Page 11 of Joel (Guardians of the North #6)
KYLIE
“I knew it was love at first site,” Ella Harris gushes from the waiting area as an older woman—Mona—helps me into a simple yet elegant silk gown behind a dressing room curtain.
At least I think it’s Ella. I made a point to memorize their names at our very tasty brunch earlier: Blakely—married to Jaxson, Ella—married to Jordan, Serenity—married to James, Mara—married to Jonas, and Vanessa—married to Jasper.
But I’m still learning voices.
Why? Good question.
I know I can’t stay, but I’d be lying if I said the fantasy wasn’t fun to entertain.
That instead of having no family—Mom has been absent in my life ever since her divorce with Todd—I suddenly have a whole gang of people who care about what happens to me.
None of these women would ever dare ask me to get in a skiff on the Bering Sea—by myself—to hunt for illegal treasure.
Not only did these women not try to talk me out of such a fast wedding to a man I’ve known less than three days, but they’ve gone positively feral with planning the whole thing. They refuse to let me have a simple courthouse wedding.
I always wanted sisters.
A silent disappointed sigh slips out.
Guess I’ll have to jilt Joel at the altar tomorrow after all.
The thought saddens me more than it should.
He’s my pretend fiancé. This is all a ruse to get back at his well-meaning, but albeit overbearing friends, and hopefully give him a reprieve from their exhaustive matchmaking efforts.
After I break his heart, they should back off.
And I’ll be halfway across the country, unable to be reached.
The second I’m done with Todd, I’m getting a new phone number.
Still, I wasn’t ready to leave North Haven so soon.
Todd probably thinks I’m out on the water today, but fuck Todd.
I’ll find the money I need—I’ll beg for it if I have to—and pay him off.
I’m fucking done . And if that’s not good enough, I’ll just disappear.
Hell, maybe it would be better if he thought I drowned in the Bering Sea.
He wouldn’t look for me. He’d wipe his hands clean and make sure no one could tie him back to my untimely disappearance.
“You ready to see yourself, honey?” the grandmotherly figure, Mona, asks as she zips up the back of the gown.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Mona tugs back the curtain, and the women piled on circled folding chairs collectively gasp.
“Oh, Kylie,” Blakely says, throwing both hands over her mouth.
Several sets of eyes are shiny with tears. Half the women are pregnant, so it might just be hormones. But it’s still flattering.
I step onto the round pedestal and face the mirror.
Oh damn.
“That dress what made for you,” Vanessa says.
“She’s right,” Mara agrees.
“And we’re not just saying that because you have like three options,” Serenity adds.
“It’s fate,” Vanessa decides.
“Do you love it?” Blakely asks.
I can’t speak, because for the first time in my life, I’m choked up with tears— happy tears that have no business here. This is a fake wedding. One I won’t be attending because I’ll be on a plane out of here.
I manage an enthusiastic nod in response.
“Joel is going to die when he sees you tomorrow,” Ella says.
“That’s my favorite part of a wedding,” Blakely admits. “Watching the groom’s reaction to seeing his bride in her dress for the first time. I’ve watched every other J-Squad member get choked up with emotion, and now I’ll get to see Joel’s reaction too.”
I don’t mean to picture it, but the image trespasses its way into my mind anyway.
Joel standing at the altar—or well, the justice of the peace’s desk—in a tuxedo.
Or may his dress uniform. That devilish smile spread across his lips as he looks me up and down in an elegant ivory gown that accentuates my curves in all the best ways.
I don’t hate the low-cut cleavage, either.
I bet he’d be thinking about all the fun he’d have taking it off afterward.
“Why are you getting married at the courthouse?” Blakely asks, her tone curious.
“Because the justice of the peace?—”
“Any one of us can get the authority to marry you in Alaska,” Blakely continues. “It’s some one-time thing here. You should get married at the museum.”
“What museum?” I ask, unable to stop looking at myself in the mirror. I never thought I’d see myself in a wedding dress. It was never something I got excited about, and now… Now I want it.
Maybe I even want it with Joel.
“The North Haven Historical Museum,” Vanessa adds. “That’s perfect!”
“Why?”
“Because they have an entire display about The Esmerelda,” Blakely explains.
I freeze at the words, feeling suddenly naked. Did Joel tell them?—
“Joel told the guys that’s why you came to North Haven. Because you love the legend of The Esmerelda so much that you wanted to see what the hype was all about,” Mara adds.
“That is why you came, right?” Serenity asks.
“Yep.”
It’s not a full-on lie. While Joel was on an emergency rescue yesterday, I spent the day Googling everything I could about the local legend.
The more I read, the less I wanted to tell anyone—especially Todd—that I found it.
It seems wrong to disturb the ship now, and I already have a plan to return the coin.
Kind of like the old lady at the end of The Titanic dropping her necklace into the ocean.
“It’s such a sad story,” Vanessa says, frowning.
“It’s also a love story,” Blakely counters. “A man so determined to come home to his true love that he brought a pirate ship to the coast of Alaska. I mean, who does that? Talk about grand gestures.”
“Except, the boat sank,” Ella says flatly.
“Or did it?” Blakely’s eyes sparkle. “No one’s ever found the wreckage.”
“That’s because only someone with a pure heart can find it,” Vanessa adds.
“Really?” I ask, instantly regretting the question when several sets of eyes stare at me like I should already know that. Shit. “I didn’t know that part.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Mona says, working pins into my dress now that it seems silently settled that this is the one . “No one on that Internet thing cares one damn bit about anything but the trunk filled with pirate gold. That’s the only story worth writing about. The legend gets lost in greed.”
“Do a lot of people come to North Haven to look for it?” I ask, hoping my curiosity doesn’t back me into a corner I can’t get out of.
“They did for a while,” Mona says. “But no one could locate it. Some drowned trying to figure out where it was. No one offers boat tours because there’s arguments about the coordinates. So eventually the people stopped coming.”
“I thought it was illegal,” Ella adds.
“Nothing illegal about looking for it,” Blakely says. “Just stealing it. The treasure, the wreckage, any of it is protected by the state. It would all end up in a museum. If it exists.”
Now I’m conflicted. Do I drop the coin back into the Bering Sea or do I take it to the museum? Do I want to go to jail? Or get slapped with a giant fine that’ll make it take that much longer to pay off Todd?
Does the treasure want to be found?
“I still think it’s a terribly tragic story,” Vanessa says. “No matter how much Jasper tries to romanticize it.” She looks to me. “He grew up here. Just like Joel.”
“Joel grew up here?”
“ Near here,” Blakley corrects. “But he’s a born and raised Alaskan. You didn’t know?”
I fear the heat creeping up my neck has turned my skin as red as a tomato. I try to work it in my favor. “We’ve been a little busy with…other things.”
“You’re not just marrying him for the sex, are you?” Serenity asks, her blunt tone hard to pin.
I’m glad I don’t have a drink within reach. I’d have choked on it or spilled it on this beautiful wedding gown I don’t want to take off. That’s an entirely separate problem I’m not ready to mentally tackle.
“She’s joking ,” Mara says with a laugh.
“But if it’s the sex, that’s okay too,” Ella says. “We were a little worried with all those dates fizzling out that…”
“Ella!” Vanessa scolds.
“I promise, there is no issue in that department.” No issue whatsoever. Except I have yet to feel that deliciously large cock inside me. Tonight . If I have to skip town tomorrow, I’m going to make tonight a night neither of us will ever forget.
“I can get your dress altered today yet,” Mona says. “It’s all minor. Pick it up in the morning?”
I nod, wishing it were true.
Maybe I wish it were all true.