Me And Mr. I.T. (Kupid's Cove Book 2) (7 page)

“You two are so cute. It won’t tie you up for the whole night and it’s for charity. I can’t leave my two main singles off the ballot.”

Mr. I.T. blew out a breath and shook his head a little. He put his arm around me and pulled me into his side. “I’m sorry, Katie, but we can’t do it. It would be a farce.”

I nodded. “Right, a farce.” I had no idea why it was a farce, but he looked so convincing I thought it wise to agree.

“Why?” she asked sounding as confused as I felt.

He kissed my cheek, which left me frozen in place when he answered her question. “We can’t be auctioned off as a bachelor and bachelorette because we’re married, to each other.”

He nodded his head very seriously and Katie jumped up from her chair. “What? Are you kidding me?”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming the same thing. He squeezed my hand and leaned into my ear as Katie talked a mile a minute. “Roll with it.”

I looked into his eyes and they sparkled. What the hell was he thinking and why did he think I would roll with it?

I turned back toward Katie as she asked another question. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

I wondered the same thing myself, so I clamped my lips shut and let him answer.

“Since we work together, we decided it was best that we kept our relationship a secret.”

“Is that why you always act afraid of him, Ellie?” Katie asked and he snorted, hugging me tighter to him.

He was wearing that Colt .45 cologne again and it was making it difficult for me to process information.

“Right, afraid of him,” I said, almost in a trance.

Katie picked up my left hand. “But neither of you are wearing a ring? Do you hide that, too? When did this all happen?” With each question, her voice went up another octave of excitement.

He wrapped his second arm around me and rested it at my waist, as though it was the most natural thing to do. My muscles convulsed under his touch and the heat of his hand burned my skin. He leaned in and kissed my lips; his were warm and soft and I forgot for a second that Katie was in the room. When he pulled his lips from mine, I felt bereft.

“The rings are at the jewelers,” he explained patiently. “They were too big. Have you called about picking them up, honey bunches?”

Oh God. I almost choked on my tongue trying not to think about how that must sound to Katie. I cleared my throat so my voice wouldn’t rat me out. “Errr, not lately. I should make a note to call them?”

He nodded. “Now that Katie knows, we can wear them. It’s only a matter of time until everyone knows.”

Katie nodded excitedly and clapped. That sad look that had been in her eyes for so long was now replaced with happiness and excitement. “Oh my gosh, you two!” She threw her arms around both of us and we patted her back. When she looked back up at us, she had tears in her eyes. “I’m so happy for you. I’m a little sad we missed the wedding, though.”

I pulled a tissue from the box on my desk and handed it to her, raising one brow at Mr. I.T. In turn, he had the good sense to look to me for guidance. I would say the look in his eyes was nothing less than desperate.

I steadied my nerves, ready to tell another whopper. “Don’t worry, Katie, we’re planning to have a reception in a few months after this job is over. We got married last weekend by a friend of mine who’s a minister. We wanted to invite all of you, but since we were trying to keep it hush-hush at work, we thought better of it.”

She shook her head and dabbed at her eyes. “But you don’t have to keep it hush-hush now that you’re married!”

I fought hard against the eye roll that threatened every time the word ‘married’ came out. It was verbal torture to hear that word in conjunction with him. Not that he would be a bad guy to be married to, I suppose. But after last night’s escapades, it was going to be hard to pretend I was married to him, without the benefits that usually come with it.

He tapped his chin with his index finger. “Well, I suppose you’re right.” He kept tapping his chin as if that was somehow going to help him figure a way out of this predicament.

Katie held her hands out waving them a little. “I have the perfect idea! Why don’t you two be our MC’s for the event? We can introduce you as Mr. and Mrs. Kekoa, the newlyweds. People will love it!”

His hand fell to his side and he forced a smile onto his face. “What do you think, honey bunches? Sound good to you?”

I almost swallowed my tongue again, but fought to remain cheerful. “Sounds wonderful. I’m sure we can MC the pageant and still do our other jobs.” I was being sarcastic, but no one seemed to notice.

Katie clapped again. “This is so much fun! Listen, you’ll be off in Honolulu for a while right?” We both nodded for lack of any other way to answer. “I’ll arrange a private suite for you there, so you have everything you need to work, and play.” She raised her brows a little and I could feel my cheeks turning pink quickly. “While you’re gone I’ll have housekeeping move one of your things to the other’s apartment, or are you going to live off home base now?”

Home base is what we had taken to calling the employee housing. However, I really didn’t want her to get rid of one of our apartments, considering the fact that we weren’t actually married!

