by Amy Vastine
“You’re ridiculous. She was only doing her job.” He peeked over his shoulder, and she smiled back at him from the other side of the bar. Sawyer’s head snapped forward. Maybe Hunter wasn’t totally off base.
“This would have been the first day of a very different experience if you hadn’t gone and fallen for the headliner. You could have had no-strings-attached fun all across the country.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Hunter was right. If Piper wasn’t pregnant and they weren’t pretending to be engaged, Sawyer most definitely would have been flirting with the bartender, and she would have only been the first of many. Every city would have presented new opportunities. But right now, only one woman had his attention. The woman carrying his child. Being a dad would soon take precedence over everything else, including his love life.
Piper hugged one of the sound techs before being pulled away by Darla. Even without the fake eyelashes and with her hair up in a simple bun, she was the prettiest woman in the room. She glowed, and it had nothing to do with being pregnant.
“Maybe you can still help me out,” Hunter said, slapping him on the back. “Why don’t you introduce me to whoever that is Piper’s talking to? She’s totally out of my league, but maybe she’ll give me a shot if she knows I’m best friends with Piper’s future husband.” Hunter motioned for the bartender. “Let’s bring them a drink. What’s Piper’s drink of choice?”
Another thing to add to the long list of things they didn’t know about one another. It was good she couldn’t have alcohol right now. “Piper only drinks water.”
“Water? We’re celebrating—let’s get them some champagne.”
The bartender wasted no time coming over. “Need me so soon or did you just miss me?” she asked with eyelashes fluttering.
“Can we get four glasses of champagne?” Hunter asked.
“Just two glasses of champagne and one glass of water,” Sawyer corrected him, holding up his beer. “I don’t need another drink.”
“Come on, seriously?” Hunter smiled at the bartender. “He’s fighting with his girl. Guess he doesn’t want either one of them to have fun tonight.”
Sawyer gave his bigmouthed friend a shove.
“Oh my gosh, you’re Sawyer Stratton, aren’t you?” the bartender asked. “I didn’t recognize you. You and Piper are in a fight?”
Great. This was exactly the opposite of what was supposed to happen when they were in public together. “I’m not fighting with anyone except this bozo. My fiancée needs water because she just ran around a stage for two hours doing what she does best,” Sawyer said, trying to clean up Hunter’s mess.
“Of course,” she said with a chagrined smile. “Two champagnes, one water coming right up.”
She walked away to get a bottle of champagne, stopping to whisper something to the other bartender. Paranoia exploded inside Sawyer like a bomb.
Leaning over Hunter, he whispered, “Can you please not talk about me and Piper fighting in front of other people?”
Hunter’s face scrunched up. “What is your problem?”
Sawyer puffed his chest out. “I have no problems. I’m great. I just performed in front of nine thousand people. And I get to do that again and again for the next six months. I’m also engaged to Piper Starling. My life is great! What is your problem?”
A hand gripped his arm. “Everything okay over here?” Faith slipped in between her brother and Hunter.
The bartender came back with their drinks. Sawyer snatched the water off the bar. “Everything is great.”
He marched over to Piper and apologized to Darla for interrupting. “I thought maybe you needed this,” he said, handing her the glass of water.
Piper seemed a bit startled by his appearance. “Thanks,” she said taking a sip and setting it on the table.
“Can I get everyone’s attention for a minute?” he shouted over the din of conversation. The couple of dozen people quieted at his request. “Before we sit down to eat, I thought we should raise a glass to this amazing woman right here. Piper, you are an incredible talent. You are also the hardest-working and most generous person I know. I am so lucky to be along for this ride with you. To Piper!”
Sawyer held up his beer, and everyone followed suit.
While everyone clapped, Sawyer decided to make a real statement. He set down his drink next to her water and wrapped an arm around her waist. Pulling her close, he gently dragged his thumb down her cheek. Piper’s breathing hitched, and his heart thumped in time with hers. Their eyes were locked until he closed his when their lips touched.
Something like an electrical shock ran through his entire body. The plan had been for this to be all show, a way to stop any of the rumors about them fighting dead in their tracks. He hadn’t been prepared for the way this kiss would send his heart into overdrive or how hard it was to stop. Kissing her wasn’t supposed to feel this way anymore. Yet it did.
The crowd cheered louder and Sawyer felt Piper’s hand push against his shoulder. He opened his eyes to find her staring back and breathless. He pressed one more peck on her lips.
Sawyer watched as she struggled to control her expression. She blinked a few times and forced a smile. “We should really toast all of you guys. If it wasn’t for everyone in this room, Sawyer and I wouldn’t sound or look half as good. Let’s eat!”
Heath appeared at Sawyer’s side as everyone scrambled to find a seat. “Nice work, but the kiss was a little much, don’t you think?” he murmured.
Sawyer threw an arm around his shoulders. “Smile, Heath. Nothing but happy faces, remember?”
* * *
DINNER WAS A BLUR. Piper struggled to focus. The roller-coaster ride that was her life had her head spinning. Sawyer acted like nothing she said today mattered. A kiss would have been no big deal. She would have given him a little kiss for saying those nice things about her, but that kiss was anything but little.
