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  “That’s right,” Hannah agreed, not saying anything more.

  “Well, then, that dispels one of the rumors right off the bat.”

  “And that would be?” Brody asked.

  “That you and Jackie Nelson were pairing up for the charity auction, but Jackie suggested that you were also pairing up for a lot more than that. Considering that you’ve been out with several women in the past few months, of course, I had my doubts that you would settle down with just one,” Marsha said. “But I also heard that you were having trouble with your sponsor and trying to make nice after what happened at that club. In fact, someone even thought that maybe you were fired, instead of retiring?”

  Hannah expected that Brody might lose his temper at the woman’s goading, but he only sighed heavily before answering, as if tired or bored by the question.

  “Jackie and I are friends, Marsha. I’m donating some items to the auction, and we went out a few times in the past, but that’s all. You must have misunderstood her.”

  “Apparently. And as for the sponsor?”

  “I don’t have a sponsor. I’m not racing. Retired, remember?” he said, as if she were daft.

  “Hmm... Well, I figured you’d never take yourself off the market. Wild Brody Palmer, settling down with just one woman? Puh-leese,” Marsha said with a not-so-friendly chuckle.

  Hannah linked her arm through his, keeping her voice steady. “Well, that’s where you’re wrong again, actually. Brody is off the market. He’s with me.”

  “You mean, for this week? This is an on-again, off-again thing, or friends with benefits?”

  Hannah bristled at the woman’s tone.

  “We’ve both been getting our careers figured out. I needed some time, but when I came back down to see him I knew this time I wouldn’t be going back north. I’m here to stay.”

  Cynical doubt practically spilled out of the woman’s eyes as they met Brody’s. “Jeez, Brody, all the women I talk to seem to think you belong to them.”

  Brody tucked Hannah in closer. “But in this case, you won’t hear me denying it. Hannah and I had a great time back in Daytona, and when we got together again, the feelings were still there and very mutual.”

  Hannah could tell by Marsha’s face that she wasn’t buying it. Not one bit.

  “You expect me to believe you were in love with her the whole time you were visiting sex clubs and dating other women? Sorry, Brody, try again. The only way I’d buy this is if I see a ring on her finger or a date set for the wedding,” she scoffed.

  “Well, we haven’t had time to talk about a ring yet, but we were talking about possible wedding dates on our ride today,” Hannah said. “Before you showed up unannounced.”

  That stopped the reporter in her tracks, and she felt Brody stiffen beside her, as well.

  “You’re engaged? And when did this happen?” the reporter asked sharply, her whiplike gaze snapping to Brody.

  “Um, well...it’s still unofficial,” he stuttered, trying to catch up. “It’s brand-new.”

  Hannah held her breath. He obviously hadn’t expected her to go that far, but there was no going back now.

  “How romantic! So you only just proposed! I guess that’s why you look so...flustered.”

  Hannah smiled. “It was a spontaneous kind of thing. We’re still getting used to the idea ourselves.”

  “Well, this is my lucky day, then,” Marsha said, as though she was licking the cream from the bowl. “I get the scoop.”

  Brody took a deep breath, swallowing hard as his eyes met Hannah’s.

  “I guess you do.”

  * * *

  “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” Brody said, shoving his hand through his hair as he paced the kitchen.

  After talking to them for a while longer, forgetting her other stories and getting the scoop on the wedding—they wanted something small, simple and as soon as possible, it turned out—Marsha left, only agreeing to hold the story for one day. Why not share his good news? she argued. He’d begged off, saying he needed time to tell his family and friends first. Amazingly, Marsha, so happy with the story, had agreed to give them until the end of the weekend.

  Brody was not as happy.

  How was he going to explain this to his parents? They’d been hoping, secretly, that he’d find someone and settle down. But this was only more lies.

  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t stand how she kept twisting everything and being so snotty. It made me mad,” Hannah explained. “When she asked, I thought... It seemed like the best way to discourage her, I guess.”

  “Well, we certainly made her day, but what are we going to do now?”

  “Well, this works, right? Your sponsors wanted you to appear like you were putting down some roots, and now women will stop bothering you. It’s not real, Brody. I know that. There’s no need to look so panicked.”

  “It was fine to say we were together, Hannah, but now we’re supposed to be getting married, and as soon as possible? When we don’t go through with that, Hannah, I’ll be a liar, or they’ll say I dumped you, cheated on you or never meant it in the first place—and I’d like to know where she heard that bit about the sponsor. No one should know about that.”

  Hannah’s smile faded. “She might have been guessing. Seeing if she could hit a nerve. But we can stall. Weddings take time.”

  “Not small, simple ones.”

  Hannah put a hand to her brow. “True. I don’t know where that came from. She brought out the worst in me. It seemed as though the more details we had, the more believable it would be, and that one slipped out.”

  “Well, she sure believed it. Now we’re stuck.”

  “We’re not, not really. People change wedding plans all the time. We can say we wanted to do it in fall instead, and then—”

  “And then I’m back at square one. You don’t have anything on the line here, Hannah, but it’s my whole freakin’ life.” He regretted the words as he said them, but still, they were also true.

