Page 120 of Some Like It Hot

Right, he's a millionaire hockey player. I nod. “Okay, there’s two things we could do. You could do that, and give up the cabin that is part of your childhood, something that means a lot to you and that in my opinion should be yours. Your grandmother is trying to manipulate you, and that’s not cool. No matter how nice and sweet she seems.”

“Okay, what’s the other option?” he asks.

“We get married for real.”

He just stares at me. He says nothing. He doesn’t make a single move.

I shrug. “Come on. Let’s just do that. There’s no stipulation that we have to stay married. We get married, we get an official marriage license, and she can’t doubt us then. She has to sign the cabin over to you.”

“You would actually invite your family and friends all the way to Minnesota to marry me for real at the cabin?”

I shake my head. “I think we should say that we were swept away by emotion. Once she put the idea in our heads, we couldn’t wait. We go get married in Vegas. Or down at the courthouse. Whatever. We just get married on a whim, tell them it was the most romantic thing ever. We can say that we’ll do a ceremony or a reception some other time for everyone. But as long as we have a real, legal marriage certificate, she loses her high ground.”

He studies me for long moments. It’s almost as if he’s trying to memorize my face. “You’re extraordinary, you know that?”

I laugh lightly. "That’s a nice way of saying I am slightly crazy."

"But you’re doing this for me. You’re not really getting anything out of it."

I’m able to genuinely smile at that. "I get to help one of my favorite people out.”

He looks stunned. "I’m one of your favorite people?"

I lean in. "You know things about me that very few people do. You have been there for me in ways no one else has. You make me feel extraordinary. You make me feel special and cared about and beautiful, and like I can actually make one of the grumpiest people I’ve ever met happy. You have given me things. And yes, you’re one of my favorite people.”

It’s actually not crazy to help him out at all. It makes me feel warm inside and out, considering what he’s given to me.

He reaches up and cups my face. "You make me so happy, Elise. And you’re one of my favorite people, too.”

And then one of the grumpiest people I know gives me one of the sweetest kisses I’ve ever had.

CHAPTER 29

Blake

I have a pastry halfway to my mouth when Elise steps into the bakery.

“Oh, my God,” Luna breathes, standing behind the counter. “She looks so pretty.”

Pretty isn’t even the fucking half of it.

Elise looks like…a bride.

A stunning, glowing, gorgeous bride, smiling at me as she strolls across the room in a white dress that flares out at the waist and turquoise blue heels. She has a little hat on her head and a coat and purse over her arm. Her hair is done in little rolls that match her pinup style.

She looks like she’s about to marry her soldier before sending him off to the war in Europe.

Instead, she’s marrying me.

For real estate.

I instantly regret agreeing to this when Elise suggested we just go ahead and get married.

This isn’t what I want for her—a fake wedding with a fake ring.

She deserves a full-blown wedding someday with the man of her dreams tearing up at the end of the aisle when he sees her. She should have a celebration with everyone she cares about present and I feel guilty that this might take away from that.

That she’ll have to explain to a future husband why she was married to a hockey goalie for a couple of months, assuring him it meant nothing.

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