The Temporary Wife (14 page)

“You need to stop playing at this. You two aren’t really married,” Caroline said. “For God’s sake, you have separate bedrooms!”

That they did, and he hated it. It may have taken him being figuratively knocked over the head, but he now realized he wanted nothing more than to wake up every morning with Meg curled against him.

“We’re doing our best. Everything happened fast, and I want to make sure she’s comfortable.”

“That is such a load of shit,” Kevin said. “You married her because your family couldn’t stand that she had the kid and the trust fund. You’re doing your daddy’s bidding just like always.”

Jason stared for a moment.

“What? You think I married her to keep my
parents
happy?”

“I think you’ll screw my sister over as soon as you get the chance.”

Jason let his head get around the accusation. It made him feel a little sick inside that Kevin’s reasoning made sense. They thought that he was in the marriage for his family, not to protect Meg and Molly. To screw her over for his old man. Considering their history, Jason couldn’t fault them.

But how could he make them understand that they were wrong?

“My parents hate that we got married. The only thing that shut them up was when we put Molly’s money in a blind trust.”

“I don’t trust you, Campbell,” Kevin said. “I don’t. Because of your family my father dropped dead from a heart attack. If you do anything to hurt my sister or Molly, I will fucking crush you.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t already.” Jason tugged at his cuffs thinking about everything the Rossis went through after they left the estate. Mr. Rossi dying just a month later was the blow that left everyone reeling. Logically, Jason knew his family wasn’t directly responsible, but it felt like it. And that alone made him want to make amends. “Look, I’m going to take care of them. You aren’t going to have to crush anyone. Just let us figure it out.” The valet pulled up with his car, and Jason slipped a tip into his hand. “And you have to trust me, because I’m the only thing standing between her and an ugly custody fight.”

When he got in his car and closed the door, he thought he probably shouldn’t have said what he did. They could have explained away the separate bedrooms, but now they all knew this marriage wasn’t what it appeared to be on the surface. Meg’s family wasn’t the problem, though. They’d protect her and Molly at all costs. It was his family, his parents, who would cause a shitload of trouble if they thought for one second there was a vulnerability.

Jason pulled away and headed for 7-Eleven to get some ginger ale, because his focus needed to stay on a sick little girl and on Meg, not his parents or the trouble they might cause.

***

Meg got Molly settled in bed and went to her room to change into some sweats. It had been the weirdest night.

It was like the incident with Grant and the challenge from her family flipped Jason’s husband switch. Yes, he was late, but he’d shown up with an incredibly thoughtful gift for her mother, said all the right things, and was the perfect dad to Molly.

The sound of the garage door opening told her he was home, and for some strange reason, that calmed her, made her happy, and she wished it didn’t. Meg needed to remember how much it hurt when he ignored her. How abandoned she felt when they got home from their honeymoon.

But where Jason was concerned nothing made sense.

Even with all the things he’d done, she’d lost control of her heart. Again.

Heading back to Molly’s room, Meg tried not to think about what she was going to do about him. She was falling for him, there was no doubt in her mind about that. What she wanted to do was figure out a way to stop herself.

“Is Uncle Jason back? He was going to read to me.”

“He just got home. Do you want anything?”

“I’m thirsty.”

“Then it’s a good thing I brought you this.” Jason walked into her room with her favorite pink cold cup filled with ginger ale and ice. “So where are these books I’m reading?”

Molly bent over and rifled through the basket next to her bed, examining each book.

“How is her fever?” Jason asked Meg.

“A little over a hundred. While you’re reading I have to report my absence.”

“From school? Why?”

“I can’t leave her all day with the house staff.”

“I’ll stay home and work here. I can set Molly up on my office couch like last time, and the housekeeper will be here all day. It will be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Meg looked at Molly and then back at him. “We can take turns, you know.”

“It’s easier for me. I can work here. No one checks up on me, and I don’t have to worry about my students tying up the substitute.”

Meg smiled and chewed on her fingernail while looking at him. “You don’t mind?”

He smiled into her eyes. “I’m positive. Let me help.”

“Okay. I really don’t want to miss since I was out for the honeymoon, and if you need anything I’m a call or text away.”

“Uncle Jason, I have the books I want.”

Meg looked and saw the two books Jason promised her had turned into six. “That’s a big pile.”

He grinned. “I bet she doesn’t last through one.”

“You have fun.”

“I intend to.”

***

Meg started out of the room, but turned and stood by the doorway, watching as Jason folded his frame into Molly’s bed. He rested his back against the headboard and settled her into the crook of his arm. It was a picture full of contradictions, and she wished she had a camera.