He had kissed her the way people kiss in movies. It was over-the-top and full of passion that she was sure didn’t exist. She’d told him her heart couldn’t take this. Did he have no regard for how something like that would make her feel?
“I need to speak to you,” she said to Sawyer as they got into the elevator back at the hotel. “Can we talk in your room?”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” her father asked in a tone that meant he didn’t think so.
The way Sawyer looked at her was clearly a challenge. Would she or would she not do something her father didn’t want her to do? She would show him she could make up her own mind about things.
“I’m sure,” she replied.
“We can talk wherever you want to, Piper.”
The elevator stopped on his floor, and the two of them exited. She followed him, trying to muster up the courage to confront him in the most productive way possible. She needed him to continue with this charade until it was safe to call things off.
“I’m sorry,” he said as soon as they were behind closed doors.
His unexpected apology caused all her thoughts to scatter. “Sorry for what?”
“I’m not good at this, Piper. I don’t know how to turn my feelings off and on. I don’t know how to smile when I want to scream. I’m used to being straight with people.”
Piper sat down on the bed. It had been a long and exhausting day, and they had to get up tomorrow and do it all over again.
“Are you saying you want to back out of our agreement?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer.
He sat next to her and placed his hand over hers, lacing their fingers together. “I don’t know. Do you?”
“No. I need this.”
“But do you want this?”
“A fake engagement? Of course not, but it’s all I’ve got.”
Sawyer shifted to face her. “You know what I was thinking about all through dinner tonight?�
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Piper had no idea. She’d been thinking about that kiss, but it was unlikely that was where his head was. “What?”
“I was thinking about Liam. Liam is going to die. He’s going to die before he knows what it’s like to be seven years old. He’s going to die before he knows what it’s like to drive a car or buy a house. He’s going to die without ever knowing what it means to fall in love.”
Tears welled in his eyes, and Piper’s heart broke open. “It’s so tragic.”
“It is. He’s also going to die without ever knowing what it means to fall in love. And it made me realize I don’t want to die without ever knowing what that feels like, either.”
This was it. He had been lying when he said he didn’t know what he wanted. He wanted the chance to fall in love, and he couldn’t do that when he was fake engaged. She was holding him back.
Piper pulled her hand away and exhaled slowly so she wouldn’t break down. “I get that, and I want that for you. I do. I just need a little more of your time.”
“Piper,” he said, lifting her chin and bringing her eyes back to his. “Let me finish. I want to fall in love, and I can’t deny that when I’m with you, it feels a lot like what falling in love is supposed to feel like. But I need you to be less confused. I need you to tell me what you want. Not what your dad says you should want or what will best fit your brand. What do you want?”
Fat tears rolled down Piper’s cheeks. Sawyer wiped her face and then his own.
“I want you to trust me because I think I’m falling in love with you, too.”
He smiled so both dimples showed. “Then how do you feel about dating the guy you’re fake engaged to?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“SAWYER! PIPER! CAN we get a picture? Look this way!”
Sawyer put his arm around her waist and gave her a kiss on the temple. Piper smiled for all the cameras as they stood outside the auditorium hosting the Grammy Awards.
Smiling was a lot easier these days. When Sawyer kissed her, she didn’t question if he wanted to or if he was doing it because he thought he should. He always wanted to.
“Why do they all shout at the same time? I can’t look at all of them at the same time,” Sawyer said as they posed.
“All I can think about is how everyone will be circling my baby bump when these shots hit the internet.”
Piper had tried on a dozen dresses before deciding on what she wore: a body-hugging, baby blue column dress and a diamond necklace that was on loan from one of the biggest jewelers in Los Angeles.
Sawyer gave her a squeeze. “You look gorgeous. Don’t worry about it.”
They were finally ushered along. It was time to stop and talk to reporters. This was the part Piper had been most anxious about. It was time to tell the world they were expecting. Valentine’s Day was around the corner, and she was officially twenty weeks pregnant. Hiding it would soon prove very hard to do.
It would be a relief to finally be done with the lies, but it was time for judgments to be made. Sawyer and Piper were engaged, not married. There was still a chance people would take issue with them doing things out of order.
There was also that little issue of them saying they were engaged when they were actually only dating. Sawyer had come a long way, but they had not professed their love for each other yet.
“You ready for this?” he asked as they waited in line to talk to the first reporter.
“I hope so.”
Piper glanced over at Lana, who gave her the thumbs-up. She had been in charge of posting a picture to all of Piper’s social media accounts of Sawyer’s hands making the shape of a heart on Piper’s stomach with a caption that read, “The three of us can’t wait to attend the Grammys tonight! Did we say three? Yes, we did.”
If everything went as planned, most of the reporters along the red carpet should be dying to talk to them about it. Piper’s job was to be enthusiastic and to skirt any questions having to do with weddings or due dates.