Thankfully, he was quick on the draw. “Gideon has already offered us the use of the penthouse, Katie, but can we leave the apartments alone until after the event? We’ve yet to decide where we’re going to live, and since we’ll be Honolulu for the next few weeks, we likely won’t be able to until we get back. We’ll keep paying both rents, so not to worry. Besides, it would be hard to keep it a secret if one of our apartments comes open for rent.”

She jutted a hip out and chewed his words over. “You’re right, I didn’t think of that. I’m just so excited. Oh well, we’ll leave the apartments as they are, but we’ll refund your rent for the month on one of them. Then you can decide when you get back where you want to live. We don’t have any family apartments open right now, but who knows, anything can happen in a month.”

Ain’t that the truth, Katie, like a sudden and unexpected divorce. I snickered at the thought and covered it with a cough.

“Okay, glad we got this all out in the open,” Mr. I.T. said enthusiastically. “Well, at least to the bosses. Thanks for not being upset about us not telling you, but we wanted to keep things professional.”

I nodded, agreeing and ‘mmmmhmmming’ like a broken record.

Katie grinned. “I’m not upset, but I hope you don’t expect me to keep this from my husband. I promise he’s the only one I’ll tell before the event. Deal?” She held her hand out and we both shook it, for lack of a better idea.

She picked up her purse and flipped the strap over her shoulder. “I’ll call Leilani at Orchid Reef and get you set up there. When will you be arriving?”

“Tomorrow,” I said very quickly. “We’re ready to go.”

He looked at me, lifting one brow, but nodded his agreement. “Sure, tomorrow is good. I have Ukrit covering everything here. He’ll keep in touch with me about anything that may come up, but I can jump back over here in a matter of a few hours if a major problem arises.”

I nodded. “Me, too.” Good lord, I sounded like I didn’t have a brain in my head, and it wasn’t cool.

“Are you going by air or sea?” Katie asked and I looked at him for guidance.

“Air, if we can get a flight.”

“Leave that to me,” she said helpfully, “I’ll tell Gideon and he’ll fly you over in the chopper. He’s always looking for a reason to fly.”

I nodded, clasping my hands in front of me. “Great, we can be ready whenever he is. Have him text me a time.”

“We have an appointment in the afternoon, but he can take you around seven. Is that too early?”

We both shook our head and she hugged us one last time, her excitement still evident in the bounce of her body as she went to the door. “I’ll let you go pack, you two lovebirds. Ellie, I’ll send you the info to make the changes to the invitations before you leave. Then shoot the document back to me and I’ll take them to the printer and get them mailed. We only have less than a month to pull this all together. I’m a little worried.”

I pushed off the desk and walked toward her. “Don’t be, Katie, we’ve got it in hand. Maltrand and I will be back and forth and we’ll be here the week before the event for sure. All you need to do is work with the caterers and figure out the arrangements for anyone interested in coming from Honolulu. I’ll talk to Lisa about helping you get the pageant ready. You know how into fashion she is. She’ll eat it up.”

Katie hugged me again. “Thank you, Ellie. She would be a big help to me as we figure out that part of the event. I have everything else done, so it’s just last minute details and the pageant to finish. I don’t want it to be super formal, though. I want people to sit out under the stars with the ocean breeze blowing on them and enjoy themselves. You feel me?”

I smiled. “I feel you, girlfriend. Charity events and black ties don’t have to go hand in hand. We can make it anything we want it to be. I’m always only a phone call, Skype call, or email away, so don’t be afraid to contact me if you hit a snag or need PR changes. I’ll work with all my usual contacts for spreading the word. In fact, I was going to have the newspaper run an article the week beforehand, so I’ll make sure to update them on the addition of the pageant.”

She gave me the thumbs up and skipped from the room toward her husband’s office. If it weren’t for the fact that she looked so flipping happy I would be reading him the riot act already, but I wanted her out of earshot before that happened. I took several deep breaths and tried to center my yin with my yang, but neither of them wanted to be next to each other anymore than I wanted to be next to him. Okay, that’s a lie. I wanted to be next to him, but now that I’m being forced to be next to him, it’s so not cool.

“Grab your purse,” he said, closing the top of Slick.

I turned to him, my anger with him barely in check. “Why?” I asked and he handed the bag to me, coming around the desk and throwing his arm around my shoulder. “Because we have to go pick up those rings before we pack and fly outta here tomorrow. Guess we better grab some lunch, too, honey bunches.”

Oh, this was going to be a long day.

