Page 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

Suki

“Okay, first pro--he has a big dick.”

I gape at Dex, who is sitting in between Mara and Harry on my couch, writing on a legal pad. “What? How do you know that?”

“Oh, honey. It took less than half an hour of YouTube videos to find an interview of him in a locker room with a visible dick outline.”

Mara bites her lip. “Was he still sweaty? I have a thing for sweaty dicks.”

Dex and Harry both cringe dramatically.

“First of all.” Dex puts up a hand. “By the time the dick itself is sweaty, there is an entire ecosystem growing in a man’s crotch region.”

Mara rolls her eyes. “You guys are prudes. I love a big, strong, sweaty man.”

“Guys.” Standing on the other side of the couch, I glare at them. “Can we stay on topic here? This is a life-changing decision for me. And it has nothing to do with Carter’s dick size because it would be a marriage on paper only.”

“Okay, sorry.” Dex, an attorney, always helps me make pro/con lists when I’m feeling indecisive. He’s Rory Gilmore in the form of an attractive gay man. “I crossed off big dick, though as your attorney, I feel you should consider it.”

“Do I need an attorney for this?”

He considers. “If you decide to do it, yes. But I’ve got you. I’ll need to review the contract terms before you sign anything. And I mean anything , Suki.”

I sigh heavily, walking over to the coffee table to pick up one of the bacon-wrapped dates Harry included on the big tray of appetizers he brought over for our pro/con session. Even though he’s a chef who cooks a solid fifty hours a week at his restaurant, Harry never misses a chance to cook for us.

“This is crazy though, right?” I ask as I chew. “I mean...I can’t marry someone I hardly even know just for money.”

“It’s a lot of money, though,” Mara reminds me.

My shoulders sink with defeat. For them to fully understand this decision, I have to confess my shameful secret to Dex and Harry.

“Okay, it’s listen and don’t judge time. I cosigned all of Tyler’s loans for his business. So now that he’s gone, I’m...a hundred and eighty-three thousand four hundred and eighty-six dollars in debt.” I furrow my brow. “Ish. I don’t know if my last payment has cleared.”

Harry clamps a hand over his mouth. “Holy shit, Suki.”

“Un. Fucking. Real.” Dex gives me a stunned look. “Why the hell--”

“I did it, okay?” I keep my voice brisk and to the point. “I don’t want to hear about how dumb it was. I obviously already know.”

I can tell it takes considerable effort for him to press his lips together and stay quiet.

I curl up in my favorite old recliner. “I was such an idiot. But now you know why Carter offering me five hundred thousand dollars for this marriage really would change my life. My credit is destroyed. The loans are the reason I’m working two jobs, but I can barely keep up with the payments.”

Mara leans forward, picking up a plate to load up with appetizers. “I don’t know if this helps or not, but I’d do it. Carter is gone most of the time and you love those girls. So it’s basically just a massive raise for the next year of work. I owe about ninety-five grand on law school and college loans, and if I could pay them back by marrying a pro athlete for a year, I’d do it in a second. As long as he doesn’t abuse you or expect sex, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

“I’d do it, too,” Dex says.

I look at Harry, who shrugs. “I don’t know. You know me, I’m a romantic.”

He really is. Harry is tall and blond with a killer smile. He’s a chef and an artist who doesn’t jump in and out of relationships. He and Dex were a couple for around five months a few years ago before deciding they were better off as friends.

“I’m already at his house a lot, but moving in feels...” I can’t even finish the sentence, because I don’t know how to describe the way it feels. “And I’d have to make it look like I’m in love with him.” My laugh is tinged with disbelief. “How could I possibly sell that? He’s the opposite of my type.”

Mara says, “Well, your type did fuck you over and leave the country, so...”

I wince at the sharp reminder of my stupidity, then shake my head. “Tyler wasn’t my type, either.”

Mara laughs--a hard, long laugh that ends with her wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “He was exactly your type. Charismatic, charming, making everything, including himself, sound better than it really was--”

“That’s not my type.”

She looks at Harry and Dex. Dex widens his eyes and Harry stares intently at his nails.

“Harry?” I give him a look, expecting him to jump to my defense.

He starts coughing. It’s clearly fake, but he scrunches up his face and pats his chest, standing up from the couch. “Sorry, I need to get some water.”

I turn to Dex. “Well?”

He blows out a long, dramatic exhale. “I love you, but you do tend to go for charming liars.”

I glare between him and Mara, getting up to make a plate of carb-loaded comfort food. “You guys, it’s not like men introduce themselves by letting you know they’re liars. How is anyone supposed to know that up front?”

“Tyler was slicker than my cooch anytime Jeffrey Dean Morgan was on The Walking Dead ,” Mara says.

“Girl.” Dex puts his palm up for a high five without even looking at her. “The things I would let that man do to me.”

I’m not even done loading up my plate, but I set it on the table and stand up. “Once again, this is not a joke and it’s not about you . We’re supposed to be talking about whether I’m going to get married. Married. I’ll be a divorcée for the rest of my life when it’s over.”

