Page 63 of Down & Dirty

Three thousand miles away and I could hear that one word as if he was standing next to me. I could see his face too. He knew me well enough to know I’d turn down his offer. And I knew him well enough to know he’d be irritated when I did. It was both a comfort and a shame how things never seemed to change.

Cory: See you in a week.

Dad: We’ll be here.

I hadn’t asked if Beau would be around. The times when he wasn’t were harder on my father than he’d admit. Beau’s deployments were one of the things I got to avoid thinking about out here on the road. Mack and Dad saw him off every time, while I barely kept track of when he was gone. It wasn’t something I was proud of. But it felt too late now to change.

Billy: So, does this mean she didn’t dump your ass?

Cory: Not yet

Billy: clock’s ticking

Cory: Shut up asshole. We’re good

Billy: Looked like it

Cory: Don’t

Billy: Too soon?

Cory: Too soon

Billy: Pansy

Cory: See you later

Before I headed for the garage, I had a stop to make. Considering that all of this was fake—and was going to cost me a pretty penny—I probably shouldn’t have felt so elated when my lawyer’s assistant handed me the fat envelope with the new contracts inside.

Prenups.

I’d left him a voicemail on my way home last night, just in case Sky changed her mind. The man had no problem putting in the time to bang out the agreements on short notice; he’d just charged me double. The price didn’t matter to me, though. It wasn’t often I got to experience new things, and this was one I never saw coming.

I was gettingmarried.

Another deranged chuckle burst out of me as I pulled up to a stop light, and the woman in the car next to me smiled when she saw it. She had no way of knowing that was the spontaneous eruption of someone who might have just lost their damn mind.

It wasn’t the marriage part, that was just more paperwork in my life. I was used to that. And it wasn’t the language I’d made sure to include that covered Sky financially if she needed to break the agreement early for any reason.

It was that I was doing this with Skylar Stone. A woman who had literally hated me a couple of months ago, and now would be my wife.

Wife.

Even if it was fake as hell, that term had a weight to it that stole my humor. It wasn’t as if Sky was going to act like it—not that I even knew whatitwas—but taking this step fed some part of me that wanted to take care of her. Protect her. And Micah, too, I guessed. I’d never considered myself the selfish jerk she seemed to take me for, but I’d never stopped to consider what anyone thought of me at all. So maybe that proved her point.

She was the opposite. She put Micah first, and then Ronnie and his career. She clearly loved and admired her parents, and she’d lie on railroad tracks for Elle. But with all that, I’d come to wonder who the hell did that for her? Maybe it was about time someone filled that role for a while.

When I got to the office, Sky was leaning on her car. Her hair was wavy and blowing in her face, but she spotted me as soon as I pulled in. The sight of her biting her bottom lip, like she was tryingto hide a bashful smile, hit me like a bolt of lightning. Fake or not, that woman was going to be mine for a year. How the hell had I gotten so lucky?

As soon as I pulled into a spot, she was walking my way, and I slid from my seat to meet her. “Eager this morning, huh?”

“No. I just wanted to catch you before that big head of yours did something we couldn’t change.”

I dropped the smile. “What’s up?”Was she changing her mind?

Sky sighed, her gaze drifting up over my head. “I said yes, and I meant it.”

Her pause was torture, like heat churning in my gut as I waited for her to finish.

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