CHAPTER 13 Ainsley Riggs
City Hall
I’m not looking forward to this phone call, but somehow having Dex in the same room with me while the baby naps is giving me the vibes I need to make the call.
“Hey Ains!” Ivy answers. She plows forward before I get to talk. “I have to leave in like four minutes but saw your call come in.”
Okay, good. She doesn’t have a lot of time, so we’ll make this quick.
“Hey, so I’m here with Dex, and, uh, we have some news.”
“News? What news?” she asks. “And hi, Dex.”
“Hey,” he says.
And then I word vomit.
It’s not the sexiest turn of phrase, but I’m a rambling idiot who spills it all in the span of about eight seconds.
“So Dex’s publicist has been telling him he needs to make himself look a little more wholesome, and meanwhile I literally ran into him the other day, and I’m about as wholesome as they come, and I’m breaking NDA to tell you I didn’t get married on the show but was made to look like a total and complete fool, so in order to help him out and so he can help me out, too, we’re going to get married but it’s just for show and not a real marriage and we wanted to tell you before it’s public. ”
Silence greets me on the other end.
“Ivy?” I ask after I give it a few seconds.
“Um,” she says. “I need to sit down. So wait a second, you and Dex are getting married?” she asks, and she’s speaking slowly like she’s talking to some bunnies in the yard that might get spooked if she talks too quickly or loudly.
“Yep,” I say, popping the p.
“When?”
“Today. We’re heading to City Hall soon.”
“City Hall?” she repeats, and I hear all the disdain in her voice.
“Yes. City Hall. I got the romantic proposal and the magical wedding on the show, and it didn’t work out, so—”
“And it’s just for show, anyway,” Dex adds. “But we wanted to tell you since the certificate is public record and will likely hit the media in the next few days once the clerk files it and it’s live on their website.”
“What about having me be your maid of honor?” Ivy asks.
“Babe, you weren’t going to be my maid of honor when I was on Speed to the Altar,” I point out. “I came to Vegas to get married, and maybe we were expecting it to be to someone else, but this is where I landed. You can be my maid of honor at my real wedding someday.”
Dex grunts a little at that, and I can’t help but wonder for a second if the thought makes him…jealous?
“What about payment from the show?” Ivy asks me. “Won’t they pull it if you show up to the reunion married?”
“They already pulled it because I ran instead of staying to give my initial reaction to what happened at the altar.”
“What happened?” she presses.
“You’ll have to watch.”
She lets out a frustrated breath, and Dex laughs.
“Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?” she asks her brother.
“Once it’s done and before they can try to talk me out of it,” he says.
“Then allow me,” she says.
“I thought you only had four minutes,” he counters.
“It can wait,” she says. “This can’t.”
“Yeah, it can, Ivy. Save your breath. Anything you have to say to us isn’t going to change it,” Dex says.
She sighs. “How long are you staying married?”
“My lawyer drew up a contract for two years, six months,” Dex says. He glances at me. “It was his idea to revisit the contract once Tawny is out of jail, but it gives me the firmer ground to prove I’m providing a stable home life just in case she decides to try anything.”
I glance over at him with a furrowed brow. I thought when he kept saying until the kid turns eighteen, he was serious.
I realize how ridiculous that thought is, but we hadn’t really discussed a timeline. Two years, six months is a good chunk of time.
“You guys are making a huge mistake,” she warns.
“Maybe we are,” I agree.
“But maybe we aren’t,” Dex says, his eyes meeting mine. “And it’s our mistake to make.”
She huffs out a breath. “Fine.”
“We need you to sign an NDA,” Dex says. “I’ll text it over now. Please just sign it. Don’t make me regret allowing Ainsley to convince me that telling you the truth was a good idea.”
“Whatever,” she grumbles.
“Love you, Ive,” I say, shortening her name by dropping the last syllable.
“Be careful,” she says in reply, and then she says, “I have to go.”
She cuts the call.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Dex says. “Madden next?”
I’m tired since I haven’t slept more than five hours at a time since I arrived here, and now my life is changing in the blink of an eye.
It’s a welcome change, but it’s still going to be a lot of work to fool the entire world into believing Dex and I are married. And that leaves me with an important question that I blurt out the second it enters my mind.
“We’re going to have to convince the world that we’re really married, so what’s your answer going to be when you’re asked why you’d settle for a girl like me?”
“What do you mean by that?” he asks, his brows drawn together in confusion.
I lift a shoulder. “You’re Dex Bradley. You could have any woman you want. And you’re marrying a plain-Jane girl eleven years your junior who doesn’t even have a job?”
He stares at me as if I’ve grown two heads.
“What?” I ask. I tuck my hair behind my ear self-consciously.
“Plain Jane?” he repeats. He tugs at the hair I just tucked so it comes untucked. “You’re anything but plain, Ainsley.” His voice is low and raspy as he says the words, and need pulses between my legs again.
I blow out a breath.
I’m not sure how I’m supposed to fake this when I find myself more and more invested with every passing moment.