by Alexa Hart
“Hello,” I call out, my voice about as tough as a deflating balloon.
The bald man looks over and cracks a lascivious smile. The man punching the bag stills it with his gloved hands. He steps around it and I feel my legs wobble in what seems to be their only response to this man’s presence. He’s shirtless this time, and his chest is covered in black ink tattoos like his arms. He’s sweaty and from the looks of him, if he was working out to relieve some anger, he’s still got a long way to go. He looks twice as murderous as he did last night. He’s wearing shorts and his feet are bare. He is glistening and as muscular as I guessed in my not so wholesome dream last night. As he takes me in, I definitely get a full wolf vibe from him.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he growls.
“I...I brought you cookies,” I say dumbly. What is it about this man that has me struck witless? I was an honor student in college. I gave my valedictorian speech in high school. But him and me and words? Not a good mix. As he wipes his chest with a towel I know the reason why. My lips want to do things that have nothing to do with talking. Traitorous lips!
The bald man laughs. “The Girl Scouts deliver now? How refreshing.”
“I’m not a Girl Scout,” I say lamely.
“Could have fooled me,” the man chuckles as he crunches on a crackerjack.
Kane steps forward. “Who told you about this place?”
“Um ...Maddie gave me the address on the bus. She wanted me to mail her a few recipes. I thought...this was your house.”
“Maddie,” Kane shakes his head. “She’s not allowed to share our home address,” he says.
“This lady is a friend of Maddie?” The bald man asks.
“It’s kind of a long story,” I say.
“Actually, it’s a short story. Practically a haiku,” Kane says sarcastically. “So why don’t you turn around and march back out of here.”
I take a deep breath, mustering up all my courage. “Listen, I...I’d really like to talk to you...about last night.”
The bald man chuckles. “Now this little haiku is getting interesting. I’m Harry Palmer,” he wipes his hands on his suit and holds one out for me to shake. “I’m Kane’s lawyer.”
“You’re a lawyer?” I say.
“I am,” he says. “And who are you?”
“Summer,” I hold out my hand. “My name is Summer Davis.”
“And we were in the middle of a meeting,” Kane says. “So you, Summer Davis,” he takes my shoulders and spins me around toward the door, “should see your way out.”
I try, very hard, to ignore the current I feel when he touches me. And how much I like how it lights me up.
“But, listen,” I spin back around and shove the cookies at him, in part to keep his hands from touching me again and distracting me from my goal. “I baked these for you so just give me the time it takes you to eat one to make my case.”
Kane refuses the tin like it’s covered in acid, but Harry takes it and pops it open.
“I’ll eat,” Harry says as he pulls out a cookie. “You talk.”
I nod. I keep my eyes on Kane’s feet because pretty much every other part of him makes me uneasy. “I have about ten thousand left of my parent’s insurance. I’ll give that to you as a down payment. Then I’ll pay the rest over the next year. I’ll get the bakery going again. You’ll get every last cent we bring in, plus interest. I’ll take responsibility for whatever Angelo owes you. Just let me keep the bakery. Please. It means everything to me. It belonged to my grandparents. It’s all I have left of my family.” I feel my lip quiver.
Kane shakes his head. “I can’t make that deal. We don’t make deals. And trust me, Summer, today is not the day to come in here and ask me for fucking favors.”
Harry eyes me up and down. “Hold on now. Hold on. I have an idea.”
Kane frowns. “Finally. I was wondering what the hell I was paying you for.”
“You two,” he takes me by the hand and brings me next to Kane. He brings his hands together like a frame and looks at us through it. “Yes!”
“What the fuck are you up to, Harry?” Kane seems deeply unamused to be standing so close to me.
“Summer, have you ever been arrested?” Harry asks.
“Of course not! I don’t even jaywalk,” I say. “You can trust me. I was an honor student. I have great references. I’m careful with money. I’ll make good on the bakery.”
Kane snorts.
“What’s funny about that?” I say, holding my chin up.
