Chuckling, Beck bends down to try to knock the solid blue into the side pocket. “Are you good with that? Making changes?”
“The bakery is hers.” Or, it will be if we can manage to get Vanderman to believe she’s really my wife. Our meeting with him is tomorrow, and I keep getting more and more nervous about that. If he sees through our ruse and decides I’m trying to dupe him, what then? I could divorce Georgie and tell her we gave it our best shot, but that feels…wrong.
But it’s not like these first few days of our marriage have been right.
“I’m meeting with her in a couple of days,” Beck continues. “I can fill you in on whatever she’s thinking.”
“Why would I need that?”
Beck’s shot is off, but only barely, and he chuckles again as he steps aside to let Coop analyze the table. “Because you looked like I slapped you when I said she called me.”
That wasn’t because of the renovations, but I can’t tell him that. It’s dangerous enough that Coop knows the truth, and while I trust my friends, I’m not sure I can trust their reactions if I tell them that my marriage to Georgie isn’t real.
I shouldn’t be worried that Georgie might take one look at Beck and realize she could have done better than me, but I am. Which is crazy. Our marriage is temporary, and we both know it, so it shouldn’t matter if Georgie takes an interest in someone else. Maybe I’m worried about Beck’s emotional stability, since he will get the same treatment I did if he tries convincing Georgie to stick around.
Though, if anyone could get her to change her mind, he probably could.
I growl a little and fold my arms, silently telling myself to relax and stop thinking about what Georgie may or may not do. I’ve never been able to control her actions, and I never will.
“Why marriage?” Perry asks suddenly. He speaks at the same time Coop takes his shot, which throws him off and sends the cue ball spiraling across the table.
“Dude!” Coop complains.
My gaze jumps to Perry once the ball stops moving. “What?”
He shrugs. “You haven’t seen Georgie in years.”
When he doesn’t elaborate, Duke does it for him. “Didn’t she just come back into town? Getting married is kind of skipping a few steps, especially after what happened way back when.”
I glance at Coop, who narrows his eyes at me. Guess I won’t be getting any help from him on this one. I shrug. “Seemed like the best thing to do at the time.”
Coop barks out a laugh. “One brain cell,” he repeats and pats Duke on the back, telling him to take his shot.
“Will you stop?” I complain.
“He has a point,” Beck says. “Whenever you and Georgie were together, you tended to jump right into things without thinking them through first.”
I force out a laugh. “As if all of you were totally logical all the time. We were teens. Of course we were impulsive.”
“The two of you were worse,” Perry says. And then, almost too quietly for me to hear, he adds, “Seems little has changed.”
“Look,” I say sharply, “maybe it was impulsive, but Georgie and I are married. That’s not going to change.” Not for a little while, anyway, but I just need them to believe me for now. “We’ve both grown up, and it is what it is. Okay?”
“How romantic,” Coop mutters, rolling his eyes at me.
We’re all silent for a few minutes, and the guys each take their turn until Perry is left with the eight ball and a difficult shot. But he’ll probably make it. Beck must sense that he and Duke are about to lose because he turns his attention to the rest of the pool hall. There’s a group of women in the corner, and though I’ve noticed them looking our way for the last several minutes, I’ve been ignoring them.
Beck seems interested until his eyes shift to my hand where it rests on my arm. “Any reason you’re not wearing a ring, Kingston?” he asks. “Because we seem to have caught some attention, and I’m getting the impression they think you’re available like the rest of us.”
I groan. “I’ve been busy.”
“Georgie doesn’t have one either,” Coop adds unhelpfully.
“Busy,” I repeat.
“Maybe you should get unbusy and show the world you’re off the market,” Duke says. “Make some space for the rest of us.”
Perry bounces the eight ball off the wall and into the corner pocket, just as he planned, and then he sends a searing scowl toward Duke. “Speak for yourself,” he grunts.
“Amen to that,” Beck agrees.
Coop turns his gaze to me, eyes narrowed but a mischievous grin on his face. “Here’s hoping your fun little impulse decision doesn’t prove us all right. Love is the worst, and you might be the biggest idiot of all of us for thinking otherwise.”
Even if he knows my marriage is fake, I’m worried Coop is going to end up being right, just as he predicted. Love is dangerous.
And Georgie even more so.
Chapter Eleven
Georgie
I’ve barely seen King the last few days. It’s not exactly a surprise—he warned me he would be busy—but my disappointment is definitely concerning. We both agreed that we can’t get attached to each other. But when a girl watches a man physically heft an animal as large as a water-laden llama out of a pool, her mind starts to get ideas. I had been annoyed that my sleepwalking pulled me out of the house in the middle of the night until King dove into the pool and gave me a show.
If I’m being honest, that morning was just a cherry on top of the ice cream sundae that is Royal Kingston. During the moments when I have seen him the last couple days—like when I dropped off some fresh croissants at the surf shack and watched him teach three little kids how to balance on their miniature surfboards, all four of them with broad smiles—I felt like I was getting a front row seat to the man he has become.
I liked him when we were younger. Maybe even loved him. But I never looked at him back then like I’ve been doing since we tied the knot.
