Page 49 of Wed to You

She took it, but like Mrs. Stanton, it seemed like he was only going through the motions.

“A week? I can’t even plan the menu in a week, how will I have the food prepared and served by then?”

Jagger laughed, giving Miss Z a hug. “I’ll hire extra help that you can boss around.”

“Harrumph.” She pursed at Jagger. “Married? Who’d’ve thought? So, you gonna eat or what?”

Chelsea satwith Jagger on the back terrace of his estate, she with a glass of wine and he with a beer. They’d had a nice dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread with Kaden. Mrs. Z might be a hard woman, but she knew how to make garlic bread, and Chelsea indulged in more than one piece. After dinner, they’d gone for a walk to the stables, and then Mrs. Stanton had taken Kaden to put him to bed.

Now they were alone, discussing the logistics of their plan.

“What’s the trip to New York?” Chelsea had been so preoccupied with the response of his staff to their marriage that she’d nearly missed his comment about going to New York.

“I go about once a month, usually by myself, but this time we’ll all go. I’ll need to work on Talbot business for a day or two, but it will also be a good cover for a honeymoon.”

Honeymoon? They had to fake that too? “I don’t need a honeymoon. If you need to work, I’m happy to stay behind.”

He frowned. “If this were a real wedding, would you want a honeymoon?”

Since marriage was so out of the realm of possibility, she hadn’t thought about it much. When she was younger, a honeymoon, usually somewhere secluded, was definitely a part of the plan.

“I guess I would.”

He had that annoyed expression again as he leaned closer and spoke in a quieter voice. “I promised I wouldn’t touch you and I won’t. But this marriage needs to look real, including a honeymoon. I can’t have my staff or Mitch questioning this.”

She nodded. “I’m sorry about Mitch.”

He sat back and waved her apology away. “It’s not your fault. I knew he’d confront me.”

Chelsea didn’t understand where Mitch’s animosity toward Jagger came from, but Jagger seemed to have his own issues with Mitch as well. “You two used to be friends.”

He took a sip of his beer. “That was before I asked Sydney out and he accused me of attacking her.”

Chelsea gaped. “You asked her out?” Well, of course he had. Sydney was closer to being the type of woman Jagger would be interested in. Although she was less glitzy, she was from his big city money world.

His brows drew together in irritation. “That’s what you got out of what I said?” With a slight shake of his head, he turned his gaze to the darkness of the night.

“Well, I know you didn’t attack her.”

“I didn’t go out with her either. I asked her out after he said I could.”

“Mitch said it was okay to go out with Sydney?” That didn’t seem right, although Mitch hadn’t been very welcoming to Sydney when she first arrived in Charlotte Tavern.

Jagger looked back at Chelsea. “Yes.”

“He just doesn’t want me to get hurt. He’d be like that with anyone.”

“Chels, you okay with this? Are you having second thoughts?”

She shook her head. “I said I’ll do this and I will.”

He studied her. She worked to keep her face resolute even though inside she was afraid she was making a gargantuan mistake.

He turned his gaze away, taking a gulp of his beer. When he turned back, there was heat in his blue eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you and I’m going to do whatever I can to make this as comfortable and not awkward as I can. I know what you’re giving up and that you’re worried about your friends, about deceiving them. I also know I’m not the man you’d pick for a husband. So if there is something else you need to make this more palatable, you let me know.”

There was a terseness in his tone she didn’t understand. Especially when he said the word “palatable.” It was almost as if he thought she was repulsed by him.

“I don’t know if you’re the man I’d pick for my husband because I don’t know you and we’ve never dated.”

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