“A debt-free divorcée with a nice fat bank account, though,” Mara says.

“Right. Is that enough of a reason to do it?”

Harry answers as he walks back in from the kitchen. “That’s for you to decide, babe. Mara and Dex would do it and I...don’t know about me. I might, but I can’t be sure.”

I sigh softly. “The money would be amazing, but I’m also really attached to the girls. If I don’t do this and they have to move to Alaska and live with their dad...it would be really hard on them.”

“But there’s no guarantee of anything,” Dex reminds me. “You don’t know for sure that if you do marry him, they’ll get to stay here, and you don’t know that if you don’t marry him, they’ll have to go to Alaska.”

“But what do you guys think?” I look between Dex and Mara. “As attorneys, do you agree with the advice Carter’s attorney gave him?”

Mara shakes her head. “I’m not qualified to give you an opinion on that.”

I laugh. “But you have an opinion on literally everything else? Even my socks .”

She shrugs.

Dex considers before answering. “Michelle Maroni is the best family law attorney in the Cleveland area. She’s an absolute legend. If she thinks it’s a good move for him, it is.”

“But that doesn’t mean you have to be the one he marries,” Harry points out.

I walk across the small room and back again, thinking. “I don’t want to be in debt for the next decade or more. And if I don’t do it, I’ll lose my job as Carter’s nanny. If he has to show the girls aren’t being raised by nannies, he can’t keep me.” I take a breath in and out, my heart racing as I realize which direction I’m leaning. “I love the girls, too. I can’t stand the thought of some stranger marrying him for the money and treating them like crap. So I guess...”

Mara jumps up from the couch, clapping and squealing. “My best friend is gonna be a pro hockey wife!”

“Are you sure?” Dex asks me.

I nod, imagining Olivia, Charlotte and Hallie’s expressions when we tell them the news. It makes me smile. “I’m sure.”

“Then we have a wedding to plan!” He looks over at Harry. “Gay man party-planning superpowers, activate!”

“We’ll have to do it indoors, obviously,” Harry says. “I’m thinking fall neutrals? Bring the outdoors in?”

“Perfect.” Dex flips to a fresh page in his notebook, the pro/con list forgotten. “We’ll need to go dress shopping immediately and secure hair, nail and makeup appointments.”

“You guys, this isn’t going to be a real wedding,” I remind them. “We just do a quick formality at the courthouse.”

Dex and Harry laugh.

“Have you met us?” Dex asks. “No fucking way are we letting our girl have some dreary pantsuit wedding at a courthouse.”

“No fucking way,” Harry seconds. “You’ll have at least a hundred dozen flowers, the best food money can buy and a tiara.”

“Maybe a vintage pearl one,” Dex says, writing in his notebook as he says it.

“I don’t know if Carter will want any of this.”

Mara scoffs. “Don’t give him a choice.”

“Because it’ll be so great to marry a guy who’s scowling at me during the ceremony.”

“Trust me, if you tell him he doesn’t have to do a thing but show up and pay the bills, he’ll be thrilled.”

“Tuxes.” Dex is still talking while writing. “We need to know if he has one and we’ll need bridesmaid dresses for all the girls.”

“And me, asshole,” Mara says.

“Wait, bridesmaids?” I silently plead with Mara for help on this one. “I think that’s a bit much.”

“The girls will want to be part of it,” Harry says.

“It also significantly ups my chances of hooking up with a groomsman if I’m the maid of honor, so...definitely bridesmaids,” Mara says.

I can’t argue with that. Still, the wedding plans are growing by the second, and I haven’t even told Carter yet that I’ll marry him.

I shake my head and sit down. “I hope this is the right decision.”

Mara comes over and bends down in front of the chair, so we’re eye level with each other.

“You know me. I’d never tell you to do this just so I could hook up with a hockey player. This is a chance for you to get out of debt and leave all that shit with Tyler behind you forever. For five hundred Gs, I’d do a lot worse than marry a pro athlete for a year.”

I blow out a breath, thinking about prying the quarters that were my tip out of dried, spilled beer during my last waitressing shift at the bar. Coming home exhausted at 1:00 a.m., smelling like fries and having to get up for my day job the next day. Mara is right--this will hardly change anything with my day job, and it will mean no more second job and years of scraping to pay off Tyler’s loans. All I have to do is move into Carter’s house and convince people I love him.

“Okay.” I nod, feeling more confident. “Dex, we’re also going to need a tux for a pig.”

He doesn’t look up from his legal pad. “Groom’s is already on my list, babe.”

I smile. “No, not him. An actual pig. Carter got the girls a micro pig for a pet. They’ll want him to be part of the ceremony.”

“Put a photographer on your list,” Mara tells Dex. “I have a feeling this wedding will be something we all look back on later and laugh about.”

I wonder again if I’m making a huge mistake. If I am, at least I’ll have my closest friends by my side as I formalize it.