Page 1 of Wed to You

Chapter One

Chelsea Beemer checked her watch. Five minutes until Kaden Talbot’s parent-teacher conference. Just enough time for a quick snack. For some reason, most parents had picked Tuesday, the day before the last day of school, for their end-of-the year meeting, which left Chelsea no time for a lunch break. And because she hadn’t been to the grocery in a week, her only option for breakfast had been a spoonful of chocolate-nut spread. Tasty, but not enough to sustain her all day. At least she didn’t have to work at the diner that night; she’d be able to pick up food on her way home after Kaden’s conference.

She rummaged through her purse and found a stale granola bar. It would have to do. Taking it back to the table where she held her conferences, she opened the wrapper and bits of oats crumbled over Kaden’s folder. Chelsea brushed away the crumbs and opened it to Kaden’s test scores, report card, and certificate of promotion to the first grade.

Chelsea loved all her students, but she had a soft spot for Kaden. She didn’t know much about his history except that he lived with Jagger Talbot, a Yankee transplant from New York. Jagger was acquainted with her close friends, Mitch and Sydney McKenna, and he’d been friends with her brother, Brian, throughout Jagger’s teenage summer visits. She’d had a crush on him during his last trip to Charlotte Tavern when he was eighteen and she sixteen. Jagger hadn’t known she’d existed. Not then and not now.

She’d had a brief chat with Jagger at Mitch and Sydney’s wedding, which she thought was going well, until he left to get her a glass of wine and never returned. She hadn’t seen him since, and neither Mitch nor Sydney mentioned him much. What she knew of Jagger’s adult life, she’d read in the tabloids over the years. He’d been a well-known playboy from one of the richest families in America until he left the party lifestyle last year and re-opened the family’s summer home in Charlotte Tavern, Virginia, and moved himself and Kaden there full time. She might know him better if he’d come to any of the parent-teacher conferences held during the year. Instead, Kaden’s nanny, Mrs. Stanton, came. While the nanny was attentive to Kaden, Chelsea believed primary caretakers should be involved in their child’s education.

She took another bite of granola bar as the door to her classroom opened.

“She’s in here!” Kaden, with his usual exuberance, bounded into the room.

Chelsea stood, swallowing to avoid talking with her mouth full.

“This is my class.” Kaden ran back toward the door, grabbing someone’s hand and pulling it, along with a very compelling masculine body, into the room.

Jagger Talbot. Chelsea’s breath caught, as it always did when she saw him. She was sure he had that effect on all women, maybe even men too. He had that je ne sais quoi that drew people to him. It was his presence, the way he carried himself, and his impossibly good looks that made people stop and notice him. He looked like the devil, with combed-back, jet-black hair that was short on the sides and longer on top, and eyes the most incredible shade of blue, for which Chelsea had yet to find an accurate label, made even more compelling by the dark brows and long lashes hooding them. But what really gave Jagger his mystique was the dark, groomed stubble she was sure Lucifer bore as well. A sexy devil. If Jagger hadn’t been born rich and instead had to work, he’d have been the most successful male model ever.

“I hope you love school this much when you’re in junior high.” Laughing, Jagger allowed Kaden to lead him toward her. His gaze drifted to Chelsea and he cocked his head to the side. “Well now, I see why you love school.”

“Hi, Miss Beemer. This is my nephew, Jagger.”

“Nephew?” It was the first time she was able to draw her gaze away from the phenomenon that was Jagger. She looked at Kaden, who was still tugging on Jagger’s hand.

Jagger extended his other hand over the table. “It’s a long story.”

Noticing Jagger’s outstretched hand, Chelsea reached out to shake it. Although she’d never swooned in her life, she suspected Jagger might cause her to do so. It was annoying she hadn’t outgrown her crush, and that her hormones didn’t have the same sense as her brain. But because she knew they didn’t, she prepared herself for his touch. His hand was warm as his fingers wrapped around hers. She couldn’t stop her breath from hitching as tingles traveled from her hand through her body and made her heart do a loopty-loo. Dumb hormones. Wanting to keep from melting into a puddle, she withdrew her hand, and wished she had a bottle of water to douse the fire burning inside her body. She gestured for Jagger and Kaden to sit across from her.

“We’ve met before.” Despite the tiny chair and table, Jagger sat in a way that retained his very masculine image.

“Yes.” Her throat was coarse like sandpaper, and she chastised herself for having a dry granola bar before her meeting, even though she was certain it wasn’t responsible for her current state.

“I wasn’t sure you remembered.”

She would have laughed if she’d had her composure back. No one would forget Jagger Talbot. It would be like forgetting Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling. “Yes. I wasn’t sure if you remembered me.”

“Sure. I remember you hassling your brother about wanting to go with us and Mitch to the quarry to swim. You must have been Kaden’s age.”

She’d been closer to ten, but it didn’t matter. Jagger remembered more than she’d expected, although apparently he’d forgotten how he’d dumped her at Mitch and Sydney’s wedding eight months earlier. Even so, she couldn’t blame him. Compared to the women he’d been with before, Chelsea was unremarkable. So it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d worn something more interesting than plain khaki crop pants and a white shirt or wrangled her auburn mess into something other than a ponytail for school today.

Jagger’s face softened. “I was sorry to hear about Brian.”

Apparently, he’d also forgotten their conversation at the wedding, because he’d expressed sympathy about her brother’s death then too. But she nodded and managed a “thank you” while working to keep her tears at bay. Five years had passed since Brian had been killed in Iraq, but she still felt the loss keenly.

“Who’s Brian?” Kaden looked up from the imaginary war-game between his fingers to Jagger.

“He was my brother.”

Kaden turned his gaze to her. “Did he die?”

“Kaden.” Jagger’s voice was soft but held censure.

“No. It’s okay.” Chelsea loved how honest and unguarded children were. Kaden was curious and too young to know the social norms around talking about difficult subjects. “Yes. He was a soldier.”

“He died in war?”

Chelsea nodded but didn’t go into details. Kaden didn’t need to know how her brother had been betrayed by the very men who should have protected him.

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