the front door.

  “Tanner, please.”

  He stopped. Dammit. When her voice got soft like that, as if she were going to cry…

  God, he was still a schmuck when it came to Juliet. “Juliet, let it go. We’ve got another month and a half, then it’ll all be over. I’m using my trust fund to pay off my father’s mortgage to your father and then we can finalize things.”

  “I don’t have a month and a half.”

  He spun around, looking at her. Really looking at her. She didn’t have a month and a half? Why? “What’s wrong with you? What do you have? Is it curable?”

  That beautiful bow-shaped mouth twisted sideways, her naturally-perfectly arched eyebrows veeing toward the bridge of her nose, a look that would make other women look, well, if not ugly, definitely not their best, but for Juliet, it was just one more expression on her beautiful face. One he’d learned to read years ago because he’d stared at her for hours. Days. Weeks. Months. He’d never gotten tired of looking at Juliet.

  “What are you talking about, Tanner?”

  “You. You said you don’t have a month. What’s wrong with you?”

  Her expression changed into a smile just like that. As if she’d rehearsed it—

  God damn it. He’d fallen for it again.

  “You’re not sick at all, are you? You just wanted me to stop and listen to you. Well, you can forget it, Juliet. I’m not falling for your moves again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me a third time? Just take me out and shoot me.”

  “Tanner, hang on. I didn’t say I was sick. You jumped to that conclusion.”

  “Sure. Blame it on me. Why should today be any different?” He took the cowboy hat off and raked his fingers through his hair. He had a damn headache and he’d only been around her for less than ten minutes.

  “Tan, please, just give me a chance to explain—”

  “You’re about ten years too late for explanations, Juliet. Look, my lawyer will contact yours the end of next month.” On his birthday. Luckily, he’d been born at nine in the morning, so her lawyer couldn’t take issue that he wasn’t actually thirty until the middle of the night. This would all be wrapped up nice and easy by lunch and he’d have the best birthday celebration of his life that night. Juliet Chambers-Wentworth and her father would be out of his and his parents’ lives for good. He wouldn’t have a dime of his trust fund left, money that was supposed to pay for the master’s degree he was painstakingly working through as he earned the cash, but it’d be worth it to be free.

  “I have a month and a half, Tanner, but my grandmother might not.”

  Oh hell. Tanner gritted his teeth and stopped walking. Juliet’s grandmother had been as unwitting a player in this whole mess as he’d been. “What’s wrong with Nana?” He fell into the name too easily, but she’d been like his grandmother since he hadn’t had any grandparents since third grade.

  “She had a stroke.”

  “When?”

  “Two weeks ago. She’s not doing well.”

  Tanner pinched the bridge of his nose. He hated that Nana was going through this, but seriously, why couldn’t it have happened two months from now when his nightmare was all said and done?

  Aw man, that was shitty of him. He didn’t wish it on her at any point. His anger at Juliet shouldn’t lessen his humanity.

  He turned around. “I’m very sorry to hear that.”

  “Thank you. You know she still cares about you.”

  Tanner didn’t answer. Despite what Juliet had done, her grandmother had always been kind to him, and as a prospective family member back in the day, he’d realized he could have done a lot worse than having “the matr
iarch,” as she liked to call herself, in his family. “So what do you want from me, Juliet? Why come here now?”

  Juliet looked around. The guys weren’t here, but they were listening. He knew them. He also knew his reputation. The fact that he had a woman here asking about him… And the fact that she was about to spill the beans over what their relationship truly was—

  “Come on.” He grabbed her hand, ignoring the shooting spark of desire that sizzled from his palm right up his arm, over his shoulder, and down into his abdominal cavity where it was working on some very hardened nerve endings. He didn’t need the guys overhearing whatever it was Juliet was going to tell him. Because the guys had never seen him with a woman—and wouldn’t they be surprised to find out the one they did finally see him with was his wife.

  Chapter Three

  There was a limo parked out front.

  Of course.

