Barefoot by the Sea

Chapter Eighteen

Ian could taste the shock in her mouth. Shock and mint and raw confusion sparking in her open lips that didn’t exactly respond to his. Unless her response was to tense every muscle and use all her power to whip away. But he held her firmly and kissed her solidly until the noise in the room and the buzzing in his head abated.

The answer had been handed to him and he wanted a celebratory kiss.

Finally, he let her win and pop backwards, her mouth still hanging open in disbelief. “What the—”

“It’s for the resort,” he insisted in a whisper.

“No, I wo—”

He put his fingers on her lips, still warm and so soft. “Don’t say no.”

She blinked at him. “No.”

“No, you won’t consider it, or no, you give the idea a chance?”

“Are you nuts?”

He grinned. “Do I have to state the obvious? I’m nuts about you.”

Behind him, he was aware that Lacey had walked over to the table and he had no doubt the other two in Tessa’s entourage would be here in a moment. The question was, Would her friends be on his side, or the sane side?

He had to move fast. “Tessa, give me a chance.”

“A chance? You’re asking for…”

“You don’t mean a real wedding?” Lacey asked from behind him.

Tessa looked up at her, relief and gratitude on her face. “I’m sure he doesn’t.”

“Of course I…” He finally got up from his knee, taking the chair someone had righted for him, scrambling for the best strategy. “Don’t,” he finished.

For the first time in a minute, Tessa breathed.

Okay, let her think it was pretend. Until the very last possible second, then, somehow, as part of the act, he’d get her to sign the papers. Henry could pay off a justice of the peace and she wouldn’t even know she’d signed a real marriage certificate. Or…or…

Or nothing. He didn’t have another idea, but he’d think of one. All that mattered was that this cut so much precious time out of the process and he could be married in two weeks, meeting the Canadian board’s ridiculous time line.

“You mean like a re-enactment?” Zoe came in the other side.

“That’s not a bad idea.” Jocelyn flanked the left.

“What do you think?” Lacey asked Tessa.

“I don’t know.” She dragged the words out, searching his face. “I mean, it seems kind of…impulsive.”

“It’s a great solution,” he said quickly.

“A fake wedding.” Tessa’s words weren’t a question, and they were thick with disgust.

No, not fake.

Lacey dropped into a chair across the table. “I guess we don’t have to tell the AABC board that it’s fake. They want to see a wedding and we can re-create what we did for Gloria and Slade’s wedding last month. We still have a lot of the decorations, so everything will be real except—”

“Except it won’t be,” Tessa said flatly.

“Unless you want it to be,” Ian replied, his voice low, but the other women heard him.

“Awww,” Zoe said, balling her hands up under her chin. “So sweet.”

Tessa mowed her down with a look. “He’s kidding.”

Not exactly.

“We could do it,” Lacey said, getting a lot of nods and “Yeah”s from the staff. “Honestly, it wouldn’t be that hard.”

“But you have to run the kitchen,” Tessa said to John. “You can’t be the groom and the head chef. If we’re going to do a faux wedding, we should have someone who’s not so critical to the resort and restaurant.”

“Sure I can.” He shoved confidence into every word. “Marcus will back me up and I’ll organize and plan everything ahead of time. Lacey said we’ll add temporary staff and all I have to do is quick supervision. We can do it easily.”

“We need guests,” Tessa said, grabbing metaphorical bricks to build this wall and stop the train.

“Invite the whole town.”

“And cake.”

“New pastry chef, right, Lacey?”

“And…” She was running out of ideas. “A dress.”

“I thought you’d picked one out,” he replied.

That silenced all the questions and sent every eye directly to Tessa, who was still staring at him, her face bloodless and blank. “I was just…looking.”

He rescued her by taking her hand and laughing. “Don’t worry, Tess. It’ll be fun, and think of how important this is to the business.”

“He’s right,” Lacey agreed, beaming at him. “If we don’t come up with a solution to this problem, we may never have this opportunity to impress the AABC again.”

Tessa nodded. “I mean…can’t it be…someone else?”

“I’ll do it.” Everyone turned at the sound of Ashley’s voice. At the attention, her face reddened. “I mean, if you want another stand-in bride, I’ll do it.” A few feet behind her, Marcus straightened from the wall he leaned against, his eyes wide.

“Why would you do it?” Lacey asked.

“Because.” She shrugged and took a quick glance over her shoulder. “It might be fun to, you know, be a bride.”

