Page 9 of One Steamy Pucking Meet Cute

Jake looks serious. “Here’s the thing…”

My stomach clenches, and my skin tingles all over. He’s not actually serious about this, is he?

“I’ve got some shit going on with the team,” Jake says. “They’re worried about my off-the-ice behavior. My agent told me I needed to find a way to convince them I was cleaning up my act. I got back in town last night, hung out with Jesse and Andi, and then decided to swing by and see you. And what do I hear? A golden opportunity for both of us.”

Now I’m scowling. “Explain.”

He’s still wearing that boyish smile, and I wish it didn’t make me feel like I was melting from the inside out. “You get your fake husband and keep the inn. I get a fake wife and my contract. We both win. Nobody gets hurt.”

I’m waiting for the punchline. There has to be a punchline because it sounds too good to be true and too stupid to make sense. “But?” I ask.

He considers. “We may want to keep the truth about this quiet. If the team finds out, I can kiss the contract goodbye. And I’m not sure this Peter asshole won’t find a loophole to say you haven’t breached the contract.”

I rest my chin on top of my hands, then shake my head and laugh as I actually consider it. “This is crazy. You realize that, right? We’ve barely spoken in a year, and now you want to pretend we’re engaged? You want to actually get married after our fake engagement?”

He shrugs. “I could think of a few worse people to get fake hitched to.” There’s that smile again. “Besides, we can always divorce once we’ve got what we want secured and bagged up. No big deal, right?”

“And you actually think we can keep the fact that this is fake a secret from all our friends? I can’t even tell Andi or Mia?”

Jake considers. He looks kind of dreamy when he considers things. Or when he’s not thinking much at all. Actually, he always looks dreamy. “Keeping it quiet would be safest.”

“None of our friends will believe it.”

“Maybe,” he says. “But we’ll just make this Peter guy think we’re already engaged. We can pretend we’re starting to date for our friends’ sake. Then we spring the engagement news on them once it feels more natural and pretend we’re rushing the wedding. Who says the timelines have to line up, right?”

I blow out a breath. “This feels like a bad idea.”

“What’s the worst that happens?”

“Um, I don’t know. Total and utter failure? Our friends furious with us for lying and Peter taking my B&B? Walker growing up homeless because his mom lost her livelihood?”

Something hard passes over Jake’s face. “You’re never going to be homeless, Caroline. I know we’ve had our differences, but I’ve always got your back. You understand?”

I feel like I’m being scolded for thinking it wasn’t obvious that Jake wouldn’t bail me out if it came to that. Realistically, he’d probably have to fight my brother, Jesse, for a chance to be the one to save me from destitution. I sigh, nod, and smile. “Thank you. And we don’t have differences. We just… drifted apart, right?”

“Yeah,” Jake says, but his tone is a little too stiff. “So? Are we doing this, or what?”

I swallow hard. “Okay… Okay. Yeah. Let’s do this.”

“Great.” He gives the table a quick slap with his hands and stands up. “Peter didn’t seem to notice you weren’t wearing a ring. Otherwise, I figure he probably would’ve mentioned it. But we’ve got to fix that. Can you hop on a plane tomorrow? We need to go somewhere to pick out your ring.”

“What?” I ask. “I thought we were going to pretend to date first.”

“You’ll have the ring in case we run into Peter. You don’t wear it in front of our friends. Easy.”

“Easy,” I agree, sounding much less sure than him. “But Walker hasn’t ever flown.”

“Oh,” he says, then shrugs. “I can borrow the team’s private jet. He can cry all he wants. No big deal.”

“I’d rather he doesn’t cry if it’s all the same to you,” I say, a little tightly.

Jake nods slowly. “Good point. But the private jet will be quieter and a smoother ride. You can walk him around as much as you need or feed him when you want. He’ll be happy as a bug in a rug.”

“Okay, fine. But couldn’t we just order a ring online?”

Jake scowls at that. “My fake fiancée is not wearing an online wedding ring. Fuck that.” Then he grins. “Only the best for my fake girl.”

I work my lips to the side, trying not to smile too much at how this feels. One week, Caroline. You will tell this man he’s your baby's father in one week. Or sooner if the opportunity presents itself.

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