“I like Music and Lyrics too.”
“You do?”
He shrugged. “It’s music…and lyrics. Plus, I like Drew Barrymore. She’s always seemed a little crazy, but the good kind. Like she’d be fun to have a beer with and maybe play pool.”
“Okay, I have to fix that wonky tie,” she said as she quickly changed seats and leaned over.
His heart raced as her scent filled the air around him. She was so close, and the electricity was so fierce that it felt like he could actually see it arcing between them.
“Fixed.” Her voice was soft as she dropped her hands from his tie. Did she feel it too?
“If only the rest of me was that easy to fix.” He gave her a lopsided smile and held her gaze.
What was he doing flirting with her? Yeah, they’d be spending the next year together, but if he didn’t watch himself…No, he was doing what they’d both signed on for. There had to be chemistry; otherwise, no one would buy the relationship.
She returned to her seat, and he saw a slight shake in her hand as she picked up her fork and began eating again. Maybe he was having more of an effect that he thought. Inwardly, he gloated a little.
The conversation continued through dinner, and he found Callie to be even more intriguing than he remembered. By the time the night was over, he actually found himself disappointed. He’d liked when he was a nobody and she’d liked him. Of all the women Derek could have found, Tucker was glad it was her. He considered the coincidence—or was it?
Once they’d finished dinner, he dropped her off at her hotel. He was even tempted to give her a goodnight kiss. The desire caught him off guard, but he’d reeled himself in before he let anything happen. Of the things he remembered, her kisses were the easiest to recall.
The next morning, as he stood in the waiting room of the Little Chapel of Burning Love, he pulled at his dress shirt collar, dreading what was about to happen. As much as he remembered liking Callie, it’d been a long time, and he didn’t know her well enough to marry her. Just the thought made his chest tighten.
When Tucker pictured his wedding day, he’d never pictured it at a Vegas wedding chapel with contracts and ground rules about kissing and other things. He’d always envisioned being surrounded by friends and family in a church as he watched the love of his life walk down the aisle. And he especially envisioned a honeymoon…a great one.
“Hey,” Stacey said as she stopped in front of him. “You look a little pale.”
He wasn’t about to let Stacey know he and Callie had a past relationship. “I’m getting married to a complete stranger. How am I supposed to look?”
She pushed his fingers from his collar and straightened his tie.
“It’s only for a year, and for part of that, you’ll be touring.” She smiled.
His mouth dropped open as his heart started racing. “Touring?”
She nodded, and her smiled widened. “North American tour, baby. It’s being put together as we speak. When we announce that you’re married, we’ll be announcing the tour. It’s all coming together.”
“I guess.”
“You said she was nice, right?”
“She’s okay.” If he was honest, she was more than okay. He had a connection with her. When he touched her, zaps of electricity hit him so hard that it took effort not to check his hair to see if it was standing on end.
The minister’s assistant popped her head in. “Uh, we have a problem. The bride is having second thoughts.”
Stacey’s lips pinched together. “I’ll take care of it.”
Tucker touched her shoulder. “Let me do it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He nodded and walked out of the waiting area, following behind the assistant. When they reached the room where Callie waited, he stepped inside, and the assistant gave him an apologetic smile before closing the door.
“Hey,” he said as Callie spun around.
Her face was as pale as his felt and was streaked as if she’d been crying. “Is everything okay? You did sign a contract, and you’re being paid well.”
“This is marriage. I’m marrying someone I…” She stopped and let the sentence die.
Someone she what? If it was any other time, he’d ask.
“I know.” He slowly approached.
She whirled away from him, wringing her hands. “I mean…I know you want your career, and I hate that you could lose your contract, but marriage? This was the best idea they could come up with?”
The fact that she was having the same reservations made him feel better. “I feel the same way.”
She faced him again. “Really?”
“Yeah, this wasn’t my first choice.”
“Then why marriage?”
He shrugged. “Because it sounded better than rehab.”
“Rehab? I mean, I’ve seen the pictures, but I never saw you touch anything alcoholic. I guess you could’ve changed, but…” She clamped her lips shut as her gaze found his. “Sorry.”
“I didn’t. Touch the stuff, I mean. Not until…” He wasn’t talking about Petra. Not today. “I haven’t had a drink in months. I don’t need rehab, so marriage was the path I took.” He stepped toward her and placed his hands on her arms. “Listen, I know this is big, but we just need to hold it together long enough to get through the ceremony. You’ll get paid, I’ll get my contract back, and we’ll just have to smile for the cameras when we get back from your sister’s wedding.”
“Right, this is just for a year, and then we’ll go our separate ways. I’ll get my—” She stopped short, and her eyes went wide.
Tucker eyed her as a weird feeling settled on him. “Get what?”
“I just mean I’ll have a date for my sister’s wedding, and I won’t have to deal with my mom trying to set me up with Edmund. And I’ll get paid to boot.”
He held her gaze a second as he studied her. She was hiding something. Or maybe he was just reading too much into it. Yeah, that was it. All of this craziness was making him antsy. As he forced himself to relax, he smiled. “Exactly. We’ll handle this like pros. We’ll say, ‘I do,’ and we’ll be done.”