“And it looks like we have country sensation Piper Starling and her fiancé, singer Sawyer Stratton, up next.” Lia Jones was there representing Good Morning USA. Piper could tell by the look on her face that she’d been told about the post.
“So I know I am supposed to ask you about who you’re wearing and how thrilled you are to be here, but I think you two have something a little more exciting to talk about. Maybe something to do with this Twitter post my producers are putting on the screen right now.”
“We’re very excited to announce we’re expecting our first baby,” Piper said, holding her stomach in a way that accentuated the little bump there.
Lia squealed and gave them both a hug. One down, dozens to go. Sawyer and Piper made their way through, accepting everyone’s congratulations and keeping things focused on the tour. They were halfway through when someone finally asked a question Piper had hoped to avoid.
Colin Giser was a blogger for an entertainment news site. “So what will come first, the baby or the wedding?”
“Well, we still don’t have a wedding date,” Sawyer said, fielding the question for her. “Right now, we’re so focused on the tour that we haven’t really had time to plan a wedding. We’ll see how things go.”
“That’s a bit nontraditional for someone like you, Piper. But I guess it goes hand in hand with the other changes we’ve been seeing from you. You wrote many of the songs on your new album, which sounds less country and more pop than your previous records. Would you say you’re becoming a little more LA and a little less Nashville?”
Piper prayed her face didn’t flush with embarrassment. “I’m a Nashville girl through and through. My fans know my heart and understand sometimes you live life a little out of order.”
At least she hoped they would.
* * *
SAWYER MISSED THE days when he had no idea what social media was. The only reason he had an Instagram account was because Dean insisted he needed one in this business. He still thought the whole thing was silly.
Piper, on the other hand, was obsessed. Not as obsessed as her father, but pretty close. The two Starlings had been glued to their phones since they’d left the Grammy Awards and got back in the limo. They had to head straight to the airport to hop on a flight to Nashville for two nights of shows there.
“Anything new?” he asked, even though he really didn’t care.
“Mostly congratulations. A couple trolls, but that was to be expected,” Heath answered.
Sawyer took the phone out of Piper’s hand and tossed it to Lana. “Hide that for a little bit, okay?”
Piper looked like she wanted to dive across the aisle and grab it back, but her dress would never allow it. “We need to stay on top of it so we’re prepared.”
“Your dad will keep us posted.” He put his arm around her and pulled her close. She relented and rested her cheek against his chest. Sawyer kissed the top of her head. “I’m more worried about what everyone on tour is going to say when we get back.”
They had decided not to announce to the crew before leaving for the Grammys for fear someone would leak the news.
“I think we need to nail down a wedding date. Saying you’re too busy to pick a date is fishy—makes you seem like you aren’t really committed,” Heath said, setting his own phone down.
Sawyer’s shoulders tensed. “I disagree. Setting a date before we’re ready is pointless.”
“Pick any day in the summer. It doesn’t matter, you’ll be calling it off after the baby is born anyway.”
Heath was having a hard time accepting that even though the engagement was fake, the relationship was real. Sawyer hadn’t been there when Piper explained it to him, but he trusted she had been clear.
“Dad, we aren’t planning on a breakup anymore. We’re slowing things down in our relationship, remember?”
“I’m not sure it’
s a good idea to veer from the original plan, Piper. The original plan is a good one.”
This was a test. If Piper caved, Sawyer would know for sure that this wasn’t meant to be. He prayed she would back him and not give in to her father’s demands for a fake wedding date.
“No, it’s not,” Sawyer said. “I’m not ready to get married or break up.”
“But you’re ready to become a parent? Because that’s not something you can slow down, young man. That’s happening. And the world is going to wonder why you’re taking it slow when you seemed to have no problem going fast last September.”
Sawyer pressed his lips together. Trying to win an argument with Heath was like sweeping a dirt floor. He didn’t need to convince Heath of anything anyway. This was between him and Piper.
“Let’s stay focused on more productive topics,” Piper suggested. It wasn’t exactly strong support for Sawyer’s stance, but at least she hadn’t agreed with Heath.
“We can go over the schedule for tomorrow,” Lana said once it was clear they were done arguing. “You have a full day. Your appointment with Ruby is first thing in the morning. After that, you’re both scheduled to appear on Kelly Bonner’s radio show, then Piper has the appearance and signing at Thornberry’s to promote her perfume. Sound check for Sawyer begins at three. Piper needs to be there by four. Meet and greet starts at six. Show starts at seven thirty.”
“I’m tired just listening to it.” Piper yawned. The late nights and constant travel had been hard on her. At least they had two days in Nashville and then a short break before heading to the Midwest for two weeks. Sawyer was excited to go home for a few days, see the horses and his dog, but seeing his child for the first time was what he was most looking forward to doing in Nashville. He couldn’t wait to count ten toes and ten fingers. Maybe they’d find out if it was a boy or a girl. He’d be thrilled with either.
He kissed Piper on top of the head again. He also had an extra-special Valentine’s Day surprise for her in the works, thanks to Harriet.
Heath could hope for a breakup, but he wasn’t going to get one if Sawyer had anything to say about it.