He’d shed his tie and rolled up the sleeves of his light blue shirt, and his dark gray trousers hugged his thighs—physically, he was testosterone personified. That is, until you saw the doll across his lap, or heard him do silly character voices, or check a child’s forehead for fever.

He was big and handsome and brilliant, but he also had a soft side that turned Meg’s heart to mush. Watching him like this with Molly made her see that this was not the guy she knew fourteen years ago. He’d grown up and become a man, and a thought niggled through Meg’s brain that what she was feeling wasn’t the same as it had been before. These feelings were new ones, grown-up ones. Meg was falling for the man Jason had become.

Jason looked up and caught her watching them. He stopped for a second, met her eyes, and that’s when Meg saw it: a curious longing, something he wanted to say but couldn’t. Just as quickly, it was gone. Not a word passed between them, and he went back to reading
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
to Molly.

It was a perfect moment. One perfect moment of understanding that would have to stay with her..

Chapter 14

Jason was making himself a cup of coffee, a bad habit this late at night, when Owen came in the back door. It was almost nine o’clock, and his friend looked like he still had hours of energy. He had his messenger bag over his shoulder, which meant he had things to go over with Jason. It was another night of work.

Since Meg’s meltdown a couple of weeks ago, he’d been thinking about what she’d said, and she was right: Nothing had really changed for him. His friends and business associates came and went, but Meg didn’t see anyone, and he hadn’t thought about it much because he didn’t know anything about her life before they were married.

“Hey,” Owen said. Grabbing a mug from the cupboard, he popped a coffee pod in the brewer and pressed the button. “I swear I could mainline caffeine and it wouldn’t do a goddamn thing.”

“That’s because you’re as hyperactive as a six-year-old boy with a sugar high,” Jason said. “Why are you here?”

Owen froze and looked up. “I was going to go over the quarterlies with you before the divisional meetings next week. Bad time?”

“I was going to watch TV with Meg for a while, but I guess we can do this.”

“TV? Really? You don’t watch TV.”

“Meg’s favorite show is on tonight. She’s feeling a little disconnected, so I thought I’d keep her company, you know?”

Owen stirred a ridiculous amount of sugar into his coffee and narrowed his eyes at Jason. “You want to talk about it, dude? ’Cause this is
not
like you.”

Jason drew a deep breath. Meg’s words had been on an endless loop in his head, and talking to Owen about it had to be better than feeling like he couldn’t do anything.

“She came home from work one day and she was a fucking mess. Apparently, her ex-boyfriend told her he loved her, and Meg started thinking about everything that’s gone south since she married me.”

“Thinking is never good. Could you take her to bed and make her stop thinking?”

Jason thought about that, but sex wasn’t the answer. Getting to know her, spending time with her, was. So that’s what he was trying to do. It took him a second to see that Owen was grinning like a drunk frat boy.

“It’s not funny. Her friends have stopped talking to her pretty much, her family is rarely around—we were with them a couple of nights ago, but it’s tense. She doesn’t go out anywhere, and I’m always working. She’s all alone and taking care of a five-year-old.”

“But Meg went into the marriage knowing your life is controlled chaos, right?” Owen folded his arms across his chest. “Or is there something else you want to tell me?”

Oh, shit.
He knew. And based on the look in his eyes, Jason figured he knew everything, “Do I need to tell you, or did Harper do it for me?”

His friend chuckled. “She did, by accident. I had no idea you had knight in shining armor tendencies.”

“I thought I was doing it for my sister and Molly, but . . . ”

“But it’s about Meg, too.” Owen had nailed it. “So what’s the problem, exactly? Other than the ex-boyfriend.”

Jason leaned his back against the marble kitchen island. “I never thought about what a change it would be for her. Then her ex makes a dick move and tells her he loves her, and she sees the marriage she didn’t get, the kids she won’t have . . .”

“Her life passed before her eyes and she was all alone.”

“I never even thought about it. I was so fucking self-centered, it never occurred to me how my brilliant idea to get married would affect her.”

“I still can’t believe the ex told her he loved her. That’s ballsy.”

“That’s what I think. Fucking bastard. She’s
my
wife.
Mine.
” Owen smirked, and Jason started pacing. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Jesus, man, you are fucking gone over this girl. You’re jealous.”

Jealous? He didn’t get jealous. Jealousy would indicate that he had something to lose.

Christ.

He did have something to lose; he could lose her. “I’ve always been gone over her,” he confessed. “But I always hurt her. Every time.”

There was silence while the two sucked down their coffee, and Jason pulled the cookie jar from its spot against the wall and pulled off the top. There were peanut butter cookies today. Made by Meg.

Owen took a cookie, and when he bit into it, his eyes rolled back in his head. Meg’s cookies had that effect on people. “God, that’s good,” he groaned. “Maybe you need to talk to the ex-boyfriend. Have a sit-down and explain things to him.”