The assistant stuck her head in the room. “Did I hear that everything’s okay?”
Tucker turned to the woman and shot her his best convincing smile. “You bet.”
“Great. The minister is ready, and the next couple has arrived. We need to stay on schedule.”
Tucker and Callie followed the lively assistant out of the room and into the sanctuary where the minister was waiting at the front of the room. The woman smiled and beckoned them forward with her hand.
The ceremony was short and sweet, which was what they’d paid for. Long and dramatic would have cost another couple hundred dollars. It seemed like a waste of money to pay more for something so fake.
Once they’d exchanged vows and rings, the minister declared them husband and wife. “You may now kiss the bride.”
Kiss the bride? Oh, right. He’d forgotten about that part. Actually, that was a lie. He’d thought about this part of the ceremony since he’d dropped Callie off the night before. He didn’t have an excuse to kiss her the night before, and now he did. This was how you sealed the whole marriage deal. He had to kiss her to make it look real.
Tucker slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her close as her palms flattened against his chest. The tingles from her touch were just as strong now as they were the night before. For a heartbeat, they locked eyes, and then he lowered his lips to hers.
With the touch of her lips, Tucker could swear fireworks were going off somewhere in the building. His heart raced, and his breathing became shallow. He’d never experienced such a physical reaction to a kiss before. Had their past kisses been that intense? But before he could really understand what was happening, Callie pulled away. Maybe she wasn’t sensing the same thing he was. That bothered him more than he liked, and he frowned at the thought.
Maybe it was a good thing. He didn’t need this t
o get complicated. The last thing he needed was a relationship, or at least a real relationship. The fake one was as close as he was willing to get.
“We’ll just need you two to sign the certificate and take a few pictures, and then you’re free to start your life together in wedded bliss,” the minister said.
Stacey sidled up next to him and leaned in. “That was good. Even I bought it.”
“I am a performer,” he said as he looked at Callie.
When he’d first pulled back, she’d looked a little flushed, but now all her color was gone.
He studied her face. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” But she didn’t sound fine.
“You sure?”
She waved him off and smiled. “Oh, yeah. I’m great. I mean, we sure showed that minister. No way she didn’t believe we were the real deal.”
“That’s what I was going for.” Why did it bother him that she seemed unaffected by the kiss? It shouldn’t. This was a good thing. It meant he could get his career back without any emotional entanglements.
But as he held her gaze, he had a feeling things had just gotten complicated. As brief as it was, he’d enjoyed kissing her, and now he was even more tempted to find out what a real kiss would be like.
Wait. No. His crazy thoughts needed to stop. Whatever they had was over. She was getting paid to be his wife. Of course she’d make the kiss look and feel real. That’s what Petra had done, pretending to be one thing while she was another. Why should Callie be any different?
Chapter 5
Married. Callie was no longer a Chapman, but a Hawk. Mrs. Callie Hawk. It had been so surreal to exchange vows and rings. Then they’d kissed. It took the whole flight to Wilmington before her lips stopped tingling like they’d been hit with a live wire.
She’d taken her ring off before they left the chapel, but that little gold band tucked away in her wallet made her feel like she was carrying a pair of hundred-pound weights in her purse. She was just glad she’d have the next seven days to prepare herself for the real world.
“Hey.” Tucker’s voice cut through her thoughts.
Callie’s vision cleared, and her family’s vacation home loomed in front of her. Good thing she’d put the address into Tucker’s phone; otherwise, they could be anywhere with as lost in thought as she’d been.
Why had the word loomed popped into her thoughts? It sounded so ominous. Her family loved her. Well, they loved the fictionalized version Callie gave them. No one knew who the real Callie was, but maybe they would after this year was over.
“You okay?” he asked.
She smiled as she looked at him. “Yeah. It’s just…you know…family.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I know.”
“No, you really don’t. My mom…she has expectations, and I never live up to them. If she knew…” Callie clamped her lips together. She’d almost spilled that she was a reporter. If she did that, Tucker would be furious, the contract would be void, and the hospital would lose out on half a million dollars. At best, she’d be fired, and at worst, she’d be sued.
“Knew what?”
“That I hate being an accountant.” That was the truth. She’d tried being an accountant, and she’d hated it with such a passion that she’d cried herself to sleep for months before quitting the accounting firm. One test. She was one test away from getting her CPA license when she couldn’t do it anymore. So, she quit and started freelance writing. Over time, one thing led to another, and before she knew it, she was a reporter. A popular one too, except no one knew it was her.
Tucker nodded and turned his gaze to the house. “I’m sorry.”
“She loves me, but she can be a little controlling.”
“Ah. Well, I don’t have a mom like that, but Stacey’s pretty close.”
Callie laughed. “Yeah, I suspect a talent manager would be rather controlling.”
“That’s a nice way of putting it.” He brought his gaze back to her. “Do they know I’m coming?”
“No, I was told not to let them know.” When she’d read that little clause, she was relieved. She’d dreaded the idea of calling her mom and telling her a famous singer would be coming to Georgia’s wedding.