  Hannah sat at the kitchen table, her head dropped into her hands.

  “You’re right. I’m so sorry. I really backed us into a corner. But we did tell her it was impulsive. Maybe it’s not too late to contact Marsha and tell her we spoke too soon, and that we’re not sure what we’re doing yet, for a wedding?”

  “She’d sense something is off—it would make things worse.”

  He’d had a glimpse back in the glade of who Hannah wanted to be—the Hannah who existed under the gray suits and dark-rimmed glasses. He’d seen glimpses of her before, but he’d also always liked her exactly for who she was.

  Brody walked to the sink, leaning on it as he stared out the window, trying to focus. Panic was what killed you, right? He needed to think.

  There had to be a way to make this work. A way to make it...

  The truth?

  Seriously?

  He turned to back to Hannah, who had reached for a tissue to blow her nose—she was crying. He sucked in a breath. He didn’t want her crying over anything, especially when it came to him.

  “Listen, it’s okay. Don’t cry, hon. But...what if we did it? For real.” The words were surreal, and he didn’t think she’d heard him at first.

  She sat very still, and then turned slowly, her expression a study in total, complete shock.

  “What?”

  “It would take a day or two to get the paperwork done, and then there’s a three-day waiting period, but that’s it. Then we would have to schedule a ceremony and whatever else needs to be done.”

  Hannah didn’t say anything, but her horrified look was a clear response. But the longer the words lingered in the air between them, the more his dread was replaced with new energy.

  “Listen, like you said, it’s not for real. We can still call it quits down the li
ne, whenever you want. This could work,” he continued.

  The more Brody talked, the more he convinced himself it was the right thing to do. It made perfect sense.

  “Are you insane?” she finally said.

  Brody walked up to her, grinning. “Yeah, but you knew that already. You said you wanted some adventure, Hannah, and to take risks. So...what do you say? Let’s get married!”

  He’d rendered her wordless again, so he reminded her, “Hey, it was your idea.”

  She gaped. “It was not. I thought we could have a long, fake engagement, which we could drag out, like a lot of people do. Not a real marriage.”

  Brody shook his head. “I’m already in a fake retirement, and that’s been hard enough. And there’s no way out of this that doesn’t rain all the hell Marsha Zimmer can muster down on my head.”

  “So you’d rather have a fake marriage?” Her tone was incredulous.

  He had to admit, when she put it that way, it did sound pretty wild.

  Brody liked wild.

  “It wouldn’t be fake. It would be very real, in every way,” he said, sliding his hand into her hair, cupping the back of her neck and making her look at him. “In every way, Hannah. Until we decide to end it. What do you say?”

  Brody saw the indecision in her eyes, and maybe a hint of panic. But she was also...considering.

  C’mon, Hannah. Go for it.

  He moved in, pulling her close, his lips against her ear.

  “Think about it...you’d be the one who caught Brody Palmer,” he teased with a smile and a kiss on the shell of her ear. “No one would ever think you were unadventurous again. And it would be an adventure, Hannah...whatever you want to do, however you want to do it, I’m there,” he whispered, echoing what he told her back in the glade.

  Her breath caught as he nipped at the soft flesh of her earlobe, and desire quickened again, fed by the excitement, the wild thrill of what he was proposing—literally. He felt her response, too, as she softened against him, her breath hitching slightly.

  Married to Hannah. He played the idea over in his mind as he smoothed his hands over her back. He’d never really considered marrying anyone. Maybe when he was a lot older, if then, but for now, his career came first and he was happy playing the field. A very wide, diverse field. He couldn’t blame Marsha for thinking about him like she did; she wasn’t wrong. Brody enjoyed women, lots of them.

  That would change. Even if it wasn’t a real, forever marriage, he wouldn’t mess around. He never did that, not even with his lovers. And when he was with Hannah, he never thought about anyone else anyway. Not then, not now.

  And this wasn’t a forever thing. It was a “for now” thing. A mutually beneficial arrangement. They had a built-in escape hatch, anytime either of them wanted out. His name, his connections could open doors for her, maybe help her establish herself somehow. It could work. Like she’d said earlier, they would make it work, for both of them.

  In fact, in his mind, it was as good as done.

  He started to kiss her again, but Hannah pulled away, turning away from him, wrapping her arms around her middle.

  “I don’t know, Brody. I hear what you’re saying, but for me, it’s a much bigger lie.”

  The words cooled him down quickly.

  “How so?”

  She shrugged, walking over to the window where he had been standing before.

  “It’s one thing to stay here for a while, to be lovers...but I always loved looking at my parents’ wedding pictures, and I imagined I’d have pictures like them someday. With the dress, the flowers... Happy memories my kids could look back on when they were older, too. Marriage is...a promise. It’s not a business arrangement. If you have a way out before you even start, it’s not real on anything but paper.”

