Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Avery
The pile of weeds next to me was getting bigger, but the gardens didn’t look any more under control than they had when I started.
Still, digging in the dirt and yanking out weeds and overgrown shrubs was exactly the type of therapy I needed. At least, it should have been.
When Jacob decided to walk into town and spend the morning “exploring the town,” which I was certain was only code for “try to dig up dirt on me and my marriage to Reid,” I jumped at the opportunity to clear my head and get some work done.
The gardening should have been just the relaxing and mind-numbing work I needed to get some type of clarity because what I really needed was to figure out how to get Jacob to back off so everything could move forward the way it was supposed to.
My bills were piling up. A detail I hadn’t shared with Reid yet. Truthfully, it wouldn’t be a problem if I could just get the judge to sign off on the will and make the inn—and the inheritance I needed to pay for the renovations—official.
But if the judge didn’t sign off…I couldn’t let myself think of the complete and total personal ruin it would mean.
I stabbed the trowel in the dirt again as if it had personally offended me and dug around the base of a particularly stubborn weed.
Yes. I should be coming up with a solution for what to do about Jacob. But the only thing I could think of was Reid.
And the way we’d kissed last night. The way he’d touched me. The way he’d looked at me like he couldn’t go another second without having me.
Heat crept up my neck as I remembered how close I’d come to making a huge mistake— or maybe the best decision of my life.
No.
It wasn’t going to do any good to think about how we’d almost crossed the line of our fake marriage in every single way. And how I wished we had.
I’d tossed and turned all night, thinking about what could have happened if we hadn’t been interrupted.
But wasn’t it a good thing that we’d been interrupted when we had? Wouldn’t actually sleeping with my husband complicate the fact that our marriage was nothing more than an arrangement? Even if it felt more and more real with every passing minute.
Abandoning my trowel, I wrapped my hands around the base of the weed and tugged. It didn’t budge. “Come on!” I stabbed at it again with my tool before pulling once more. It moved a little, so I stood for more leverage and put all my weight behind the stubborn weed. “Come on, you little—oof!”
I landed hard on my ass on the lawn. The weed stood proudly in the garden, mocking me.
With a grunt, I stood, dusted my shorts off and headed for the porch. What I really wanted to do was sit on the swing and forget everything. But the empty chains dangling from the porch roof where the swing should be hanging only reminded me of how much work still needed to be done.
I fought back the urge to cry in frustration and reached instead for my cell phone that I’d left on the step.
I pushed the button to call my best friend. I didn’t even wait for a hello the second she picked up. “Tell me I’m not losing my mind.”
She didn’t miss a beat. “You know I can’t tell you that.” I scowled but she laughed. “What’s going on?”
“Besides taking on a project I can’t possibly do justice to, marrying a man I hardly know but can’t keep my hands off of, and my cousin showing up out of the blue on my doorstep trying to prove it’s all fake?” I blow out a breath. “Besides that, nothing.”
“Whoa.” It wasn’t a video call, but I could picture the look on my best friend’s face. “Go back. What about not being able to keep your hands off your husband? What’s that all about?”
“That’s what you want to hear about?” I shook my head before dropping it back and looking up to the sky. “Out of everything, you want to know about Reid?”
“You know I do.” She laughed. “And something tells me that’s what you really want to talk about.” She wasn’t wrong. “Have you guys consummated your marriage yet?” She emphasized the word marriage, and I almost regretted having told her the truth. Almost. I needed to tell someone, and it seemed safest to confide in Carrie considering she was hours away and not likely to blow our cover.
“We haven’t.”
“But you want to.”
Dammit. Why did she know me so well? I blew out another breath and told her the truth. “I do. I really, really do.”
“So what’s the issue? He’s a hottie, isn’t he?”
“How do you know?”
She laughed again. “I do know how to use the internet, you know. He doesn’t have much of a social media presence, but I found him tagged in a few pictures. He’s super hot.”
He was. I didn’t need to confirm it.
“So why do you sound so worked up about it?” Before I could answer, Carrie continued. “Wait. I know you. It’s not just him. It’s everything, right?”
I nodded despite the fact she couldn’t see me. Fortunately, Carrie didn’t need the confirmation.
“Okay, let’s take this piece by piece.”
The stress seeped out of my bones as my best friend took control of the situation in only the way a friend who knew you as well as she knew me could.
