Chapter 14 #2
“Okay, got it.” Addison shot me an exaggerated wink and a thumbs-up. “So, how does this all work? For the love, please tell me you have a plan for keeping your… activities …on the DL while you’re married.”
I shot her a scowl and snapped, “I’m not going to fuck someone else while I’m married to Quinn. Jesus.”
“Does she know that?” Addison asked. “Better question, is she going to give you the same respect?”
Considering it had been three years since the last time Quinn had had sex, I didn’t think I needed to worry about it. But that didn’t stop the thought of her with another man from twisting something in my gut, a knot in my chest tightening until it felt like I could barely breathe.
I rubbed a hand over the spot, trying to ease the ache to no avail. “I don’t fucking know. We didn’t talk about it.”
“You didn’t talk about it?” Addison asked, eyes wide. “Well, then I guess I don’t have to be mad at you for not including me in this, because it’s clear you were both thinking out of your asses and didn’t bother to take anyone else into consideration.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Addison,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm, “that my wife and I didn’t take your feelings into consideration when we decided to get married.”
“ Fake married,” Levi piped up from the back.
“Damn,” Beck said. “That sounds really fucking weird.”
“The weirdest,” Brady agreed.
“Can’t believe he’s the first one of us to get married,” Aiden said, shaking his head. “Didn’t see that one coming. What kind of alternate dimension have we jumped into?”
“One where we all have to work together to make sure this marriage doesn’t go off the rails,” Addison said. “I’ll do whatever I have to to make sure Quinn can take over for that asshole, including making sure you two can pull this off.”
She turned her attention to our brothers. “That means you’re all helping as well. From now on, we’re on Team Quord.”
“What the fuck is a Quord?” Levi asked.
“You know, Quinn plus Ford,” Addison said. “Like Brangelina or Bennifer. I could’ve flipped it, but I figured ‘Finn’ would get confusing.”
“Oh, but Beverly doesn’t?” Beck asked with an eye roll.
As I’d told him, that was the only logical name pairing for Beck and Everly, and he needed to get over the fact that his couple name was that of an old woman.
“We’re going to make this happen.” Addison stood, gathering up her iPad and the folders she’d brought in. “And I just want to make it very clear to the rest of you assholes that you’d better tell me before you get married—real or fake. Or I’m never speaking to you again.”
Aiden’s brows lifted. “That’s a little drastic, isn’t—”
“ Never ,” she cut in, hand raised. “ Again .”
“You don’t need to make anything happen,” I said. “In fact, I’d appreciate it if we could just rewind the past fifteen minutes and pretend this conversation never took place.”
“Too late!” Addison said, striding toward the door. “Already on it.”
“I’m out, too,” Levi said, tipping his chin toward me on his way out.
“I hope you’re ready for this, man,” Brady said, clapping a hand on my shoulder as he headed toward the front door.
“Don’t think your new nuptials are going to get you out of figuring out the fundraiser for the uniforms,” Aiden said before following Brady out of the diner.
With a groan, I braced my elbows on the counter and dropped my head into my hands. “ Fuuuck .”
When I finally lifted my head, I found Beck staring at me, arms crossed and an unreadable expression on his face.
“What’s that look for?” I asked. Which…yeah. That was a dumb-as-fuck question because what wasn’t that look for?
“I just want to know why you didn’t tell me.”
It was a fair question, considering Beck and I told each other everything.
He knew me better than anyone in the world—sometimes I wondered if he knew me better than I knew myself.
And that was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to tell him before I’d gone through with it, worried he would have found a way to talk me out of it.
It was the same reason I never told him before I went off on one of my impromptu adventures. I always told him everything he wanted to know, but not until after the fun had been had.
“Because I thought you’d try to talk me out of it.”
He scoffed. “For good reason.”
“Maybe, but we’re doing this for a good reason, too. The jackass she works for refuses to even consider an offer from her unless she’s married. You should hear the shit he says to her. I’ll be lucky if I get out of this without Brady arresting me for assault and battery.”
“And what are you getting out of this?”
“A date to Chelsea’s wedding.”
“And?”
“And…I get to show up with a smoking-hot woman on my arm who happens to be my wife.”
Beck leveled me with a look. It was his big-brother look. He didn’t pull it out often—hard to do when he was only sixteen minutes older than me—but when he did, I knew I was in for a lecture.
So I saved him the trouble and held up a hand, the other going into my pocket to rub my thumb over our napkin contract. “No lecture needed. We both know what this is and what this isn’t.”
“Yeah? So she knows you’ve been obsessed with her since you were fifteen and her table partner in chemistry?”
“I’m not—nor have I ever been—obsessed with her. Jesus.”
Beck glanced down to my wedding ring before lifting his gaze back to mine, his brow raised as if to say, aren’t you ?