Page 23

23

JAMIE

My mom all but falls face first onto the porch when I open the door. She stabilizes herself with a hand to my shoulder and beams up at me, feigning innocence.

“Oh, hi, sweetheart,” she blubbers, gathering me in her arms for a hug. “I didn’t know you were here yet.”

Appearing over her shoulder in the hall, Oliver snorts. “Don’t lie, Mom.”

“What happened to your sense of loyalty, Oliver?” she chides, releasing me with a pat on the back.

My brother ignores her question and slaps my arm in hello. “Nice of you to finally join us and return my daughter.”

“Your daughter came to get me because she loves me. Don’t be so jealous. Green isn’t your colour.”

“Not jealous, asshole.”

“If anyone should be jealous, it’s me. The moment either of you are around, my daughter seems to forget I exist,” Avery chimes in, curling immediately into Oliver’s side.

He would glue her to his side if it were socially acceptable and Avery wouldn’t threaten his untimely death daily with how often he’d annoy her.

They look good together, though. Happy and in love in a way that I know my brother doubted he’d ever want to be if it weren’t with her.

I wink at Avery, keeping my hold on my fiancée firm and supportive amongst the chaos that’s already erupting.

“Mom, this is Blakely. She’s going to marry Uncle J,” Nova announces, stepping in front of her parents with her hands on her hips.

Mom’s already looking at Blakely, bright blue eyes bouncing over every inch of my fiancée as if she’s searching for hints as to who she is on the inside without having to ask. It’s a harmless action, but my protectiveness of Blakely spikes, encouraging me to act.

I take our connected hands and bring them to my mouth before releasing her and curling an arm around her back. She fits into my side with ease, but the muscles in her back are tense with nerves.

Dad settles beside Mom, his brown brows low over a dark stare. More like Oliver than he is me, he’s blunt and grumpy, while Mom is bright and cheery.

With a backward glance, I find Nathan a few steps behind me and tip my head, silently telling him to come closer. He’s the picture of overwhelmed but has opted to try and fade into the background instead of asking for support.

Fuck, thinking of that kid upset tears me up.

“So, before everyone starts asking the millions of questions I know are coming, I want you to officially meet Blakely, my fiancée, and her brother, Nathan,” I say, putting more emphasis on the titles as if that’ll help point out how little I want to hear any arguments on any of this. Spreading my fingers out along Blakely’s side, I hold her closer to me and add, “Blakely, Nathan, this is my mom, Gracie, my dad, Tyler, my brother, Oliver, and his wife, Avery. You’ve already met Nova.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Nate says, speaking first.

It takes me a beat to notice the way he’s shifted to stand at Blakely’s other side, a stone sentinel at the ready .

Nobody here is going to hurt her, regardless of how confused and concerned they are about what’s happening, but seeing him protect his sister only makes me respect him more. He’s young in age, not maturity.

“Thank you for welcoming us into your home,” Blakely says, back to the woman I met all those weeks ago in my living room. “It’s beautiful.”

It’s awkward, more like. She doesn’t know that my parents are aware of how we met. They’re not judgmental people, just protective. I have to hope they don’t treat her any differently because they’re privy to information they never needed to know in the first place.

Dad rubs a hand down Mom’s arm and offers Blakely a sincere smile the way I was hoping he would. As intimidating as his towering height, dark-as-night, silver-streaked hair, and deep brown stare are, he can be a total softie.

The recognition in his expression isn’t obvious to those who don’t know him as well as we do. I see it all as he tries to dive inside Blakely’s head, searching for the reason behind the mask she’s been wearing less and less around me but has slipped on today. A facade of wholeness and the lack of weight that’s been slowly crushing her shoulders.

Dad sees all of that because he was in her shoes once upon a time. Only instead of needing to be strong for a brother, it was his mother he was taking care of while silently suffocating inside.

“Thank you. Come in, we don’t bite,” he says.

Nova peers up at him. “That’s a weird saying, G-Pa.”

“What’s weird about it?” he asks.

“Why would we bite her?”

“It’s just something someone says to be reassuring. Like double-checking locks on the doors before going to bed, it just makes you feel safe,” Nate tells her gently.

I don’t know whether to scream or start to cry because that was the first thing that came to his mind. I’ll be changing that. By the time this marriage is over, neither he nor Blakely will fear anything again.

“Exactly,” Dad notes, nudging Mom to guide us all inside the house.

“We brought some dessert. Jamie said you were berry fans, and I don’t like showing up somewhere empty-handed,” Blakely rambles, waving to the platter of tarts in Nate’s hands. “I didn’t have a chance to try them before we left home, but Jamie did sneak one and said they’re pretty good.”

Mom snaps out of whatever worried haze she was just in and focuses on the dessert. When she smiles at Blakely, it’s warm and open, relaxing me a bit.

“That was very kind of you. I attempted tarts a little while ago but couldn’t quite get the filling right. Do you have a specific recipe that you follow?”

“I do. If you want, I can write it down for you?”

Mom nods enthusiastically. “I’d love that. I have a pen and paper in the den.”