“No,” Tessa said, sitting up straight and adding some power to her voice for the first time since Ian had been on his knee. “No you won’t. I’ll do it. John and I will…do it.”

Ian understood her turnaround—she probably thought the girl and Marcus would make the ceremony real. Never mind that was exactly what he planned to do.

“You will?” Lacey asked, looking relieved.

“Mom, I want to do it.”

“They’d never buy a sixteen-year-old bride, honey.”

“Seventeen,” she corrected.

“And who’d be the groom?”

“I’ll find one.”

Ian looked over the girl’s shoulder again, but Marcus had disappeared back into the kitchen.

“It’s better if I do it,” Tessa said, her change of heart obvious even if only he knew the reason. “If you really think that’s better than having you handle the wedding feast.”

“We’ll make the logistics work,” he assured them all. And the logistics would somehow include a legitimate certificate.

But Tessa still looked entirely doubtful.

“Listen, Tess,” Lacey said. “We can iron out the details of this at a smaller meeting. Since we have all hands here, let me finish the rundown of the whole weekend and you two can talk about this.”

“Over dinner.” Without a word, he reached under the table and found her hand. Closing his fingers around hers, he gave her a soft squeeze, something dark and achy pulling inside him.

Why wasn’t he simply overjoyed at this perfect solution?

He glanced at her again, and a longing so physical and potent he could actually taste it welled up and seized him by the throat. Because he wanted to tell her the truth and he could not do that. Even though this gentle-hearted, child-loving woman would probably help him, with no questions asked.

But he couldn’t take that risk. So he’d fuck up her life instead of his.

“What did I just agree to?” Tessa dropped into the chair in Lacey’s office, the rhetorical question answered by an avalanche of female voices the minute all four of them were behind closed doors.

Lacey, the organizer, pushed her sweater sleeves back like a woman ready to dive into a new project.“We can totally make this work.”

Jocelyn, the analyzer, angled her head thoughtfully. “I think it says a lot about him that he came up with this idea.”

And the queen of a good time clapped like a kid who’d just won a trip to Disney World. “Dress shopping!” Zoe exclaimed.

Finally silent, they all stared at Tessa as she nearly choked on frustration. “Guys, do you really think it’s a good idea for me to stand out on that beach in a white gown and exchange wedding vows with a virtual stranger for the good of the business?”

They glanced at each other, then at her, still silent but communicating volumes. And Tessa didn’t like one unspoken word. She fell into the guest chair with a sigh of exasperation.

“It’s not like it’s real, Tess,” Lacey said.

What do you think I wanted to ask you? His words echoed. Was it…no. It wasn’t even remotely possible that was what he wanted to ask her. But now she’d never know.

“It’s crazy.” Tessa closed her eyes, shaking her head, looking for some sanity and seeing nothing but John Brown’s sexy eyes boring a hole right through her heart. “I said yes because Ashley was so determined and—”

“So was he,” Jocelyn said.

Yes, he was. Freakishly determined. “Okay, I’m going to pretend to get married, but you guys don’t have to blow it into something it’s not so I look like some kind of fool out there.”

“Tessa.” Jocelyn curled up on the couch. “There’s nothing foolish about love.”

“Love?” The word catapulted her back to her feet. “You guys are blind, I tell you. Just because you all won some kind of lottery or cracked the code or found the key to ultimate happiness, you think I should melt into a pool of helpless lust because some complete stranger drops onto the property and has a boner for me. That’s not how it’s done.”

Once more they exchanged knowing looks. Superior, self-righteous knowing looks, too, which fired Tessa up even more.

“Oh!” She balled her fists and double-punched the sky. “Don’t you see that I’m…I’m…I’m…”

“Terrified,” Zoe suggested.

“Looking for excuses?” Lacey added.

“So hung up on your own expectations you don’t see the possibilities right in front of you?” Jocelyn finished.

Oh, God. How could she fight this tsunami of friendship? “I give up.” She fell back into the chair and let her arms drape open.

“Thank God,” Zoe said.

Lacey kneeled next to her. “Listen, Tess, forget the fake wedding for a moment. And we all know it’s fake, even if we secretly hope that someday it won’t be. But, seriously, what exactly is wrong with this guy?”

“Nothing. And I told you, that’s the problem.” At their group look of dismay, she held up her hand. “Hear me out, okay? He’s…perfect. Everything he says, everything he does, every touch, every kiss, everything. And then he talks about ‘us’ like…like we actually might be an us.”

They let out a collective and sickening sigh.