“Not even jaywalking? Just fits with your holier-than-thou attitude.”
“You two need to get married,” Harry says as he fishes another cookie out of the tin.
“Excuse me?” I say.
Harry doesn’t address me, but the equally dumbstruck Kane. “You need stability, fast. And mothers tend to win these cases. Summer here is a friend of Maddie right? A girl scout inside and out, and she bakes cookies for Christ’s sake. Look at her!”
Kane glances at me and frowns.
“She looks great on paper, she’ll look great in court. She’s fucking perfect.”
“Perfect for what?” I say.
“No fucking way.” Kane looks at me like what Harry is suggesting is the equivalent of being burned by hot coals. Not that I came here to become some sort of trade for the bakery but I mean, it should be me who’s opposed to it, right?
“I’m not going to sell my body for the bakery,” I say.
“Nobody is asking you to,” Kane growls.
“Yes, no need to imagine that unless you want to,” Harry says. “The marriage is just for show until the custody case is settled.”
Kane glowers at Harry. “I thought lawyers are supposed to be discreet.”
“Custody case?” I ask.
“Maddie’s mom is suing for custody.”
I think about the awful text on my phone. “Why?” I ask.
“I’m sure her parents are putting her up to it. Like you, they don’t think too highly of me.”
I gulp.
Harry nods. “You two get married. We win the case, and if the marriage is never consummated…”
“Not an issue,” Kane says. Once again I want to know what about me makes him so sure he wouldn’t be tempted to consummate a marriage with me. Not that I am even considering this insane idea. Just that, again, what’s so wrong with me that this man wouldn’t want to have sex with me?
Harry nods. “We can have it annulled after the case. You just need Summer to move in for a bit, be around for the caseworker, show that Maddie is better with you two.”
I get where Harry is going and I realize it might just be my only shot. “How long would it last?”
“A few months tops,” Harry says. “You don’t have a boyfriend, right?”
“No,” I say.
“And your parents, they won’t throw a fit?” Harry asks.
“My parents are dead. My grandparents too. Rudy, who owns the bakery, is my uncle ...and my only family. He’s in the hospital now anyway. So, no, nobody will be asking questions.”
I look up and catch Kane looking at me. I can’t handle the feeling it gives me, so I focus back on Harry. “And in exchange, you drop Angelo’s debt?” I ask. “All of it? And the bakery is safe. Would your boss really let you do that? I thought you didn’t make deals?”
“His boss is Maddie’s godfather,” Harry says. “He wouldn’t do a favor for you, but he’d do anything for her.”
“Is that true?” I ask.
“It’s irrelevant,” Kane snaps. “Because it isn’t going to happen.”
Harry takes Kane by the elbow. “It’s your best shot, Kane. Hell, it’s your only shot. You and I both know it.”
“I’ll find someone else,” Kane says.
“The women you know aren’t going to help your case,” Harry shakes his head.
Kane looks at me. I can see the struggle in his eyes and I know he’s asking for my take on all of this. “You’re okay wit
h this?”
I nod. “If it saves the bakery, yes,” I say. “But no physical contact.”
“Not a problem,” he says.
I frown, surprisingly stung by how quick and certain his response is. “I mean, you don’t have to act like I have the plague. And I want an annulment. I plan on getting married once, and forever!”
“How romantic and idiotic,” Kane says.
Harry claps his hands. “Okay. Looks like we have ourselves a partnership. We’ll need to move fast,” he checks the gold watch on his hairy arm. “I can get us a Justice of the Peace in an hour.”
“An hour?” I gulp.
“I need to tell Maddie first,” Kane says. “I won’t lie to her about this. She’ll need to know the truth.”
“Okay, okay,” Harry holds up his hands. “This afternoon. I’ll get something arranged. It should be more authentic anyway. We’ll want pictures too for their lawyers. Need to make it look as real as we can.”
“How do we explain how fast it all is?” I ask. “Love at first sight?”
Kane snorts.
