Chapter 16
“There’s the newlywed,” Parker sings as I walk into the kitchen of her inn after dropping Maggie off at preschool.
My original plan was to do some baking in order to start boosting my social media presence before having to get to my mid-day dog-walking clients. The last thing I want to do right now is be in the same vicinity as Beckham Lawrence, even if he’s probably at work by now.
I don’t want to take the chance.
Instead, I decided to spend some time with Parker, something I don’t get much of these days.
“Don’t remind me,” I mutter, heading toward the canteen of coffee on the serving station. The inn may be closed for renovations, but she still keeps the coffee nice and fresh, probably for all the construction workers currently swarming the grounds.
“Is the hanky-panky that bad?” Grandma Estelle asks from her perch on a barstool in front of the windows overlooking the vast lake.
It barely resembles how it looked mere weeks ago during the height of the Christmas season. Now, with Callum’s help, Parker’s finally able to turn Holley Ridge into the luxurious wedding destination her parents always dreamed of. But it’s going to take a lot of time and effort to do that.
And a lot of construction workers, who currently have Grandma Estelle’s attention, her eyes glued to a pair of binoculars as she checks out a few of the more attractive ones.
“That honestly surprises me,” she continues, not even looking my way. “I thought that man would have you walking bow-legged for the next week with the way he was eye-fucking you yesterday.”
“Grandma Estelle!” I exclaim, although I shouldn’t be surprised.
The octogenarian, who’s as much of a fixture at Parker’s inn as is the towering Norwegian Spruce she decorates every Christmas, has absolutely no brain-to-mouth filter. She speaks her mind, to hell with what anyone might think. After over eighty years on the planet, she’s earned that right.
Regardless, I doubt I’ll ever get used to hearing her talk about fucking and walking bow-legged.
“It’s an honest question, Haley dear. I’m surprised you’re only realizing he’s not any good in the sack now. Even in my day we took the car for a test drive before we drove it off the lot.”
“I…”
“Grandma Estelle,” Parker interjects, saving me from having to come up with a plausible excuse.
Because therein lies the problem.
I did take Beckham out for a test drive. He was my first test drive, but only a few people know that.
“Why don’t you go check on the crew? See if they’d like some fresh coffee or pastries.”
“Are you kicking me out?” Grandma Estelle lowers her binoculars long enough to give Parker a heated glare.
“Not at all.” She skirts around one of the steel prep tables, placing a variety of pastries and muffins into a large bakery box. “Just giving you an excuse to check out all those hotties from a better spot. And maybe get the number of the silver fox you keep drooling over.”
Grandma Estelle doesn’t respond for several seconds, and I’m waiting for her to pry about why Parker needs to talk to me in private. Or, more accurately, why I need to talk to her. While I adore Grandma Estelle, she’s not known for her ability to keep secrets.
“Fine,” she finally says with a huff, climbing down from her stool, taking a moment to smooth her pixie-cut silver hair. “I’ll leave. But only because one of them boys is wearing a really tight pair of jeans and I’ve only gotten a view of his backside today. I’d love to know if the front looks just as good.”
“Make sure to report back.” Parker winks as she hands Grandma Estelle the box.
“You know I will.” She waggles her brows, then pushes through the swinging door of the kitchen, making her way onto the back veranda. The instant she does, I hear a muffled chorus of men shouting her name.
One thing is certain. Everyone loves that woman.
“Where’s Callum?” I ask once we’re alone. “Did he go back to San Francisco already?”
While they’re committed to making their relationship work, Callum is still the head of a successful real estate development firm. For now, he’s splitting his time between the city and here. According to Parker, he doesn’t mind. He always traveled a lot for work before. Now Parker is his reason for being away from the city.
“Not yet.” She brings her coffee mug to her lips, a blush building on her face as her eyes focus on one of the construction workers.
I follow her line of sight, realizing he’s not a construction worker at all, but Callum Reed in a hardhat and tool belt.
