Page 58 of The Backup Groom

“Crazy—I know,” Amber said.

“What does the guy get? I mean, besides the pleasure of marrying you.”

She responded with slight chagrin. “He gets a million dollars, but more importantly, for me, that money makes it easy to quit my job and start my own agency. Every day I go into work, it sucks a little more life out of me. I try to stay positive because I have lots of things to be grateful for, but it’s not easy some days.”

I nodded in encouragement. “You always have a smile on your face when you come in for coffee.”

“That’s because I haven’t started work yet,” she said. “Your coffee is the highlight of my day.”

“I’m sure it helps that your barista is absolutely charming and devastatingly handsome,” I joked, even though I wouldn’t mind at all if she admitted she liked me a little.

“Absolutely. Dean is amazingandgorgeous,” she teased.

I deadpanned. “Remind me to fire him in the morning.”

“You would never. You’re too—”

I held up my hand. “Don’t say it!”

Amber paused, knowing she was winding me up before announcing, “Nice.”

I grimaced, making her laugh again.

“Anyway, I won’t bore you with the drama of my workplace,” Amber said. “The bottom line is, my boss took away my dream job and gave it to his girlfriend.”

“Seriously?” I grimaced. “He sounds like a jerk.”

“You have no idea. I had no other option but to accept the demotion because most of the advertising jobs have dried up with so many businesses turning to DIY online advertising. Anyway, now you know the soap opera that is my life.”

“Well—I don’t know everything,” I said. “What’s the Ryan Scott connection?”

“Oh, yeah, about that . . .”

It was the missing piece of the puzzle and something I’d wanted to know since the day she’d come in for coffee with that real estate guy. Obviously, it wasn’t what Dean had speculated, but there was no doubt in my mind that something weird was going on.

Finally, it looked like I was going to learn the truth.

Amber sighed and told me the entire story about her high school sweetheart, how he was married, and the plan to find a backup Ryan Scott and pay him to marry her.

I practically fell out of my chair. “Seriously? That’s what all this is about?”

“I know,” Amber said, chewing another chip. “My life is a reality show. And the clock is ticking for me to find a man named Ryan Scott who would agree to marry me.”

I grinned. “This is your lucky day, then.” I had no idea why I said that since I was still technically married, but the divorce was going to be final any day.

“I have the solution to your problem,” I added.

She took a sip of her water and smiled. “I’m listening.”

My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest from the excitement.

At the moment, my phone lit up on the table.

I glanced over at the screen.

Dean’s face appeared.

Ignore him.