Page 13 of Just (Fake) Married (Calloways vs. McGraws #1)

EIGHT

ETHAN

My brothers, which included Tag, took me out for a steak dinner in Big Horn to celebrate my upcoming nuptials and it was actually a very good time. It had been ages since we’d all been together and the stories of growing up together on the Swinging D only got better the more beers everyone had.

As scheduled, we ended up at The Last Stand – the only bar in the Gulch - to basically crash Harmony’s pseudo bachelorette party. We stepped from the cold night into the sweltering bar, where the Calloway coven were storming the dance floor.

The place still smelled like spilled beer, sweat and perfume. And the music was set at a decibel that could do real damage to everyone’s hearing.

“So, how does this work?” I yelled over Miranda Lambert singing about her Little Red Wagon.

A song that already sounded dirty, but watching the Calloway sisters dance to it, became downright filthy. They were all flashing legs and swinging hips, bright red hair and arms lifted over their heads.

My eyes immediately flew to Harmony.

Compelled, I watched a bead of sweat roll down her neck, into the crevice between her breasts, that were perfectly revealed in her black lacy shirt.

I quickly looked away.

“How does what work?” Mac asked me.

“Do we just start telling people they’re getting married?” Carter said, picking up what I meant.

“I’ll leave that to you two geniuses,” Mac said. “I’m going to get us a pitcher of beer.”

Mac had to walk through the dance floor to get to the bar, and it was like he was walking into battle trying to ignore Amity doing her thing.

Which currently involved a lot of hip swaying.

Carter, Tag and I headed to the back of the bar, and lo and behold, a table opened up for us. Which reminded me that the McGraw name still meant something in this town, even if Leroy was dead.

Mac returned with a pitcher of beer. The song changed and the Calloway women started line dancing with some cowboys I didn’t recognize.

The truth was, I didn’t recognize anyone here. I’d been gone a long time.

I glanced over at Mac, who was watching Amity like it was his job, now that he had some distance from her. “You know, if you’re going to stare at her like that, you could have just married her and spared us all.”

He scowled at me and I let it go.

“You know, what the girls said today about business being down in town really hit me,” Carter said. “And it sort of makes sense now. You know the two of them sold vibrators at bachelorette parties?”

I blinked. “The two of who?”

“Bliss and Amity,” he said.

“Vibrators. Really? Is there enough business in the Gulch for that kind of thing?”

“Sold them all around the county, actually,” Tag added. “They did pretty well for a while. As side gigs go.”

“Why are you keeping tabs on Bliss and Amity?” I asked Tag, wondering if there was some interest there.

“I’m not,” Tag said. “I’m keeping tabs on which women have vibrators in this town.”

He said it with a lift of his eyebrows, like the study was scientific in nature, which made me laugh.

“I’m going to shoot some pool,” Mac said, and got up to go claim a pool table.

“I’ll join you,” Tag said, following him.

Meanwhile, Carter’s attention was back on his phone. Mrs. Walker was babysitting the kids tonight and providing regular updates regarding which kid had fallen asleep and which kid was still up and causing trouble.

“Luke,” Carter breathed. “You’re killing me, buddy.”

I leaned back in my chair, eyes still on the dance floor, and caught Harmony’s gaze over her sisters’ heads. Tonight, she’d paired a black lacy top with a tight black skirt, tights, because it was winter in Wyoming, and chunky black boots.

That top though, it kept sliding off her right shoulder as she bounced around, revealing her bra strap underneath.

Her hair was up in a big ponytail on the top of her head and she was laughing like life was hilarious.

Well, laughing until she saw me.

She stopped dancing and just…stared at me. And I couldn’t look away.

Married. To Harmony Calloway. Even if it was fake, it all seemed so surreal.

We’d made promises about a truce between us and laying down our weapons. Only what was I supposed to do about this sudden desire?

It had been a stupid test earlier today, touching her face like that in the living room. Running my hands along the smooth skin of her jaw line. Standing so close I could taste her breath.

I think my intent was to show her how easy this could be. Pretending. But the blood had rushed to my dick and her eyes had dilated. When her breath caught, it had felt real in a big way.

Now it was happening all over again. I needed a distraction.

“I want something a little stronger than beer,” I told Carter.

“Technically, this is your bachelor party,” he said. “I suggest you get skunk-like drunk.”

I made my way to the bar and asked the bartender, who was apparently filling in for Bliss tonight, for a shot of whatever was convenient. However, in the spirit of the night, and in order to make a spectacle in front of the town, we needed to really do this. So I ordered a tray of shots.