  “Your father knows you came to see me?” Tanner jerked his head toward the limo whose headlights were glaring through the pouring rain.

  “Actually, no. He doesn’t. It wouldn’t go over well.”

  Understatement of the year.

  He so didn’t want to do this, but once again, it didn’t seem that he had a choice. “Ready to make a run for it?” He wasn’t exactly looking forward to being in such a confined space with her, but if they were going to have privacy, this was about as private as they could get without heading to someone’s hotel room. And given that he didn’t have one and he wasn’t about to step foot in hers, the limo was their only option.

  He yanked open the door for her. “So how’d you get to borrow his car and driver?”

  “Actually,” she slid into the dimly lit interior, “this isn’t Daddy’s. I flew here and rented it.”

  Tanner sat on the back seat and pulled the door closed behind him. “You know, there are these things called taxis. Much cheaper. Your father’s going to love getting this bill.”

  She tapped the divider that separated them from the driver and the car pulled out of the parking lot. “I pay my own bills.”

  Uh huh. With her father’s money. And the money he sent her. She might not be the wife he wanted, but she was his wife and no one could say he didn’t support her—right up until the day he’d turn thirty and kick her and her father out of his life for good.

  “I wanted to be able to talk to you instead of focusing on driving.”

  “So talk. I don’t have all night.” Actually, he did. Sad state of affairs, his life these past few years. All work and study made Tanner a very dull boy. But it sure beat the so-called excitement he’d had when Juliet had been part of his life.

  He could do without that particular brand of excitement.

  Juliet reached for the wine bottle in the built-in ice bucket on the car’s interior, along with a wine glass hanging upside down from the rack attached to the roof. “Would you like some?”

  Tanner uncorked it for her with the corkscrew that was on his side. “No.” He needed his mind to be sharp when he was dealing with Juliet. Blonde bombshell she might be, but there was definitely a brain in her head. “Come on, Juliet. This could have been a phone call. And when it’d happened, not two weeks later.”

  She took a too-long-to-be-called-a-sip of the wine that had him wondering what this was about. Juliet had never been a big drinker.

  “I know. But I need to ask you a favor, Tan.”

  “A favor? Me? Why would you even think that I’d agree, and what the hell do you have to ask me that you can’t ask any of the hundreds of people working for your dad?”

  “Because you’re the only one who can do it.” Juliet finished the wine, which worried Tanner.

  “What’s going on, Jules?”

  She sighed and set the wine glass down. “It’s…” She sighed again. Blinked a few times. “Nana isn’t… I don’t know; it’s like she’s… like she’s given up. She just sits in her hospital room and stares out the window. She talks about my grandfather and my mom as if they’re still here, and it’s just…”

  Tanner’s chest got tight. Juliet’s mother had taken off when Juliet was a baby for a child-free life in Europe with a rich playboy she’d met God-only-knew-how, so Nana, her father’s mother, had raised her. Her mother had been a sore spot in Juliet’s life, one she rarely ever spoke about. The fact that she even mentioned the woman spoke volumes.

  “And my dad… It’s killing him. I see it when he thinks I’m not looking. He barely goes to work anymore and, well, Tanner, I just think if I could give them something to hope for that Nana would perk up. Have a reason to fight, you know?”

  “I’m not following you.” Because his mind was still reeling. He’d walked out seven years ago and never gone back; he shouldn’t have expected everything to stay the same, but he realized now that he had.

  “I need your help. Since we’re technically still married, it makes sense. I can’t pull this off with just anyone and have her believe it.”

  “Pull what off? Believe what?” The minute the question left his mouth he knew the answer. “You want me to pretend that we’re happily married?”

  “Yes.”

  “No one’s going to buy it, Juliet. I haven’t been around for the past seven years; who do you think will believe that we suddenly reconnected and want to spend the rest of our lives together?” Even as he said the words, that old feeling suffused his chest cavity. He’d wanted nothing more when he’d been a teenager than to grow old with Juliet.