It’s a far cry from the stiff in a suit who first walked onto Parker’s property almost two months ago.
“So what’s going on?” Parker asks, forcing my attention back to her. “Obviously something happened.”
I collapse onto a nearby barstool. “This morning as I was getting dressed, I saw Beckham in the shower.”
“You were bound to have a few awkward run-ins at some point.”
“No, Parker. I saw him in the shower,” I say again, hoping she picks up what I’m trying to tell her without having to spell it out.
“Okay,” she draws out, confusion wrinkling her brow. Then her eyes widen. “Was he?—”
“Yup. Sure was. Was really going to town on it, too.”
Her eyes light up as if this is the juiciest piece of gossip she’s heard since I told her about my fake marriage.
It probably is.
“And what did you do?”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly. This whole thing has me out of sorts. First, he gives Maggie her dream bedroom. Then he says he wants to sleep on the side of the bed closest to the door so anyone who breaks in has to go through him first. Then I wake up with his dick against my back. We won’t even talk about the extreme restraint I displayed when I didn’t rub my ass against it.
“Then he turns the goddamn smolder up to eleven when I was making pancakes, which made me want to climb him like a fucking tree. And then, seconds later, I walk into the bedroom to get dressed and he has the bathroom door open. And he’s jerking off in the shower. And my god, Parker…” I sigh. “It was fucking glorious.”
“Then what’s the problem? He is your husband after all.”
“The problem?” I shoot back, pushing down the renewed heat coursing through me from the memory of watching Beckham this morning. I’ve never seen anything so magnificent. So scintillating. So damn erotic. “The problem is this isn’t real. And he keeps doing things that make me wish it were. Like giving Maggie her dream bedroom and being nice.”
“The nerve of him. How dare he actually be a decent human.”
“See!” I slam my hands on the table. “You get it. It’s just…” I expel a long breath, rubbing my temples. “This is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. I thought we’d live under the same roof but wouldn’t spend much time around each other. I certainly didn’t plan on there being any of this…other stuff.”
“And there is other stuff?” She arches a brow.
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” I take another sip of coffee, contemplating adding a splash of whiskey to it.
While she may know that Beckham and I spent a lot of time together as kids, she doesn’t know the full story. All she knows is what most people do. That Beckham was a notorious hothead who physically assaulted the guy I was supposedly dating, and when I intervened, I suffered several major injuries to my hip and leg.
It’s not even close to the full story.
Beckham seemed adamant about leaving the past in the past. Maybe that’s what I need to do, too. It’s not like talking about it will change what happened, even if it might give everyone a better understanding.
“What did you two discuss regarding the ‘other stuff’?” Parker asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“What do you mean?”
“What kind of parameters have you established?” She eyes me over her coffee cup. “You have set up guidelines, right?”
“Not really.” I shrug. “We were more focused on planning the wedding and making sure we had our stories straight.”
“Haley! What were you thinking? That’s like fake relationship 101! Have you never read a fake dating romance?”
“I’ve been on a monster romance kick lately, thanks to Grandma Estelle.”
“Okay. Well, in all good fake dating romances, the two parties typically sit down and iron out some ground rules so lines don’t get crossed. They always do, which is my favorite part. I just love when they reach their breaking point and go at each other like animals in heat.”
“You won’t have to worry about us crossing any lines. And we certainly won’t be going after each other like a bunch of horny animals.”
She crosses her arms in front of her chest. “We’ll see about that. I already told Jude I give it a month.”
I widen my eyes. “What?”
“We made a little wager yesterday.” She takes a sip of her coffee. “You should be happy I’m giving you two a month. Jude said he’d be surprised if you lasted the week.”
“I already told you. That will never happen with Beckham and me.”
“Famous last words,” she sings. “Trust me on this, Haley. You put two people who have always had amazing chemistry in the same space for any amount of time, and you eventually cave. I can’t wait to hear all about it when you do.”
“Some friend you are,” I retort playfully.
“Just keeping it real.”