Page 12 of It's Holy Matrimony, Baby

“Because we all need to sleep, Nox. We’ve been pushing shit uphill for two years. We’re only just getting our feet under us. Three months for half a million and Casey Records owned outright. It’s a small price to pay, isn’t it?”

“Sure.” I roll my eyes. Such a small price.

“You’ll do it?” Liv’s eager voice in my ear almost makes me jump.

“You’ll do it,” Finn says, matter of fact.

“This is my life we’re talking about,” I grumble.

“I know it’s a nightmare, but we need you to do this, Nox,” Finn argues. “Besides, you know Dad would want you to try and make it work with this Beck chick. Married is married.”

“What about Beck? Does she know you’re trying to set her up?” I ask Liv.

“No,” she admits. “She‘d never in a million years agree to it, which is why you can’t tell her.”

“Do you expect me to make her fall in love with me or something?” What if she does? That’s the last thing I need. Don’t want that at all.Thought I wanted it that morning she disappeared.I was mind fucked back then. Now? Don’t need the trouble.

“No. I wouldn’t ask that of you. It’s probably not realistic. She doesn’t believe in love. All you need to do is make it through three months of real married life. It won’t be easy though.”

I can handle it. “I wouldn’t expect so.”

I stalk out to the kitchen, and Finn flops onto my couch, his feet sticking over the end, and kicks off his shoes.

“You don’t believe you could deal with her?” She sounds perplexed.

Staying married to the woman for another three months won’t be so bad. We’ve been married for almost two years now. And this last little bit, it’s for a good cause. “No, I could definitely...” I’m being handled right now, aren’t I? Wheedled and cajoled into agreeing to this deal. “Always this charming in business, Liv?”

“Only when I need to be.”

A rumbling freight train fills the cabin with noise. Just Finn, asleep on his back. He has a point. Taking Liv’s deal would get my family back on their feet. I could pay my siblings back and make good on my promise to dad to take care of his legacy. I could get Casey Records running again. Restore it. Maybe even do something that would have made the old man proud.

“Are you near a railroad?” Liv asks curiously.

“No. That’s not... It’s nothing.” Am I really considering this crazy plan? “But why is this so important to you if your friend doesn’t believe in love?”

“Because she married you.”

“I don’t get it,” I say.

She laughs like it’s the greatest joke in the world. “If you knew her, you’d understand how big that truly is.”

I rap on the door to room 107 and wait. I’m fifteen minutes late thanks to the conversation with Liv. We’re probably not off to a good start. Though I’m supposed to be here to talk about annulling the marriage, not making it real, so it probably doesn’t matter. Beck Casey will most likely hate my guts from this point on.

The door finally opens, and I catch my breath. There’s that same overwhelming crush in my chest from earlier today. That same sensation that washed over me when I said hello to a stranger at a bar in Vegas, and she twisted on her stool to smile at me. “Damn it, you’re still just as beautiful.”

Her blue eyes widen and then narrow as though she’s not sure what to make of my admission. Can’t blame her. I didn’t expect it either. “Will you come in?”

“Absolutely.” I follow her as she turns and walks back into the suite. “What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

The room is huge. One of the bigger rooms the Lakeside Hotel offers. The large dining table is littered with clothing, shoes, and minibar bottles of champagne. The ones that hold about one glass, two for a lightweight.

“Work. I’m a journalist for an online publication.”

Something inside my gut tightens unexpectedly. We talked a lot that night. About life and art and music. But there are things about my past I didn’t tell her. Doesn’t mean she couldn’t have dug up the information herself. “There’s something around here that’s worth writing about?”

“I don’t know yet. But I’ll be spending a few months here while Liv gets this hotel running the way she likes and there are a few landmarks I want to check out. I hope that isn’t going to be an issue.” She makes her way toward the couch in bare feet, folding them under her when she sits. Her eyes are a little glazed. She picks up her laptop from the coffee table where half a dozen hotel mugs with cherry red lipstick stains on the rims sit in stages of coffee consumption interruptus. A Nikon sits beside several books that are stacked on a lamp table.

“Nope. No issue.” That’s only going to make it easier to keep my end of the deal I made with Liv.

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