  And then it’d happened. She’d gotten pregnant senior year and they were putting together a wedding. He’d been terrified about having a child at their ages, but the joy of being able to call Juliet his wife, of living with her and sleeping with her and seeing her over the breakfast table the rest of his life had overridden his trepidation and the sadness at having to give up his scholarship to play ball.

  Surprisingly, though, he’d actually been happy back then. But eleven years was a long time and he couldn’t remember what happiness felt like because, in the intervening years, he’d tried to forget everything about her. How she’d looked in the first wedding dress he wasn’t suppose to have seen but had when he’d peeked through her bedroom door as she’d modeled it for her friend, Tricia.

  She’d taken his breath away, as had that precious bump in her belly he’d glimpsed when she’d peeled the gowns’ sleeves off her arms and stepped out of it.

  His baby.

  He’d been so happy. They’d been so happy. Life would have been a bed of roses…

  If only she hadn’t lost the baby.

  To this day, the thought of that moment, when they’d known they’d lost Keegan and Tanner had been terrified he was going to lose her too, had the power to bring him to his knees. He’d loved them both so fiercely and when his son had been born too early and not breathing, Tanner hadn’t known what to do.

  There Juliet had been, looking dead herself, all hooked up to tubes and monitors and IVs in the ugly cloth gown where there should have been a wedding dress… He’d walked around in a haze, questioning everything he’d thought he’d known about life. About how they could have seemingly had it all only to lose it in the space of a few hours.

  He’d held her hand as she lay in that hospital bed, counting every breath she took while people asked him about funeral services and caskets and names and headstones. All he’d wanted was for his Juliet to wake up and tell him this was all a bad dream.

  Only… it’d been a nightmare when she had woken up and she’d had been so inconsolable that she’d blurted out that she’d gotten pregnant on purpose, derailing his life for her own selfish reasons and trapping him into marrying her right out of high school.

  And then, unbelievably, four years later, he’d fallen for her lies all over again.

  He shook his head, more to get rid of the memories he never wanted to think about again than to tell her no. But tell her no he would. Forty-five more days and then he’d never have to think about the most painful thing in his life ever agai
n.

  “What makes you think your grandmother will even believe it? Your father sure as hell won’t.”

  “They will because they want to. It’s all Nana used to talk about; seeing me happily married with a family of my own. Obviously, I’m not going to ask you to go that far, but just come for a little while. Give her some hope. Let her get better. Then, when she is, we can tell her it isn’t working and we can move on. But if I tell her we’re getting a divorce now, that will kill her.”

  “How about if I delay the divorce instead?” The thought socked him in the gut. He’d geared himself up for the idea of ending their marriage once he paid off his father’s debt; he didn’t want to prolong it. But if that would help Nana out…

  “That’s where we are now and it’s not helping her. I’ve tried to come up with something else, Tanner, but I can’t. Would it really be so bad to do this?”

  On so many levels. “I’m sorry, Juliet, but I can’t lie for you. I won’t lie for you.”

  “It’s not a lie, Tanner—”

  “Oh yes it is. We are not happily married. We’re barely married, a fact that I intend to fix in six weeks.”

  Juliet was silent, her blue eyes filling with tears.

  Tanner hardened his resolve. He was not going to fall for tears. She wasn’t going to manipulate him that way ever again. He’d become immune to a woman’s tears in the years since he’d last seen her.

  The limo pulled up to a curb and the driver stopped. “Where are we?” Tanner looked out the tinted windows but couldn’t see anything in this weather. He wouldn’t put it past her to have them at the fanciest hotel in town—and have her father show up at just the right, er, wrong time.

  Again.

  Which was how she’d gotten him to marry her the second time, when they’d actually gone through with it. Her father had been so angry at the scandal surrounding Juliet getting pregnant in the first place, then the stillbirth two days before the wedding, the cancellation of that wedding, and Tanner leaving town the day after Keegan’s funeral, that when Mr. Chambers had walked in to find him and Juliet in bed four years later—