He tilted his head. “Did they expect you to come with someone?”
Callie nearly laughed out loud. Her with a date? It’s not that she didn’t want to bring someone, but there’d never been anyone she was interested in enough. However, that was something Tucker didn’t need to know.
“No, and knowing my mom, she’s invited someone for me.”
His eyebrows hit his hairline. “Really?”
More than likely, she’d invited Edmund Richards. “Yeah, his parents are friends with mine. He’s been chasing me since we were kids.” For a brief second in high school, she’d almost considered it until Edmund spread a rumor she was his girlfriend. He apologized, and while they were still friends, they’d never be more than that.
“Should I be worried?” Tucker smiled.
She shook her head. “No, I’ve never been interested, and he knows it.”
“Good to know,” he said and grinned wider. “You ready to go in?”
She nodded. “Yeah, let’s rip this Band-Aid off. We’re already late for lunch.”
Tucker nodded, pushed out of the car, and ran around the front to Callie’s side to pull open her door.
“Thanks,” she said as she got out. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“My mom raised a gentleman.” He smiled.
Callie held in the smile. The first time he said those same words was at the beginning—when they first went out. They weren’t quite dating, but the spark dancing between them had been so fierce that it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. She remembered him jumping from the car and running around to open her door. He’d been a little lankier then, but she thought he was the next best thing to Captain America. If she was honest with herself, that same spark was still there, at least for her.
They walked to the trunk, but before she could retrieve her luggage, he beat her to it.
“Nope, doting boyfriend until we get to LA,” he said.
“And after we get there?”
“Doting husband.”
She grinned. “Doesn’t that mean I get to be the doting girlfriend then wife?”
“Sure, but I handle the heavy lifting, okay?” He smiled as he used his elbow to shut the trunk.
“Okay,” she said as they walked to the front door of the house. She placed her hand on his arm and took a deep breath.
“Everything will be fine.” His gaze caught hers. “We’ve got each other’s back, right?”
His words paired with the way he held her gaze sent a tickle down her spine.
“Right.” She pulled the door open, and Tucker followed her inside. Salty air carried the voices of her family in from the deck on the back of the house. “We’ll take care of the luggage later. That Band-Aid is only partway off, and I can already feel the sting getting worse.”
“Sure,” he said as took her hand, tangling his fingers with hers. “I’m ready when you are.”
Callie took a deep breath as she pulled Tucker behind her toward the deck. Through the screen, she could see her family sitting around their large farmhouse table under the awning her parents had installed the year prior. As the pair made their way onto the deck, every head popped up.
One by one their jaws dropped. “Is that Tucker Hawk?” her sister Vivian asked.
“Holy wow,” her sister Michelle said as more murmurs erupted.
Callie was so nervous that she was sure if she cupped her hands, sweat would pool in them.
“Dad, Mom…everyone, this is Tucker Hawk. Tucker, this is my mom, Clementine, and my dad, Francis.”
The whispers grew louder and louder until her dad said, “Settle down, everyone.” He stood and stuck his hand out to Tucker. “Hello.”
Tucker shook his hand. “Hello, sir. It’s nice to meet you.” He extended his hand
to her mom. “And you too, ma’am.”
“It would have been nice to know you were bringing someone, Callie,” her mom said as she looked from Tucker to her.
“I’m sorry, Mom. Tucker wasn’t sure he was going to be able to come until the last minute, and I didn’t want to say anything before we knew for certain.”
Georgia laughed. “She was afraid we wouldn’t believe her.”
Rachel snorted and bumped her husband, Denver, with her shoulder. “She’s crushed on Tucker Hawk since she was a college senior.” She leaned forward and tapped Michelle’s hand. “You remember when we visited and she drug us to that little music bar? We just had to hear this guy sing.”
Heat blistered Callie’s cheeks as it made its way to her ears. Why did her sisters have to make this so hard?
“Could you guys please stop?” Callie asked.
Tucker leaned down. “You’re very cute when you blush,” he whispered.
When he leaned back, his eyes sparkled. If Callie could have, she’d have dug a hole to hide in. It was silly, she knew. After all, he remembered her to some degree, but the way her sisters were talking, they made it sound like she was some kind of stalker.
Her mom clapped her hands together. “Okay, let Callie and Tucker take a seat and fix a plate. We can talk after they’ve eaten.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Callie said, truly grateful for the momentary reprieve. The “We can talk after they’ve eaten” wasn’t so great, but it was better than being pounced on.
They walked to the end of the table and took seats next to each other across from her sister Georgia. “Well, Cal, you sure know how to surprise people.”
Callie shrugged. “I wasn’t trying to surprise anyone. Until last night, I really didn’t know if he was going to be able to come.”
Her sister leveled her eyes at Tucker. “You do realize you’ll be singing at my wedding, right?”
He laughed and locked eyes with Callie. “I believe that was one of the conditions of me coming.”
Callie smiled. “I told you so.”
“Yes, you did.”
Rachel, who was sitting next to Georgia, glanced at Callie. “How long have you two been seeing each other?”
The Star's Fake Marriage Page 4