Fake Marriage (Contemporary Romance Box Set)

Sinclair laughed and I was thrilled to see her so happy. To see her happy with Wyatt. When I’d learned she was pregnant at eighteen with his baby, I was shocked and scared for her. I didn’t know if it was because we were twins or simply siblings that we were so close, but I did everything I could to help her through losing Wyatt, who’d run off without a word, and having a baby while attending college. In my mind, she was a superhero to have achieved all that. I knew most people felt the same about her.

It was a stark contrast to what they felt about me. I never went to college. When I got out of high school, I got a job at the Salvation Station waiting tables to support my dream of making it big in my band. Ten years later, I was still working in Salvation Station, now as the bartender, and while my band played regularly, we’d given up on dreams of fame and riches. Not that I was complaining. Truth be told, I was perfectly content. I was well-liked, Trina notwithstanding, and enjoyed my life. Well, except my love life. In ten years, I still hadn’t been able to convince Trina to give me a try.

“You should have seen Wyatt and Sinclair,” Trina said. “You could see why Stark never stood a chance against those two.”

Wyatt shrugged, putting his beer down after a sip. “Sinclair is a force.”

“You two make a great team,” I said. They weren’t just words either. Now that they were on the same page, they were the town’s it-couple. They re-energized the farming community, pulled the entire town together against Stark, and were doing it while running a cattle ranch, my sister working as deputy mayor, and raising their nine-year-old daughter. My mother suspected that Sinclair got all the ambition genes and I had to concur. Me, I got all the affable ones. Sinclair, like Trina, didn’t suffer fools much. Me? I figured life was too short to let fuckheads bring you down. Not much bothered me. If people were happy and not hurting anyone, I didn’t care what they did.

“Who’d have guessed it since your fake marriage was anything but smooth sailing,” Trina said, of Wyatt and Sinclair’s re-start in life, which began with a fake marriage. The legal part of the marriage was real, but it was only done as part of a business deal on their part.

“Fake marriage isn’t easy,” Wyatt said. “It was definitely harder than the real thing.”

“Oh, come on.” Trina rolled her eyes. “How hard could it be? You two had the hots for each other.”

“It was still two different lives with a truck load of baggage tossed together,” Sinclair argued, bringing her beer glass to her lips.

Trina shook her head, clearly not buying it. “You’re making a big deal out of it. Seriously, how hard could it have been?”

“Well, let’s see.” Sinclair held up a finger. “For one, we were lying to everyone in town.”

“Including each other,” Wyatt added. “The only reason I did it was because I still loved Sinclair and I wanted her back, but didn’t tell her that.”

Hmm, fake married to get the girl. I looked at Trina, wondering if she’d ever consider something like that. I quickly dismissed it. She was too practical and serious. I doubt she’d ever believed in love and fairy tales. No her Prince Charming had a five and ten year plan, and a fat portfolio, not because she cared about money, but because she cared about a guy who could plan that far in advance.

“And I lied about Alyssa,” Sinclair said, of their daughter, whom Wyatt didn’t know he was the father of until a few months ago.

“Okay, so you had some baggage that got in the way. But if it were two people who didn’t give a fig about each other, I bet it would be a cakewalk,” Trina said.

Sinclair rolled her eyes. “Except the idea of a fake marriage is for people to think it’s real. People in love act like they love each other. It’s not easy to fake that.”

Trina pursed her lips. “Sure, it is. Just make googly eyes at each other.” She looked at me and batted her eyes.

I went along with it and pretended to swoon.

She continued on, “Hold hands. Call each other pookie—”

“Pookie?” I quirked a brow.

She shrugged. “All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t be that hard to fake a marriage.”

Personally, I was siding with Wyatt and Sinclair. I knew it wasn’t easy for either of them, although I suspected the fact that they were lying to each other—him about his feelings, and her about their daughter—played into it. Even so, I couldn’t imagine pretending to love someone that I didn’t have feelings for.

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Even so, I decided to play along and see if I could manipulate the situation so that Trina would have to put her money where her mouth was. I could totally be fake married to Trina, because, of course, my feelings weren’t completely fake.

“I agree. How hard could it be? Like roommates, really, right?” I wiped down the bar beside Trina as two regulars stepped up to the bar.

Trina’s eyes widened in surprise that I’d agree with her. I wanted to remind her that she was the contrarian one, not me. The two men ordered beer, which I served.

“If it would get you something you really wanted, it couldn’t be that hard to pretend to be a couple,” Trina said when I returned to them.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sinclair said, taking a large swallow of her drink.

“I totally think it would be easy,” I said.

“Seriously, how would you know how to fake a relationship? Have you ever been in one?” Wyatt asked.