The bartender poured clear liquor into shot glasses and I took the tray out to the dance floor. As expected, everyone around us stopped to watch what I was going to do next.

The prodigal McGraw son home and making nice with the Calloways.

I stood in front of Harmony and smiled, pretending to be casual.

Only I didn’t feel casual at all.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“He’s a shot boy,” Bliss said, and took the shots from the tray and handed them out to her sisters.

“I’m a shot boy,” I said with a smile.

Harmony blushed. Maybe because shot boy sounded like fuck boy. Although fuck boy, I was not. I hadn’t had a date that ended in sex in many, many months, given that my surgical schedule was not conducive to an active dating life.

Maybe that’s why I was feeling so…charged up around her.

Maybe it wasn’t about Harmony at all. Maybe it was more about me needing to get laid.

Which of course couldn’t happen with her. My soon-to-be fake wife.

“What are you doing?” I asked her. She wiggled her eyebrows, took the shot and downed it with a full body shudder.

“Ugh,” she said. “Tequila.”

“Not a fan?”

“Is anyone?” she asked. Around us, people were still dancing, but they were also watching us.

Mike Palmer, who had been a grade above me in high school and a total asshole, came charging up to us.

“Holy shit, Ethan McGraw, I haven’t seen you around here in ages,” Mike said. Judging by his rhinophyma, I’d say he needed to get his drinking under control, and quickly.

“Hey, Mike.”

“Sorry to hear about your dad,” he shouted over the music.

“Thanks.”

Mike looked over at Harmony and back at me. I braced myself for some old high school bullshit.

“Ha, better watch out, Ethan. You gonna punch him again, Harmony?”

“Always thinking about it,” she said, cheekily.

“Hey, good to see you again, Mike,” I said, and handed him the empty tray in my hands, my eyes never leaving Harmony’s. “But can you please take this back to the bar for me? We’re talking here.”

“Doesn’t look like talking to me,” Mike laughed. But he got the hint and walked off, leaving me and my fake fiancé staring at each other in the middle of a dance floor.

“You want to dance?” Harmony asked, dragging her arm across her forehead to wipe off some of the sweat.

It was zero degrees outside with a windchill factor of hell frozen over, but inside this bar it was a sauna, and it really worked for her.

She was flushed and rosy and sweaty and I wanted to lick her.

“No,” I said. “I’m not much of a dancer.”

“Oh. I love dancing,” she said.

“I noticed.” My eyes, like they had a mind of their own, travelled down the length of her body and then back up to her face. She didn’t look pissed. She looked…interested?

“Well, thanks for the shot,” she said, like she was struggling to put an end to whatever this thing was. Our inability to move away from one another.

“You need anything else?” I asked, because I still wasn’t ready to walk away.

Her throat bobbed and her eyes were fixed on my mouth. Like she was thinking what I was thinking and having a rule against kissing was stupid.

I stepped closer.

Where was I allowed to kiss her again? So that anyone watching would think there was something going on between us.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

Something stupid. Something very stupid.

“Making us believable,” I said, and I leaned down to kiss her. To put my mouth on that lush set of lips. To taste her smart mouth.

Yes, we’d just established this rule, but honestly, how could I not? Her lips were infinitely kissable. Full and lush and would probably taste like tequila.

“Harmony!” Someone yelled across the bar and she turned her face to the side.

But I was already in descend mode, so while I didn’t kiss her mouth, I did kiss her neck. That sweet sweaty spot below her chin, along her collar bone. For a moment I sucked that flesh into my mouth, licking the sweat I found there. Her pulse started to flutter.

Then I had to take a step back before shit got real on the dance floor.

I could feel the attention of the entire bar on us.

She looked at me with wide, panicked eyes, but that’s what we wanted, wasn’t it? For people to see us together like this.

“You forgot neck kissing,” I said, into the shell of her ear, so only she could hear me.

She blinked like she didn’t understand.

“You know, safe kisses not on mouth. Neck kissing. Perfectly legal.”

She nodded. “I’m going to dance.”

“I’m going to watch,” I said.

It was weird how good at this I was. If I’d done what I just did with an actual date, I would have fucked it up hard. Give me a fake relationship, and I was a goddamn pro at making people believe Harmony and I were the real thing.

I gave her a little bow that I thought was kind of charming, but when I turned, I found my brothers around the pool table, holding each other up they were laughing so hard.

“Fuck you guys,” I told them, joining them at the pool table.

“Uh…it doesn’t look like you have to work too hard to make it believable,” Carter said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Well done, my brother.”

I didn’t have an answer for that. So I kept my mouth shut.