“First of all, the inn is not too big of a project for you to do justice on it. I know you, Avery, and I know how much you love that place. You’re going to do your very best to make sure it’s perfect. Your grandparents would have been so proud of you. And you know it.”
I inhaled through my nose and told myself not to cry. She was right.
“Yes, you’re married to a man you hardly know. But the very fact that he’s willing to participate in this with you tells me he’s a good guy. Besides that, you have excellent radar.”
Before I could object, she jumped in again.
“Except for that brief lapse of judgment with Porter, but you got that out of your system.” I didn’t even bother to swallow up my laughter as she kept going. “We’ll come back to the attraction part. It’s important.”
I could almost see her wiggling her eyebrows.
“But let’s talk about your shitty cousin for a second. Because that’s all the time he’s worth. First of all, you have nothing to worry about. Your marriage is legal, and he’s only grasping at straws here because he’s butt hurt that your grandparents left the inn to you.”
“But he has more money to fight than I do.” I didn’t bother to tell her that I was so deeply in debt with this whole situation that if it didn’t get sorted soon, Jacob would be the least of my issues. “I won’t be able to drag it out if that’s what he decides to do.”
“He won’t.”
She sounded so sure, I wished I had even a fraction of that confidence.
“When he sees that you and Reid are the real deal, he’ll drop it. Now, let’s get to the good stuff. Why are you so worked up about sleeping with the man? You’re a grown-up. Just do it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Sure looks that way to me. He’s a hottie. You’re a hottie. And besides, Avery…did you miss the very obvious thing here?”
I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “I must have.”
“You’re married to the man, Avery,” Carrie said matter-of-factly. “Reid is your husband.”
She punctuated every word as if I needed help understanding what she was saying. Maybe I did.
“If you both want to have sex, do it. Consummate your marriage. If anything, it only makes it more legit. Besides, you’re both consenting adults. I do not see what the problem is here?”
Of course she didn’t see the problem. That’s because she didn’t see the way Reid looked at me. The way he stood up to Jacob for me. The way he made me feel cared for and protected. The way I got butterflies every time he came close. The way my entire body vibrated when he gave me that rare smile that only I seemed to be on the receiving end of. Carrie didn’t see any of that. And my best friend certainly didn’t see the way I was with him or the fact that I was falling for him. Hard.
And she wouldn’t see that unless I told her.
With a sigh, I started, “The problem, Carrie, is?—”
“Avery!”
I jolted at the sound of my name on my cousin’s lips.
Dammit.
“Shit, Carrie. Jacob’s back. I need to?—”
“Avery.” Jacob rounded the corner, and he didn’t look impressed. “I don’t know what the hell you’re up to here.”
“Call me later,” Carrie said into the phone. “Unless you’re too busy with that sexy husband of yours. In that case, call me much later.”
I hung up with a shake of my head, her laughter still ringing in my ears as I set my phone down and stood.
“How was town?” I asked lightly. “Was it everything you remembered Trickle Creek to be?”
He stopped inches from me and looked down at me in a move meant to be intimidating. I wasn’t going to let him get away with it, so I stepped back and up onto the porch step, putting our eyes on level.
“I don’t know what you’re up to here, Avery. But I know it’s something.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He shook his head and chuckled. There was no humor in it. “I was asking around about you.”
I worked hard to keep my face a blank mask. “And what did you learn?”
“I learned that I’m not the only one surprised by your sudden marriage.” He crossed his arms, looking quite pleased with himself. “In fact, there was more than one person in town who had a hard time believing that Reid Lyons would settle down at all, let alone with someone he barely knew.”
“Well, I guess that just goes to show how little people actually know about what’s going on.”
I held my position. There was no way I was going to back down. Not to Jacob. Not when so much was on the line. “I don’t know what you hope to find, Jacob. But Reid and I are legally married and the inn is mine. You don’t have to like it. But you do have to accept it.”
His lips curled up into a sneer. “That’s where you’re wrong, cousin.” Jacob shook his head. “I don’t have to accept it. Because I know you’re up to something. And if you loved this place as much as you claim to, you’d admit the truth before things get ugly.”
I opened my mouth to protest but didn’t have a chance before he fired off again.
“But you’ll never do that, will you, Avery? You and I both know you’d rather watch this place burn than give it to me.”
I sucked in a breath, but there was nothing I could say as he turned on his heel and stalked off. Because I wasn’t entirely certain that he might not be right.