Harry nods. “I’ll make something up. Can you get a dress?” He turns to me.
I nod, thinking of my mother’s dress back at the bakery.
“You travel with a wedding dress handy?” Kane says sarcastically. “In case you meet your prince charming and fall in love at first sight.”
I ignore his comment and turn back to Harry. “And I want everything in writing, six months tops, no physical contact. This is a wedding in name only. Anything else and the bakery is mine immediately.”
“Relax, Princess. You aren’t that tempting,” Kane snaps back.
“Don’t call me that!” I return. The worst thing growing up was when people confused my shyness for snobbery. Usually, it’s Becca who defends me, but I am on my own now. My fists are curled into balls at my sides but mostly it’s because I want to smack him hard.
“Great! Good! I’ll draw up a contract,” Harry says, stepping between us like a referee. “And Kane, you pick her up at 5. I’ll text you the details. Do we have a deal?”
I don’t want to spend five minutes with this man, let alone the next six months, even if it is fake. Plus, I always thought if I got married it would be, you know, for forever, but right now the bakery seems more important than any silly daydream I had as a kid. I hold out my hand. “Deal,” I say.
Kane stares at my hand like I really do have the plague, but then, reluctantly, he holds a sweaty hand out, nearly crushing mine in his own. “Deal,” he says.
And just like that, I’m engaged.
Chapter 10
Summer
Kane picks me up in a truck and we ride in silence over to a small church. Maddie is nowhere to be seen. I sit quietly with my mother’s wedding dress encased in plastic folded in my lap.
“Will there be a place to change there?” I ask.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you have rings?”
“I don’t know,” He frowns. “Harry’s bringing some. He’s in charge, not me.” He leans over and I can feel the heat of his body. He snaps open the glove compartment. “The contract,” he says as he pulls out a piece of paper. “Read it over and sign.”
I nod. “Sure.”
I look it over and it seems clear. Six months. I stay at their house. I can’t tell anyone the truth. I’m about to sign when I pause at one of the last list items. “I thought we agreed no physical contact?” I ask.
He grunts.
“Then what does no physical relationship unless necessary mean?” I point to the contract.
“That was Harry, not me. He says we can’t mention this is fake to anyone, and that includes Angelo. The fewer people who know this isn’t real the better.”
“I’m not in the habit of telling him my secrets,” I say gruffly. “But that doesn’t explain the physical relationship part.”
He sighs. “If we’re keeping this up as a public charade, we may need to hold hands, hug, and so on...in public. It’s not a big deal. I won’t manhandle you, Princess.”
“Don’t call me princess!” I snap.
“But you give orders like one. Even if you need this deal as much as I do.”
“Fine. But only in public,” I say firmly.
Kane chuckles. “Relax, seriously, you are so not my type.”
“What do you mean not your type?”
“Prissy, stuck up, rigid.” He shakes his head. “Not my style. So you have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not worried,” I say. “And I am not stuck-up! And believe it or not, since your ego is as big as this city, but you aren’t my type either. I don’t go for violent, aggressive, sexy jerks!”
“Sexy?” He smirks.
“Shut up! You get the idea,” I feel my cheeks redden.
“I get the idea,” he nods. “So just sign the damn thing.”
I fish a pen out of my purse angrily. He can doubt and tease me all he wants, and he may be sexy and seductive as hell, but I’ve seen plenty of bad boys in my day showing up to see Becca, and I’ve watched her cry over every single one when they proved to be jerks. I don’t want a bad boy. My life needs stability, wholeness, safety. Everything this man is so obviously not. No, I just have to pretend for a few months and the bakery is safe and debt-free. Prissy! What does that even mean? Because I said I didn’t jaywalk? I bite my lip and out of the corner of my eye I see Kane’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. I find a pen and quickly sign the contract.
“Done,” I say.