The tension drains from Blakely’s muscles beneath my fingers. I release a tight breath. Mom snags her hand and pulls her from me before taking Nate’s as well. Nova clutches her mom’s fingers, and then every one of them is rushing away.

“I need your help with something, Jamie,” Dad says once they’ve disappeared.

Oliver cocks a brow. “Am I allowed to come, or am I supposed to follow my wife?”

“Considering you knew about Blakely before I did, you’ve already got a head start,” Dad grunts.

I smirk. “You heard him. Go away.”

“I’m going to eat all of the tarts and leave the both of you nothing but crumbs.”

“Have at it. Your mom has been feeding me enough baked goods lately,” Dad says.

Oliver glares at the both of us before all but stomping away. It’s a valiant effort on his part, acting like he would rather be here than wherever it is his wife has wandered off to.

“What do you need my help with?” I ask, slipping my hands into my pockets.

“Nothing. I just figured you’d rather talk without Oliver around.”

I snort a laugh. “Fair enough. Outside?”

“Sure.”

We step onto the back porch a couple of minutes later. I take a seat on the long bench beneath the kitchen window, Dad following my lead.

“You’re going to give your mother a heart attack, Jamie” is what he says first.

“Jeez. No easing into it, huh?”

“Is that what you’ve been doing? Easing into it?”

Alright, fair enough. “Mom seems okay now.”

“She’s trying to be polite. We all are.”

I swipe a hand through my hair, messing it up. “You don’t need to pretend with me or with Blakely. Doing that will only make her feel more uncomfortable. She can tell when someone’s putting on an act.”

“Actors recognize actors, Jamie.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I snip, my cool slipping.

Dad’s eyes widen at my outburst, a hand lifting in surrender. “I’m sorry. That’s not how I meant it to come out.”

“How did you mean it? Because I didn’t come here to have Blakely put under a microscope. I came here because as my parents, I figured you deserved to meet my future wife before my wedding day. Please don’t make me regret that.”

“We’re just worried about you, Jamie. You’ve always been an act first and think second type of person, but this? We had a wedding invitation slipped in the mailbox . Are you sure that you understand the magnitude of what you’re going to be doing? Marriage isn’t anything to be taken lightly. It’s a forever thing. Have we not shown you that over the years? ”

“Of course you have. Shit, Dad. I’ve been surrounded by marriages my entire life. I get it. I do. Your worries aren’t necessary. I’m marrying Blakely because I want to.”

My stomach burns, the lining disintegrating with every half-truth I tell. It’s wrong not to just blurt out the truth to him. He’d understand. Out of everyone in my life, he would get it the most. The pressure to make my team proud and be the guy who can get the job done. I just can’t put him in a position to lie to Mom, and if they both know the truth . . . It’s too big of a risk with the closeness of our family.

He’s not believing a word I’m saying, though. Not even one.

“Your mom won’t let it go. Especially not when you confirmed that Blakely tried to rob you. Want to get into that? Because I’m pretty sure that’s called some shit like Stockholm syndrome,” he mutters.

“That’s when you fall in love with someone who’s kidnapped you or something. I’m not holding her against her will. Sheesh.”

“Fuck, fine. I just think that this is . . . odd.”

“It’s a story to tell. She wasn’t in my house with the purpose of robbing me, anyway. It just happened.”

“She just happened to try robbing you?”

“Fuck, Dad. Can you just forget that I even shared that to begin with? Blakely will be mortified if she hears anything about it. She’s still nervous to this day to touch certain things in the house because of what she did.”

He sighs, leaning further against the back of the bench. “Just promise me that you’re at least signing a prenup. Not because I think poorly of her, but because it’s important for everyone to have entering into a marriage. Especially someone like you.”

“Already done. She’s not after my money, though. Just so you know. I think that’s the last thing she’d take from me.”

“What makes you so sure of that?” he asks, not coming off as abrasive, just purely curious.

“How easy was it for you to take money from those in your life when you were my age, Dad? ”

He pauses, digesting the question. The memories of his past surface in his gaze before he blinks them away.

“I didn’t want to assume anything about her. I’ve always hated when people did that with me.”

“If you give her a chance, I think she’ll surprise you. The two of you would get along.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he turns his head, focusing on me. “This marriage is a fucking sham, Jamie. You don’t have to tell me the truth, but I know you better than you think I do.”

“Believe what you want?—”

He clears his throat pointedly. “I wasn’t done. I’m just telling you how it’s most likely going to be here, and I guarantee your mother is going to be in the same boat as me. However, if you say Blakely’s good people, then I’ll respect that, and I know everyone else will too. You’re a grown man, and your choices are your own. However, I am going to tell you to be careful. Whatever you’re doing here has the chance of turning sour.”

“Isn’t that risk there with everything?”

He chuckles, patting my shoulder. “Yeah, it is. I’m just speaking from my own experiences here a bit. Your mom worked real fucking hard to get me to open up, and there were times where it was the last thing I wanted to do. If Blakely is anything like me, it won’t be easy for you.”

None of this is news to me. Blakely isn’t an easy woman, but I’ve never wanted easy less than I have with her. Fake or not, she’s one week away from being my wife, and I have the next two months to break down the walls my dad’s describing.

The challenge doesn’t scare me.

It excites me.