BLURB
An opposites attract, marriage of convenience, hockey romance from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Jenshak.
I’m going to marry her.
Are we dating? No.
Was she engaged to someone else yesterday? Yes.
It’s not real. It’s to save her job after her fiancé dumped her days before their wedding.
But it’s good press for me, which my agent will love.
I just signed a seven-year contract with the Wildcats, maybe my final one, and I have to start thinking about life after hockey.
Did I mention she’s my coach’s daughter’s best friend?
She’s driven, fun, and the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.
Too bad I’m not supposed to fall for my wife.
CONTENT NOTES
This book contains: alcohol consumption, explicit sex, profanity, addiction (historical, secondary character), death of a parent & guardian (historical).
1
BIG DREAMS
JADE
“I thought you weren’t wearing a veil for the reception?” Melody purses her shiny lips as she scrutinizes my look from head to toe.
“I changed my mind.” I smooth a hand over the lace, admiring the soft, intricate material. “What do you think?”
My nerves ramp up as I wait for her answer. Melody is my boss and also sort of my hero. At thirty-five, she’s one of the youngest editors in chief of I Do magazine. She’s known for having her finger on the pulse of the wedding industry and generally being well liked and respected—a tough combination to pull off.
My little monthly column, Cocktail Hour with Jade, went from a few hundred views to a few million in the course of just nine months. Brides and couples planning or just dreaming of their future weddings have been following my wedding planning journey. I’ve covered everything from how to find the perfect wedding planner to current bouquet trends, to wedding cakes, and finally…dresses.
I Do is paying for my wedding, so I can’t really blame them for wanting Melody to sign off on the purchases. And I agreed to it. Is it weird that my wedding involves a contract a mile long? Probably, but since I never planned to get married anyway, I’m okay with it. It’s almost like my childhood not-so-dream wedding come to life. By the time I was ten, I’d seen my mom get divorced three times in those years and I realized that marriage wasn’t some sacred union of two people. Half of the time, or more if you’re my mom, it ends in tears and moving to yet another new home.
“I don’t know.” She tips her head side to side as she walks a circle around me. “Can I see something shorter?”
“Of course.” The shop owner, Patrice, who has been hovering nearby, jumps into action.
While she and Melody look at veils of all lengths and layers, I step off the platform and grab my phone from my purse on a chair nearby.
My brows knit together at the sight of three missed calls from my fiancé. Sam isn’t the kind of guy to randomly call during the day, let alone three times. Before I call him back, I snap a quick selfie for my best friends Scarlett and Piper. They helped me pick out the dress, but they’ll be pumped to know Melody gave it her blessing. I can’t believe I’m actually getting married in less than a week. I thought I’d be traveling to Mars before I walked down the aisle.
As I’m returning Sam’s call, the bell on the front door jingles and my fiancé steps inside. His light brown hair is messy, and his Imagine Dragons T-shirt is wrinkled, but even so, Sam is still handsome. He’s tall and wiry, with a vibe that’s somewhere between rockstar and preppy. He grew up with money and visits to the country club for brunch. His scruffy appearance isn’t fooling anyone. That kind of thing is always visible on a person. Or maybe just to me.
Sam scans the wedding dress boutique until he finds me. I raise a hand in a hesitant wave. The man hasn’t been interested in a single wedding plan, but, of course, he would show up and see me in my dress. At least it isn’t the one I’m wearing for the ceremony. That one is going to knock his socks off.
Instead of waving back, he heads toward me at a pace that means business.
“Hey,” I cross the small sales floor to meet him, “what are you doing here? I wanted both my dresses to be a surprise. Do you like it?”
“I’ve been trying to call you all morning.” His exasperated tone puts me on edge. He doesn’t even offer so much as a glance down at the short, white dress with its cute tie straps at each shoulder and flouncy skirt.
“It’s a Monday morning, Sam. I’m at work.”
“Work?” One brow arches, and he mutters, “Our wedding is work.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, but—”
He cuts me off. “We need to talk.”
“Okay. I should be done here soon. Do you want to grab lunch?” I mentally scroll through my calendar for the rest of the day. “It’ll have to be quick. I have to finish edits on my article for Friday, and triple check a million other details. There’s so much to do before Saturday. Oh, did you pick up your groomsmen gifts from the jewelry store?”
He lets me rattle on without interrupting, but as soon as I’m done, he shakes his head. “This isn’t working for me.”
“I thought you liked the cuff links.” Liked might be too strong of an emotion for the passing nod he gave them. Though to be fair, our opinions were mostly disregarded in favor of what the magazine thought was sellable. Every single detail made an appearance in one of my articles. Weddings are a business, after all.
“Not that. This.” He points between us. “I don’t think I can go through with this.”
I whip my head around to find Melody. She’s still with Patrice, so I pull Sam into one of the little dressing rooms.
“What are you talking about? The wedding is in five days.” My voice is a panicked whisper.
“It’s too much,” he says. “We’ve only been dating for…” He trails off, clearly clueless on the actual amount of time.
“Twelve months,” I fill in for him. An entire year I’ve been with one guy. It’s my longest relationship, by far. “What does that have to do with anything? You love me, I love you. What’s the big deal?”
“You’re talking about marriage, Jade. Marriage. I don’t want to be one of those guys who gets divorced.”
“O-kay. Me neither.”
“I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously. You let the magazine set our wedding date for Christ’s sake.”
“Is everything okay in there?” Melody asks.
I suck in a breath and slap a hand over Sam’s mouth. Too little, too late.
Melody’s Louboutin shoes are visible under the black curtain. I spend a few seconds considering that maybe she didn’t hear us arguing, but I know I’m not that lucky.
Crap, crap, crap.
“Yeah. I’ll be right out.” I try for calm and upbeat, but even I hear the slight edge of panic in my voice. I remove my hand from Sam’s mouth and whisper, “Can we talk about this later? That is my boss out there.”