Page 21 of Just (Fake) Married (Calloways vs. McGraws #1)

FOURTEEN

HARMONY

Harmony: I might have made a mistake marrying Ethan.

Sunshine: Ya think?!!!!!!!!

Harmony: I need you to support me without judgement. Can you do that from your big city office?

Sunshine: No. This whole thing is ridiculous. Pack your things and run away right now!

Harmony: I can’t. Not yet. The town needs me. Our family needs me.

Sunshine: Okay. Fine. Please just do me a favor, and no matter what. DO NOT sleep with this guy.

Harmony: Got it.

Apparently, three orgasms delivered unto me by Ethan McGraw – my husband – sent me to sleep in that bed like I was a drooling teenager. I slept so hard I woke up unable to figure out where I was.

The beautiful room, the sunshine leaking in under the thick curtains. The weight of the duvet and the silky smooth cotton sheets.

The quiet.

Where in the world…?

Had I been kidnapped ?

Oh, that’s right. I sat up. I was in the belly of the beast, and last night I’d let that beast do all kinds of things to me.

I jumped out of bed, like even enjoying my sleep so much was a slippery slope to…what, I wasn’t sure. I was already married to the guy.

Talk about completely and totally unexpected. The wedding and the wedding night. I stood there in my sweatshirt, my panties on the floor beside the bed, because they’d been too wet to sleep in, and tried not to remember every incredible moment.

That woman last night on the couch – multi-orgasmic and rather easily satisfied – I’d never met her before. Never even imagined her before. Except now that I’d met her, I was wondering where she’d been all my life.

Because she was awesome.

I showered quickly, like I could rinse away the sensation of his hands on my skin. Surprise – I could not. In fact, soaping up my body brought parts of last night back like they were happening all over again.

I stroked my breast. Remembering the way his tongue felt against my nipple. How my nipple felt in his mouth.

I turned the water to cold, like I was a cat in heat that needed to be hosed off.

Quickly, I got dressed, brushed out my hair, and then tied it up in a knot on my head. I put on a little makeup and stepped carefully out of my bedroom door, the animals at my heels.

I moved as quickly and as quietly as I could down the steps, and bypassed the kitchen entirely. I wasn’t ready to see Ethan again after last night. I needed more time to process what happened and try to put it in some kind of box.

A multiple orgasm box.

Reaching for the heavy front door, it was suddenly pushed open, letting in bright sunlight, a cold wind, and Carter and Mac McGraw.

Jenny and Bruce went nuts and the small foyer echoed with barking and honking.

“Oh crap,” Mac said. He bent down and let Jenny sniff him and she immediately calmed down and stepped closer for a pat. “You are worse than that alarm system Dad installed a few years ago.”

“Why is my dog being nice to you?” I asked, because since going blind, Jenny wasn’t super nice to anyone except Bruce.

“We go way back,” Mac said, and I realized he must have snuck over to our house during his ill-fated romance with Amity.

“Will someone…” Carter was wedged in the corner with Bruce, one wing fully outstretched the other at half-mast. “Control this fucking thing?”

“Don’t swear at Bruce. It upsets her,” I said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, and Bruce honked her war honk.

“Okay, okay, sorry…ah…Bruce,” Carter said.

Bruce was usually very good at accepting apologies, but the tight quarters and unfamiliar people had her on edge.

I called her off. The boys and I switched places and I was at the door, Jenny and Bruce waddling out to the porch and the sunlight.

Giving themselves a good shake in the cold morning air.

I looked at the McGraw brothers, and they looked at me, and I didn’t know how to be both enemies with them, and somehow, family.

“This is fun,” Mac said, with a grin on his heartbreaker face.

“Ethan around?” Carter asked.

There was a blank pause before I realized he was talking to me.

“I…ah…I…” The image of Ethan looming over me on the couch last night while between my legs immediately came to mind.

“You okay there, Harmony?” Mac asked me. “You’re blushing so hard you could start a brush fire.” Mac smacked Carter in the chest. “I’m gonna go see what smells so good.”

Mac took off and left me with Carter.

“Seriously? Everything okay?” he asked.

“Sure. Great. Fine,” I nodded, hoping I wasn’t blushing. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Hey.” Carter touched my arm, and I blinked wide eyes at him.

Suddenly, I was being manhandled a lot by the McGraws, and it was knocking me off balance.

I looked down at his hand around my bicep and he backed off.