“Great,” Kane says through gritted teeth as he puts the contract back in the glove compartment and snaps it closed. He’s clearly not happy about this whole situation and the silence between us is brutal. I am secretly relieved when Kane turns the radio up, making our silence less obviously awkward. At this rate, the next several months are going to feel like a million years. When we get to the church a middle-aged woman with tight, curly hair escorts me to a little back room where I can change. I unzip the bag and stare at my mother’s dress. It is old-fashioned and modest with a beaded bodice and gauzy cap sleeves. I remember admiring it as a girl and her telling me one day I would wear it at my wedding if I wanted. This isn’t how I imagined the occasion when I would finally get to put it on but with two hours’ notice, it’s the best I could do, and somehow, even though Kane is not at all who I imagined ever marrying, a part of me wants him to see me in it, and I want to feel like my mother isn’t so far away from this strange reality I find myself in. I’ve got the dress on when Maddie bursts in and stops short as she takes me in, in all my bridal glory.
“Summer, you look so beautiful,” she says. She’s wearing a velvet maroon dress and white gloves.
“You look pretty beautiful yourself, Maddie,” I say.
She comes over and hugs me.
“I’m so, so excited you are marrying my dad,” she says. “This is literally like the best news ever!”
“Um,” I hesitate. I thought Kane was going to tell her the truth.
She looks at me and giggles. “Don’t worry. I know everything. But it’s like you’re our roommate for a little while and that means tons of cupcakes and now we’ll outnumber my dad and it is going to be awesome!”
“You aren’t mad?” I ask. “About us lying?”
She shakes her head. “I want to live with my dad. And I want you to teach me how to bake a cake. So to me, it’s all good.”
“That,” I smile, “is true! Now,” I turn around and face the mirror. “Do you think you can help me with these last few buttons,” I reach my hand around to the place near the nape of my neck. “This dress is a two-person job!”
Maddie climbs up on a chair and helps fasten the last few pearl buttons at the top of my back. Harry walks in and clucks his tongue as she finishes. “You look lovely, Summer! Maddie, why don’t you go tell your dad we’re ready to start.”
Maddie nods and heads out of the room. Harry comes over and hands me a bouquet of baby’s breath and wh
ite roses. “I’m here to walk you down the aisle if you don’t mind.”
“Sure,” I wrap my hand around his arm and we head toward the sanctuary. I try not to think of my father and how much I miss him at this moment. I try not to think about how scared I am. For someone who never even jaywalks, faking a marriage seems very, very dangerous.
As Harry leads me down the aisle, I keep my eyes down, scared to meet Kane’s gaze, but when I do look up, he isn’t even looking at me, just staring straight ahead as if he’s being tortured into being there. And damn, he looks amazing in a black suit. I nearly trip on my dress, but luckily Harry rights me. There are maybe a dozen people sitting in the church. I glance at Harry and he whispers, “witnesses if we need them. Friends of Kane’s.”
I nod. Standing next to Kane as best man is a handsome, dark-haired man. A young, buxom woman in a sequined dress and bright red lipstick sits in the front row and glares at me as Harry hands me to Kane and Kane takes my hand, helping me up the steps to stand across from him in front of the minister. I feel shaky and scared under the scrutiny of everyone, fake and plain in my mother’s dress. My eyes well up with tears and then, like a small miracle, instead of letting go of my hand, Kane squeezes it gently. I look up and meet his eyes. He’s looking at me now and the look, warm and tortured and sexy as hell threatens to swallow me whole. He gives me a half-smile and a reassuring nod, then turns with me to face the minister. Through the rest of the ceremony, he doesn’t let go of my hand. I know this is probably one of those physical contact for public consumption moments, but for the first time in a long time, I feel safe. But it isn’t until the minister finishes the vows and Kane slips a thin gold band on my hand, and I do the same for him, that I realize what we’ve done.
Kane leans in and kisses me gently but warmly on my lips, his eyes warning me not to misunderstand the moment. But instead, I close my eyes and enjoy the heat of his lips. When I open them, I realize that this may be the most dangerous contract I have ever signed.
Chapter 11