Page 21 of Perfectly Wedded

Jaz tilts her head, propping a hand on her hip. “You say it like you just got groceries or something.”

“For the record, it wasn’t planned. Kind of like my grocery trips.”

Jaz shakes her head. “This isn’t like shopping at Trader Joe’s. It’s marriage. A serious commitment.”

“I know,” I say. “I was kidding about the grocery comment.”

We couldn’t be more different when it comes to organizing our lives. Jaz color-codes her to-do lists while I go to the store with no list and buy whatever looks promising. We’re opposites in so many ways. She’s the planner who takes care of everyone, while I’m the spontaneous one who keeps things interesting and fun. It kills me to keep the truth from her, but I know she wants me to be well again as much as I do.

“I can’t believe you didn’t text me right away. How did it happen?” Jaz presses, not moving from her stance in the middle of the entry hall. She doesn’t want me hiding in my room until she gets the full story.

I look at the floor. “Well...” It’s one thing to pull this off to a stranger, but telling your sister a story that’s only half true feels downright criminal.

Vale touches my elbow. “You want to tell her or me?”

“Sure. You tell the story so much better anyway,” I say, giving him a grateful look.

Vale wraps an arm around my waist, tucking me into his side. “When I moved in, Sloan was still recovering, and I knew it wasn’t the right time to start a relationship. But when we were at the skating gala, we realized our feelings for each other were mutual, so we decided to go for it.” Vale pulls me even closer to his body. I know we made up the rules for this game, but he’s really playing into rule number two.

Brax and Jaz don’t say anything for a moment, and my stomach feels like it’s going to lose the lunch we were served on the plane.

Jaz’s lips curve into a smile. “I knew it!” She claps her hands. “I knew you liked him, but I had no idea it was that serious!”

“You knew?” I ask. If it was that obvious to Jaz, then... does Vale know, too? My stomach twists at the thought.

Brax finally cracks a wide smile. “Congratulations, you two. This is the best news I’ve heard in months.”

“Really? Then why did you look so mad?” I ask. “Like you wanted to break your brother’s neck.”

“Oh, that was because Jaz told me to look that way. In case Vale talked you into this and now you’re regretting it.”

I glance at my sister. “You were going to let Brax do that?”

“I’m just protecting you,” she says. “To be sure you hadn’t made an impulsive decision in a moment of weakness.”

If she suspects that our marriage is based on my impulsive nature, what will she say when Vale and I break it off... that she’s not surprised?

“We should definitely celebrate,” Jaz says. “Throw a big party with the entire hockey team and our families. What do you say?”

“I don’t know if we need a big party,” I say. “We’re already married.”

“Of course you do. And I won’t take no for an answer.” She pulls me into a hug.

I lift my eyebrows. “Is that really necessary?”

She steps back and gives me one of her looks. “Yes, it’s necessary. Otherwise you’ll always regret not celebrating.”

“But that’s the whole point of eloping. So you don’t have to.”

“Sloan,” she says. “Let me throw you a party since I couldn’t be at the actual wedding. I need to do this.”

The note in her voice is unmistakable. She feels hurt she wasn’t there. She’s not asking—it’s something she wants to do as my sister.

“Okay,” I say, already feeling weird about it. She doesn’t know we’re not really in love, that I don’t deserve this.

“Well, I’m feeling pretty tired,” Vale says. “And we have a press conference early in the morning, so I’ll just head to bed.”

Jaz looks between us. “That’s another question you need to figure out. Whose bedroomare you using?”

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