Authors: Roxanne St. Claire

Tags: #love_contemporary

Barefoot by the Sea (21 page)

BOOK: Barefoot by the Sea

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Jocelyn stepped forward, frowning. “Why didn’t they mention this to us when they were here?”

“It came up when they met with the regional directors,” Lacey replied. “Because we are so new and untested, the directors feel that the only way they can make a real recommendation is if they witness a ceremony, sample a wedding dinner, and assess how we handle logistics, decor, staffing, everything.”

“That’s crazy,” Tessa said. “We can’t pull off a wedding in two weeks.”

A few disappointed moans of agreement traveled through the room, then the nail tech at the next table called out, “Zoe! It’s your time.”

“Yeah, Zoe!” A few others agreed. “You’re engaged.”

“Move your date up with Oliver!”

“Can it,” Zoe said, standing up from her seat in the front to turn and face her colleagues. Rubbing her small but distinctive baby bump, she shook her head. “I’m not walking down the aisle until my baby of honor can be there.” When Jocelyn and Lacey gave her pleading looks, Zoe shook her head. “Oliver and I agreed, and there’s no way I’m throwing my one and only wedding together in two weeks, sorry.”

“So what do we do?” someone asked, giving voice to the question on everyone’s mind.

Next to her, John’s body language had changed as he leaned forward, his torso tight, his jaw set. He must realize how important this weekend is, Tessa thought with a rush of affection.

Lacey sighed audibly. “She did tell me we could back out and maybe get rescheduled for next year, but this is the end of her tenure as president, so there’s no telling where the next board will want to go. So I guess we have to—”

“Have a wedding.” John pushed back and stood so fast his chair toppled.

Everyone in the room turned to him, and Tessa drew back an inch, that affection soaring now. He really, really cared about the resort.

“Suggestions are welcome,” Lacey said. “You have any ideas?”

“Yes.” A slow, broad smile broke over his face, turning it from merely handsome to unspeakably hot. And then he looked down at Tessa, expectantly. “I have a capital idea.”

A capital idea? The foreign-sounding phrase was the least of the things that sent a blast of heat through her. The warmth in his eyes, the certainty, the overwhelming sense that he meant…

No, no,
no
. That was her overactive imagination at work.

“A perfect solution,” he continued, kind of shaking his head like whatever idea had just occurred to him was too good to even be contained there.“It’s the answer to
everything
.”

The entire room stared at him, including Tessa.

Very, very slowly, he lowered himself, bypassing the toppled chair and landing right on—one knee.

The whole room drew in one loud, collective gasp, but not Tessa. Gasping would require breathing, which, right then, was physically impossible.

“You’ll marry me,” he said.

Not a question, not a joke, and not a fantasy.

“Are you out of your mind?” she whispered.

Someone squeaked—Zoe, no doubt—and a few people hooted and somebody else shouted “Say yes!” but mostly the room tilted so far off center Tessa thought her own chair might topple with her in it.

“You’ll marry me,” he repeated, still on one knee, as if those three words made
any sense at all
.

He took her hand and looked right into her eyes, his voice barely audible over the room noise and the thunder of blood in her ears. “You know it’s going to happen. It’s inevitable.”

Inevitable?
“It is?” Her voice cracked again.

“What do you think I was going to ask you tonight?”

Her jaw dropped, but he pulled her right into him and kissed her, and the whole room, along with Tessa’s head, exploded.

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.

BOOK: Barefoot by the Sea

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