  Brody nodded, meeting her eyes. “You’re right, I know. My folks have been together almost thirty years. And maybe someday you’ll have that kind of marriage, too, right? You can still have all of that. But you said you didn’t want it now. That you wanted to change how you’ve always locked yourself down and that you’ve been too focused on a particular kind of life. I’m not a forever kind of guy, Hannah, you know that.”

  “Yes, I know, but—”

  “Even though the marriage would only be temporary, it wouldn’t be a lie. I do care about you. I want you, and I enjoy being with you. We’re good together. It could be the answer for both of us. It would help me with my public image, get Marsha and everyone else off my back. And I could help you break out of your rut, help your career. Give you time to figure out what’s next. Isn’t this exactly what you were suggesting to me earlier, only with more paperwork?”

  She chewed her lip, clearly unsure, but he knew she was listening to him.

  “This could be fun, Hannah. A lot of fun,” he added, seeing that she was almost with him.

  “I must be as crazy as you for even considering it,” she said, shaking her head.

  Now her eyes lit with that same spark he’d seen earlier. Brody made a silent promise to himself that he’d only encourage that spark, make it shine brighter. If he couldn’t give her forever, he could give her that.

  He met her at the sink, pressing her against it, not giving her another chance to rethink anything as he took her mouth in a hot, open kiss that promised nothing but more of the same.

  When he was done, she was breathing as hard as he was and was as ready for more.

  “Will you marry me—for a while—Hannah?” he asked again.

  She took a breath, giving him a look that made him feel as if she was handing him the world.

  “I must be nuts, but...yes.”

  6

  “YOU WHAT?” ABBY SCREECHED. “Are you kidding me?”

  Hannah had to hold the phone from her ear for a second, but her smile was wide as she listened to her best friend’s response to her announcement.

  After she’d gotten over the initial shock of the entire incident, she realized Brody was right. Her resistance to marrying him for real, sort of, was because of the attitudes she’d held about the institution since she was young. It was the bastion of stability she’d always aimed for, and if there was one way to blow that bastion to bits, it was getting married—temporarily.

  It all made her feel reckless and young, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t also nervous about telling her friends and family. Brody was taking her out to dinner with his parents in a few hours to break the news to them.

  First thing that Monday, they’d gone to get the paperwork settled and scheduled the following Friday afternoon at the local courthouse, which was the earliest date they could get. Brody suggested Vegas, but Hannah nixed that right away. Vegas was too cheesy, and if what he needed was the impression of permanence and commitment, that wouldn’t work.

  Brody agreed that their wedding needed to look as real as possible to the outside world, but Hannah had quailed at a church wedding with all the fuss—that was too much, especially if they wanted a short engagement—so a small courthouse wedding with family and friends was the compromise. It also kept Hannah’s ideas about her real wedding someday intact—she wanted to have the church wedding with all the trimmings when it was for forever.

  This would do for now.

  She had yet to tell her mother, and that had made her feel somewhat guilty. Still, she had to have her mother at her wedding, no matter what the circumstances.

  “Yep,” she said to Abby. “Pretty soon, I’ll be Mrs. Brody Palmer. Though I think I’ll probably keep my own name, actually.”

  She thought of that at the last minute—she wasn’t about to change her name when this wasn’t a permanent thing. So many details to consider, even in a fake marriage.

  Or rather, a temporary one, she corrected herself. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered Brody’
s voice when he told her how their marriage, for as long as it lasted, would be very real in every way.

  “So how did this happen anyway? I need to know everything,” Abby said, getting worked up. “And you guys should be married here, and have a party at the winery—if you wait three or four months, which is like nothing in wedding time, it will be summer, and it would be lovely. And what about a dress? Does your mom know?”

  Hannah waited until her friend ran out of breath and then took the questions all in their turn.

  “We can’t, or rather, we don’t want to wait months, Abby. We want to be together now. Officially. Maybe we can do something this summer, come up there for a visit. Mom’s phone went to voice mail this morning when I called, so don’t say anything. I still have to tell her, too.”

  Abby blew out a breath, and Hannah could imagine her shaking her head.

  “Hannah, I don’t know. I love Brody, but he’s...Brody. Not exactly Mr. Monogamous, and to say this is fast is an understatement. Do you think that you might be reacting to the loss of your job? And he’s been a mess with his retirement... Maybe I shouldn’t have sent you down there. Things are so uncertain for you both—marriage is something you should think twice about in any situation, but especially in yours.”

  “I know it’s fast and unexpected, but that doesn’t mean it’s not right, Abby. Remember, we aren’t new to each other. All of those feelings were there before, I guess, but I was too blinded by tunnel vision about what I thought my future should be. I didn’t realize I would still feel as much for him—more, really—as I did before.”

  Hannah’s chest tightened as she found her explanation perhaps a tad too convincing, too real for her comfort. But she was plunging forward, a new Hannah Morgan, who didn’t stop and rehash every emotion and consequence.

  “But—”

  “Do you think Reece will get back from France in time? I know this is very short notice, but we’d love you to come.”

  “Hannah, I don’t get it. This isn’t like you, not one bit, and it’s different from everything you ever said you wanted.”