“Sorry,” he said, lifting his hands. “But, I just wanted to give you a little advice. About Ethan.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” I asked, digging my car keys out of my purse like I had a million better things to do, when in fact, I was on the edge of my seat wondering what kind of insight Carter might give me about my fake husband.

“You know how surgeons have a God complex?” he said.

“Or, that’s the myth about them, anyway.

They can do no wrong? That kind of thing?

” I nodded. “Well, Ethan has a savior complex and he thinks he can save everyone. And it doesn’t matter how he feels or what he wants, all of that is nothing compared to saving as many people as he can. ”

“What are you suggesting?” I put my hand on the straps of my bag and his eyes went right to the ring on my finger.

“He gave you our mother’s ring,” he said, and I curled my hand around it, like it was something I needed to hide.

“Is that all right?”

“It should be worn,” he said. “It’s a pretty piece. Just be careful you don’t mistake his wanting to save the family and this ranch for something it isn’t. I don’t want to see you hurt when he eventually goes back to Seattle.”

Thank you, Carter, for that smack back to real life.

It was perfect, actually. Just what I needed to help me define what had happened last night.

It was sex. Not even sex, just a little foreplay. I totally had control over that.

“Thanks for the warning,” I said, and got my entourage into my truck and drove away from the Swinging D like a bat out of hell.

I opened the shop and got the animals settled with some kibble before starting a fire in the stove.

Usually my mornings were quiet, but today, as soon as I flipped the sign, the door burst open, letting in my two sisters.

Amity had her hair in a French braid and she wore a dark green sweater and a pair of leggings.

Bliss wore a UW Athletics t-shirt that was a size too small.

Here we go…

“J’accuse!” Amity shouted at me, which in turn made Jenny bark and Bruce honk.

“Will you give the French a rest?” Bliss told Amity. “You had one semester of it in college. It’s…oh my God!” Bliss cried. “Is that what I think it is?” She grabbed my hand and pulled the ring up to her face, her eyes wide. “Holy shit. That’s a real emerald, isn’t it?”

“It was his mother’s,” I said, still touched by the ring. How thoughtful it seemed. How earnest he’d been sliding it on my finger. In a whole situation full of lies, the ring somehow felt honest.

Bliss let go of my hand and I cupped it with my other hand over my stomach, like it was a secret I wanted to keep. “Well,” Bliss said. “That will give the town something to talk about.”

“There’s a new wanted poster on the community board,” Amity said. She shoved her phone in my face with a picture of the wanted poster with both Ethan and my high school yearbook photos (so bad!) This time the caption read:

Wanted: Information on the Ethan McGraw/Harmony Calloway wedding!

Mabel, I thought grimly. I should have asked who her cousins were that still lived here.

“Fine,” I confessed. “We did it. You knew it was going to happen.”

“Not yesterday!” Amity shouted. “Like…that was your wedding, and we weren’t even there. I might expect that from Sunshine or Boone, but not from you.”

“It wasn’t that kind of wedding,” I reminded them. “We did all the paperwork, the judge asked a few questions, we said yes, and now the first part of Leroy McGraws’ demands have been met. Now we need to turn our focus on the Feud Day Festival.”

“Hold on,” Bliss said. “We’re still on demand number one. You’re hitched now. Do you have a story?”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

“A story,” she repeated. “Remember, you’re supposed to be convincing the town you’re an epic love story, and through the power of your love, you’re going to somehow restore the glory of the Gulch? When did you and Ethan meet?”

“We grew up in this same town together.”

“Wrong,” Amity said, leaning over my counter to see if I had any candy near the register that she might want to steal. She smelled like apples and cinnamon. She must have been baking at the café before coming over here to lecture me and steal my candy. “She means, when did you fall in love?”

She found a Tootsie Pop and unwrapped it with relish.

I huffed. “I don’t know.”

“That’s my point,” Bliss said. She snagged the Tootsie Pop out of Amity’s hand, took a quick lick, grimaced because it was orange, and handed it back.

“You need a story. You obviously had something going on back in high school. The whole town remembers Ethan walking around with a shiner you gave him during a party.”

“Pantry Puncher,” Amity said, putting the lollipop in her mouth.

“You have to pay for that,” I said.

“Add it to my bill. Better yet, I’ll subtract it from your bill at the café.”

Bliss hiked herself up onto my counter, really getting into this story she was concocting. “Maybe instead of grad school, you followed Ethan to college and this whole time you’ve had this on again off again long distance secret relationship.”

“For ten years?” I said. “That seems nuts. And people know I went to grad school. It was all over my social media.”