“But we just met,” she insisted.

“So? What’s wrong with that?” Lacey asked.

“What’s right with that?” she shot back.

Jocelyn came closer. “Better question, Tess: What’s right with him? Obviously, there are things you like a lot.”

“Of course. He listens to me, he makes me laugh, he’s sexy, he’s smart, he’s kind, he’s…” Freaking perfect.

Three sets of wide eyes stared at her, stone silent.

“Well, don’t you see? It’s too fast, it’s too much, it’s too right to be real.”

“You’re too stupid to be real,” Zoe said.

“She’s not stupid.” Of course Lacey jumped to her defense. “She’s cautious and I understand that. And, for God’s sake, we don’t expect you to really marry him.”

“Thank you.” Tessa puffed out the words with true gratitude. “And I’m not so stupid that I’m not interested, Zoe,” she fired at the other woman. “I’m interested. But when I bring up my desire to have a—” A sudden punch of pain hit her chest.

The phone call. The surrogate. The disappointment. “Shit,” she murmured. “I forgot about that call from the clinic.”

“See?” Zoe said, her voice softening. “He’s good for you like that.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I have to get used to this wedding idea. It feels like a farce.”

“It is a farce,” they all said in unison.

And that was what hurt, but she couldn’t possibly make them understand that.

“I know you’re all hung up on things happening just so,” Jocelyn said, moving from the sofa to get closer to Tessa. “And since you think you can’t get pregnant the standard way—”

“I can’t.”

“—you have to do it this scientific, surrogate way or not at all.”

True enough.

“And now,” Zoe said, coming around to get down next to Jocelyn so they could all three be in her face. “You meet this guy and he’s ‘perfect’ and that upsets your apple cart.”

She looked from one to another, a little jolt of love swelling in spite of how much they could frustrate her. “I like apples,” she said with a laugh. “And I like my cart to be organized.”

“Yes, you do.” Lacey squeezed Tessa’s knee. “But sometimes that cart has to be turned over, spilled out, and stripped bare.”

“Oooh.” Zoe moaned. “And he’s just the man for that job.”

“Listen,” Lacey said. “All kidding aside, we really do have to have a wedding on this property that weekend or we won’t be considered. If it really makes you uncomfortable, Tess, or you feel we’ve snowed you, I’ll call more potential couples—from a list of people who’ve made inquiries, or maybe in town—and see if I could offer someone a free wedding if they’d hold it that weekend.” She didn’t sound too promising, but Tessa appreciated the offer.

“Then what?”

“Well, if that works, you’re off the hook. If it doesn’t, you gotta take one for the team.”

Tessa’s heart slowed as she realized how much of this important weekend fell on her shoulders. And what it would feel like to walk across the beach at Barefoot Bay and stand in front of an official next to John Brown and—

And lie.

“You know, I already got married once, and you were all there. You”—she pointed to Jocelyn—“made a toast that brought me to tears. And you”—her finger moved to Lacey—“caught my bouquet. And you—”

“Made out with that really cute guy from Boston.” Zoe grinned. “And went the lowest under the limbo stick.”

They all laughed, except Tessa, who could barely swallow the lump in her throat.

“Tessa.” Lacey, of course, noticed. “What’s wrong?”

“I wanted the next time to be forever.” Hot, hated tears stung her lids. “Not an…act.”

For a long moment, no one said a word. Then Lacey leaned closer, squeezing Tessa’s arm. “You still have two weeks. By then maybe it won’t feel like pretend. Maybe it’ll feel like practice.”

“Stranger things have happened,” Jocelyn said.

“Right here in Barefoot Bay, as a matter of fact.” Lacey laughed. “I didn’t even know I was at my own wedding, remember?”

“I’m not going to be thinking about marriage in two weeks.” Tessa closed her eyes, her head and heart going back to John. “I still think he’s hiding something.”

“Oh my God.” Zoe shot up, disgusted.

“You might be looking for trouble where there isn’t any,” Lacey agreed.

“Maybe he really does know something you don’t,” Jocelyn said. “Like the fact that you two are meant to be together.”

Tessa didn’t answer any of them, pressing her hands to her temples as confusion ricocheted around and gave her a headache. “I’m going to find out what it is.”

“In other words, you’re going to doom this relationship.” Zoe folded her arms and gave Tessa her darkest look.

“No, I’m not. I’m going to dig a little deeper and not let him derail me with…kisses and promises and all that certainty.”

Before she got “married”—even if it was a charade—she intended to know the answers.