“What do you need from us?” Hunter asked.
“I’m just letting you know. And I suppose if you hear from LaMont, go along with the story.”
“This is fucking nuts,” Carter said.
“We could vote,” Noah said. “Gran said we had to make decisions together. All in favor of Ryan’s loveless marriage of convenience so that we can sell sandals in Europe in the fall, say aye.”
He was joking, but Hunter and I both said, “Aye.”
“Those opposed?”
“This can go wrong in so many ways,” Carter said.
“We’ll take that as a nay. That’s two against one,” Noah said.
“What about you? You get a vote, Noah.” I said.
“I’m all for it. I can’t wait to see the fall out from this.” Noah grinned. “So, who’s going to tell gran?”
“No one. I think we need to do as she said and run this place without her. And look at us, we just did. Even Noah contributed. Maybe it’s time you actually officially joined us,” I said, giving him a stern look.
His head was shaking before I finished talking. “Nope.” He stood. “Y’all have a nice day.”
“You’re doing IT work for us anyway,” I called after him.
“My time. My terms.” He headed for the door. “It’s too beautiful of a day to be cooped up in an office. Hopefully some of that Italian sunshine will help you see that, big brother.” He left with a wave.
“Do you suppose he’ll ever change?” I asked my remaining brothers.
“No.” Carter stood. “It might not matter when Ms. Nichols is done with us. You might consider getting a prenup.”
“It’s not a real marriage.”
He shrugged. “Then get a fake prenup for your fake marriage. Gran told us not to fuck things up, Ry. This has fucked up written all over it.” He left my office.
I looked over at Hunter. “Do you think this is fucked up?”
He smiled. “I think it's humorous. I do agree that you should make sure your and the company’s assets are protected. And most importantly, don’t let your fake marriage include very real marital relations. If you touch her, all bets are off.” He stood too. “Do you have the hots for her?”
“What? No!” Not that she didn’t have a certain appeal, but I wasn’t looking for an opportunity to sleep with my assistant.
“Well, if you feel the urge, take a shower to deal with it,” he said, making a jerking motion at groin level.
I rolled my eyes. Of all the things that could happen during this charade, sleeping with my assistant was the one thing I knew would never happen.
6
Kellie
Strong Incorporated was a family run business in every sense of the word, and so there was no way Ryan and I were going to pull off this charade without his family knowing about it. So I didn’t have any concerns about roping Andi into going shopping with me. Margaret was out for the day and so Andi’s schedule was flexible enough to take a few hours to help me out. Besides, it was for the business.
As it turned out, she was way more into wedding shopping than I was.
“He’ll wear a suit, don’t you think?” she said as she pawed through the rows and rows of wedding gowns at a fancy dress boutique we went to. “Not a tux.”
“I don’t know.” It didn’t even occur to me to ask him.
“I think a suit. And it’s in Italy, so it should be something classic and lacy. Oh, with a little bit of sexy too.”