My Fake Christmas Fiance (Kane Christmas #1) - Julie Kriss Page 0,14
Sam never bullshitted me and that he respected how dedicated I was to the family Christmas business. And Sam liked that my good mood usually counteracted his darkness. Sometimes it seemed like he needed to be around me, like if he weren’t he would spiral. I was glad to oblige.
But tonight, it was me who needed him. “Order a beer,” I said, “and get me a second one.”
Sam just lifted an eyebrow and gave his order to the bartender. She nodded, then let her gaze travel his arms. “Nice ink,” she said.
Sam just shrugged. Typical.
The bartender got the message and walked away. “Dude, she was hitting on you,” I told him. “Just so you know.”
Sam scowled at me, the expression showing off the scar through his eyebrow. He ran a hand over his military-short dark hair. “I just want a beer. And to hear whatever you have to say, so I can go home. It’s snowing.”
True, it was snowing. Again. I got the impression that wherever Sam had been overseas in the military—he hadn’t said where for the last year or so—it had probably been stinking hot. “Okay, buckle up,” I said. “You remember Penny, my fiancée from San Diego?”
“The one you’re not really marrying?” Sam took a deep swig of his beer.
“What do you mean? We’re really engaged.”
“Sure you are.”
I sighed. It was impossible to put anything past Sam. “Okay, fine, it’s a fake engagement that’s part of the merger deal. But she’s a real person, and we’re really engaged. Even though it’s fake.”
Sam put his beer down and looked at me. “You really have the weirdest life.”
“It’s a long story.” I shook my head. Sam had only come home a month ago, and though I’d caught him up on most of it, it was still complicated. “The point is, Penny and I have to be married by midnight on Christmas Eve, or the entire merger deal is off. And now she’s left San Diego and come here.”
“To Denver?” Sam asked.
“To Denver, and specifically, to my house. Where she is right now.”
“Okay,” Sam said slowly. “Your fake fiancée is at your house, and you have to be married in, what? A week? Or your business will probably go under. Am I following?”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“So what’s your plan, genius?”
“That’s what she asked me.” I drained the last of my first beer and started on my second one. “I don’t have a plan. That’s my problem. I need you to help me come up with one.”
“Me?” Sam looked genuinely surprised. “I’m terrible at this shit.”
“I just need some ideas. Anything.”
He scratched the back of his head slowly. “Fine. Let’s go with the easiest answer first. I take it you don’t actually want to marry her?”
I winced. “She’s nice. And she’s sexy.” Really, really sexy. “But marriage isn’t my thing. I thought I’d have my freedom for a bit longer.”
“Your freedom to sleep around, you mean.”
I groaned. “I don’t even remember what sleeping around feels like anymore. I remember it fondly, though. There were naked women involved. It was pretty great. Someday I’d like to see a real live naked woman again.”
“Too much information,” Sam declared. “Shut it.”
“Fine, I’ll keep my miserable celibacy to myself. But even if I wanted to marry Penny, which I don’t, she definitely doesn’t want to marry me. She thinks I’m a playboy and a flake.” Though she had seemed to like my mountain man look, as she called it. Maybe if I wore more flannel…
Knock it off, Kane. She isn’t into you.
“Okay, so marriage is out,” Sam said. “Can you find a loophole so the merger can go forward?”
“That was my original plan,” I said, taking a deep drink of my second beer. “I spent all year on it. It was supposed to work fine. Then Penny’s father went to Tibet, and Dad went to jail, and I can’t get the right paperwork signed. We’re screwed.”
“Okay, so you only have one option, it seems to me.”
“What is it?”
“You get married, and then you get divorced,” Sam said. “Is there any rule against that?”
I pressed my fingertips to my temples. I’d read the legal paperwork so many times in the past year, I practically knew it by heart. “No?” I said, the word coming out as a question as hope started to bloom in my chest. “I don’t think so. The agreement says that Penny and I have to get married. It doesn’t say we have to stay married.”
“Well, then, there you go.” Sam’s voice was calm