Accidental Love (Fake Marriage Romance 1)

I really wanted to veto this idea, but Wyatt was right. If we didn’t act like two people in love ready to celebrate their wedding day, people might get suspicious. Mo was proof of that.

“I need to see Alyssa before we go,” I said. “She doesn’t know about this plan.”

“She’ll be fine,” my mother said.

“I can’t just leave after I told her I’d get her tonight.” One thing I’d always strove for was to be accountable to her. If I gave my word, I stuck to it.

“We’ll stop by,” Wyatt said with his hand on my lower back. I appreciated that he understood that it was important to me.

Wyatt helped me into an SUV, and gave two little honks as we drove off.

“Is this new?” I asked, looking around the vehicle. Before, I’d only seen his truck, and an old sedan his mother used.

“It’s used. New to me.” He pulled out onto the highway and toward Alyssa’s friend’s house. “It seemed like we should have a family vehicle.” He glanced at me as if he was concerned I’d balk at the idea. “I mean, I know this is all fake, but if it were real, we’d have something like this.”

“You’re taking all this seriously,” I said.

His fingers flexed and then gripped the wheel, giving me the impression he didn’t like my comment. “Why are we doing this if we’re not going to take it seriously? It needs to look real to the outside world, right?”

I nodded, and decided not to tell him that I’d been considering letting Alyssa stay with my parents during this marriage. I didn’t want to be away from her, yet at the same time, it felt wrong to bring her into a fake family. More than that, I worried what would happen if she got attached to Wyatt and this all went to shit and he ended up leaving again.

“I’m sorry about the mayor crashing the party,” I said, deciding to change the subject.

He glanced at me again before returning his eyes to the road. “You do know he’s in love with you, right?”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say love, but I know he was interested.”

His jaw tightened. “Why aren’t you?”

I looked at him, wondering why he was going there. “I like the mayor, but not like that. Besides, I work for him. It wouldn’t-”

“Plenty of bosses fuck their staff.”

I flinched at his sharp tone. “Mo isn’t like that. He respects women. He respects boundaries.”

Wyatt scoffed. “Yeah, like not interrupting one of your staff’s wedding because you’re jealous. He certainly respected that boundary.”

Touché.

“You can’t be that upset. You didn’t go all caveman on him.” I didn’t know why he was acting like he was the injured party.

“I nearly did.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Because you wouldn’t have liked it.” He turned onto the side street that led to Alyssa’s friend’s house.

“No. I wouldn’t have.”

“You can handle yourself, Sinclair.”

My lips twitched upward. “Yes. I can.”

“Is it a problem that he’s guessed that this marriage is fake?”

“No. I don’t think so.” It was another reason why this honeymoon was a good idea. If Mo had questions about the marriage, perhaps Stark would too. The more we acted real, the better the chance we had at pulling this off.

He parked in front of the house.