“I hear he’s six-four and at least two-thirty. A gym teacher.”

“Shit. Why do they need such a big guy for little kids? Isn’t that overkill?” Owen was on his second cookie when Meg walked in the room.

Jason had gotten used to her routines in the time they’d lived together. After dinner, she got Molly bathed and ready for bed. Molly had her story, which Jason had been reading to her with more frequency, and then Meg worked out and showered before watching TV for an hour, often with a pile of papers in her lap. She never stopped.

Gliding into the room, she was wearing one of her pretty white nightgowns, which was, unfortunately, covered by her ugly pink bathrobe. But just thinking about that white gown, which was sheer, light, and more than likely trimmed with delicate lace, had Jason fantasizing about all the ways he could get her out of it.

But then he looked in her eyes and he could see she was still emotionally wiped, and it twisted Jason’s gut.

“Hi, Owen.”

“Hey, Meg.”

She pulled the milk from the fridge and poured herself a glass. “You guys working late tonight?”

Owen looked at Jason and then back at Meg, who took a cookie for herself. “You know, I think I’m going to go home. We can go over these numbers tomorrow.”

“You’re not staying?” Meg asked. “Why?”

“I’m beat,” Owen said.

Meg squinted, and Jason knew she was on to them. “Owen, you’re never tired. You have little caffeine pumps embedded in your skin.”

Picking up his battered bag, Owen planted a kiss on Meg’s forehead and smiled. “I’m going home, gorgeous. Thanks for the cookies.”

When he left the house, Meg turned to Jason. “He knows. You told him I’m a crazy woman.”

“No, I told him your ex-boyfriend upset you.”

“That was weeks ago.”

“I know. That’s why it’s better Owen went home.” They stood in silence, and Jason thought about everything he had coming up in the next few weeks and how he could arrange to be home more. There were a couple of late nights ahead with the divisional meetings that had been scheduled for months, and there was an event in the city that he was originally going to go to alone, but it might be a nice night out for Meg. It should have been a no-brainer; he was a married man, and showing up at these black-tie events alone, caused more problems than he wanted to deal with. The benefit would be a perfect debut for his beautiful wife.

“A week from Saturday there’s a fund-raiser at the Met, black-tie; it’ll be lousy with celebrities.”

“Need me to take your tux to the cleaners?”

He took her hands and leaned in so he could look in her eyes. “No, we have people to do that. I want to know if you’ll accompany me to the benefit, Mrs. Campbell?”

“Really? Why?”

“Because I want you with me.”

“Black-tie? I’d have to get a dress.”

“We’ll go shopping. You should probably get a few gowns. The holidays are coming, and there are other events we’ll be expected to attend.” Suddenly, Jason realized he was looking forward to taking her shopping and to parties. He couldn’t wait to show her off.

“Is this to make me feel better?”

“Yes. I didn’t think about everything you must be going through, and I should have. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need to be placated.”

“I know. I want you to know that I heard you. I’ll do whatever I can to make you happy.” For a second, he thought she might rip his head off, but instead Meg nodded and looked up at him. “I expect I’m going to mess up, but I will try.”

There was a hint of relief in her eyes, but they had a long way to go if they were going to make this work between them.

“I want to talk to Grant, though,” he said. “I can’t have him upsetting you the way he did. I get that he has feelings for you, and that he was blindsided, but you’re married. To me.”

“You’re sounding a little possessive.”

“I guess I am. I’ve missed you, and I know I screwed this up, but I want to get you to forgive me.” He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her in. She let him, and Jason saw that as a small victory. “Is Molly asleep?”

“Uh-huh. You don’t need to talk to Grant.”

Her hands were resting on his forearms, and just her touch made his blood hum. Restraining himself, he kissed her temple. “Then tell Grant to back the fuck off or he’s going to have to deal with your husband.”

Unexpectedly, he saw her grin. “Okay. You gonna try to beat him up?”

“Don’t question my machismo, woman. Those big guys move like freight trains. I can take him.”

Meg giggled and laid her head on his chest, allowing herself to be held, and it was the best feeling Jason had had in weeks. He didn’t know what he was going to do about everything happening between them, but for now he could take care of her and make sure she never felt alone.

***

An hour later, Jason gently moved the papers from Meg’s lap and placed them in the folder on the den coffee table. His pretty wife was sound asleep, having drifted off about fifteen minutes after her show started. Jason considered waking her, but he liked that she was curled against him, her head resting on his chest.

Fiddling with a lock of her hair, Jason didn’t want to move, because he loved having her so close, so safe. Her warmth, her softness, chased away the stress of his day. There was nothing better.