“I’m officially Gabe’s guardian. In fact, he’s on the plane with me now.” Jarrett kept his voice low, though he doubted his phone call would wake Rylie or the frail boy who clung to her in his sleep. “And I’m married, at least for the time being.”
“Congratulations,” said Finn. “I’m glad Gabe’s going to get his treatment. And I’m really happy you and Carlie are finally together. You’ve been in love with her for a long time.”
“About that… I didn’t marry Carlie. I married Rylie.”
“Cripes, Jarrett! Let me put you on speaker phone so Laurie can hear. This is bound to be good.” His voice came back with an echoey sound. “Okay, tell us how you ended up married to Carlie’s twin sister.”
“He married the sister?” Laurie asked, in a shocked tone. “I thought he was in love with Carlie.”
Jarrett did his best to explain the crazy story.
“So you just married Rylie instead?” Finn’s cackle rang in Jarrett’s ear. “This sounds like an episode of that Dr. Kyle TV show. You do realize, being identical twins doesn’t exactly make them interchangeable, right?”
“It’s only temporary,” Jarrett defended, eyeing the sleeping pair with a smile. Despite her lack of ability to communicate in Spanish, Rylie and Gabriel appeared to have bonded. She’d been a real trouper to step in and take her sister’s place. He’d made the right decision, hiring her to work at Phantom Enterprises. That kind of selflessness and dedication made a valuable team member. “We’re going to get the marriage annulled next week, if we can. If not, we’ll file for divorce.”
“And Carlie was okay with all this?” Laurie’s voice rose over the sound of a crying baby, and she followed up with some comforting coos.
“I talked to her last night,” Jarrett said. “She was feeling too rotten to care about anything else. But it’s not like Rylie and I will be living together or even spending time together. The next thirty days or so, I’ll be with Gabe every spare second. He’ll have at least a week in the hospital. By the time he’s done with the induction part of the chemo, the marriage will be over, and Carlie and I can date like a normal couple, with no timetable.”
“What do you mean by ‘no timetable?’” Laurie asked.
“I’m saying we can date without any pressure and decide whether or not we want to stay together.”
“I think someone may have thrown a little wrench in your plans.” Finn’s voice was edged in humor, as usual. “There’s a rumor on social media that you and Carlie are getting married in December. It’s all over the gossip columns. You’re getting as much attention as Cole used to.”
“Crud!” Jarrett felt steam building in his head, but he had no one to blame but himself. “I forgot all about that. I told Carlie last week she could go ahead and announce the ceremony, but that was when I thought we would already be married for the adoption. It was my way of helping her out, since she was helping me. Her agent said the publicity would boost her popularity with her fans.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Laurie said. “That gives you six months to date each other like a normal couple. That’s more than enough time for you to work things out. At least you won’t be in some weird pretend-marriage the whole time.”
“You’re right. Six months is plenty of time,” Jarrett said. “Besides, right now, I have to concentrate on Gabe. Nothing else matters.”
“And just so you know,” Laurie added, “Finn’s coming to stay with you next week. You can’t sleep at the hospital every night, or you’ll be exhausted.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Jarrett said, even as a lump formed in his throat. “You have your own family to take care of.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Finn said. “We’re all family. Besides… it’ll be a great chance to practice my Spanish.”
“You guys are the best.” Jarrett swallowed hard. “You’ll never know how much it means to me. All I can think about is taking care of Gabe. I wish I could avoid all this publicity.”
“Look on the bright side.” Finn chuckled. “Thanks to your name plastered all over the media, our stock prices went up yesterday.”
“Yipee.” Jarrett’s monotone matched his enthusiasm.
“Tell me about getting married,” Carlie said, returning from the kitchen with a glass of ice water to join Rylie on the couch. Exhausted from her whirlwind trip, Rylie had barely moved in the ten minutes since she’d walked in the door.
“There’s nothing to tell. We signed a form. That’s it.” Rylie twisted the unaccustomed gold band around her ring finger.
“Did he kiss you?”
Of course she would be upset if Jarrett had kissed her, since he’d never even kissed Carlie.
“No kiss—no nothing. We didn’t even have a ceremony. All we had to do was sign a marriage certificate.”
“You didn’t even say I do?” Still moving slowly since her illness, Carlie curled her legs underneath her and sipped her water. Though she claimed to be completely well, she looked a little frail. She’d showered and washed her hair, but her face wasn’t faultlessly adorned in makeup, as usual. Her mascara-free eyes narrowed at Rylie, in obvious disbelief. “You’re wearing a wedding ring.”
Rylie lifted her hand, allowing her sister to inspect the plain band. “Only because he stopped and bought a set of rings at the mall on the way to the airport. We couldn’t show up in Puerto Rico without rings on.”
“You’re still wearing it.”
In Rylie’s mind, an angry retort raged against the glint of accusation in Carlie’s eyes. You’ve got the rest of your life to be married to him. I’ve loved him more and longer than you. Yet you begrudge me a few days of wearing his ring and imagining what it would be like if we had a real marriage?
She scolded herself. If she were in Carlie’s shoes, she’d be uncomfortable, too. There was nothing ordinary about having your sister marry your fiancé.
“If you’re afraid there’s something going on between Jarrett and me, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Hiding her reluctance, she slid the ring off her finger and tucked it into her pants pocket. She’d return it to Jarrett the next time she saw him, which would probably be Monday. “You know good and well he married me as a last resort when he couldn’t do the proxy marriage with you. And he only did it because his attorney suggested it.”
“I guess I’m feeling insecure.” Her gaze dropped to the floor. “Matthew told me the exact same thing last night. He came by to bring me some Gatorade.”
“Wow! That’s above and beyond the usual duties of an attorney, wouldn’t you say?”
Carlie’s pale cheeks took on a pink glow. “Jarrett asked him to get it for me. He sent flowers, too.”
It was admirable that Jarrett was thinking about Carlie even after arranging his hasty marriage to Rylie and a flight to Puerto Rico. It made no sense that his considerate actions would hurt Rylie’s feelings. So why did they?
Too tired to continue this train of thought without breaking down, Rylie changed the subject.