Chapter Six

I was trying not to fume as we stood in the middle of Na Hoku Jewelers, looking at wedding rings. When we left the hotel, we climbed onto the shuttle bus for the ride into town, rather than using his car. He knew I wouldn’t be able to yell at him in public, and he was taking full advantage of it. When we arrived at the mall, I walked three steps ahead of him, my fists balled at my sides. Now that we were in the small store, I had my PR smile on, even though I still didn’t know how to react to any of this. I can’t say for certain that I felt angry as much as I felt hurt by his disregard for my feelings. Not that he would know what my feelings are about him, but he should have been able to guess that dragging me into this charade without prior knowledge might make me a little upset.

I trailed behind him as he looked through the opulent cases filled with jewels of all kinds. I saw traditional Hawaiian bracelets and rings, nontraditional wedding bands, and necklaces of every shape and kind. The whole time we wandered up and down the length of each case, he held my hand in his, behind his back. After pausing long enough to glance at a few of the price tags on the baubles, I pulled back on his hand until he stopped, and turned around.

“Why can’t we just go to Wal-Mart?” I whisper asked. “First of all, we aren’t married!” I hissed and his eyes gleamed with something that looked suspiciously like laughter. “Second of all, we’re not buying expensive rings for a fake marriage! Did you think this out at all before you opened your big mouth?”

He shook his head and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear that jiggled loose with my fury. “It will all work out, honey bunches.”

“Stop calling me that,” I demanded, stomping my foot for emphasis. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

“Remember that time in your apartment a few months ago…” I held my hand up to stop him from finishing his thought.

“Never mind. Let’s get out of here. There’s no way we’re paying more than twenty bucks for a ring.”

His brows went up at my words. “I can’t put a cheap ring on your finger; Katie will see through it in less than five seconds.”

I planted my hand on my hip. “I won’t show it to her,” I said through clenched teeth. “Besides, they make some rings now that look pretty darn real to the casual observer, and we are leaving town for two weeks.”

“Aloha. Can I help you find something today?”

We both turned to a salesclerk who stood in front of us dressed in a fancy suit. “Aloha,” we both answered in kind. I was even annoyed that I had to say aloha to everyone today.

Maltrand shook the man’s hand then spoke. “We’re looking for wedding bands, or rings, but we need something that will fit us now, because we’re leaving town and getting married somewhere else.”

I seethed inside. This guy can make up lies like no one I’ve ever met. Doesn’t he realize he’s playing with people’s lives here?

“I’m confident we can find something that will fit,” the suited man said. “Are you looking for traditional or symbolic?”

We both stared at him, not knowing what to say. He chuckled and walked toward a display case. We followed behind him like ducks in a row, waiting for him to pull something out from under the glass.

He set a grouping of rings down on the case. “These are traditional,” he held up a finger and went to another case, bringing back a different grouping of rings, nestled in black velvet. “These are symbolic.”

We both stared at them as though they were apparitions. I kept waiting for them to disappear, but when they didn’t, I nixed the traditional ones immediately. They were too expensive, besides the symbolic ones were more my style. Apparently, Mr. I.T. liked them too, because he picked one up and slipped it on his ring finger. “I really like this one. Is it Koa wood inlay?”

The Suit nodded. “It is. You’re familiar with it?”

He took the band off and set it back in the velvet box. “I wouldn’t be a native Hawaiian if I wasn’t.” They both chuckled as if they were comedians on Comedy Central. “My last name is Kekoa actually, therefore koa wood has always been held in high regard in my family.”

“Sounds like the perfect rings for you then.” He turned to me. “Do you see anything you like?”

I froze a little and had to clear my throat before I could speak. I pointed at a thinner version of the one Mr. I.T. had tried on. “These are lovely.” I smiled as though that was answer enough.

“There’s no diamond in these, though. Are you okay with that?” my ‘husband’ asked, without looking at me. He probably couldn’t look at me because he wouldn’t be able to keep from laughing. Like it matters what I’m ‘okay with’ at this point.

The salesman held up a finger. “Oh, I may have the perfect set. I only have one, though, so I can’t say for sure it will fit.” He busied himself putting the two ring groupings back in the cases while I shot daggers at Mr. I.T. After he locked the cases, and the keychain was around his wrist again, he motioned us toward a different counter. He pulled out a smaller black velvet board and set it on the case. Nestled in the center sat matching bands, only there was a diamond in the center of the thinner one.

He held up the woman’s ring and the small diamond glistened in the lights. “We got this set in to use as a promotion, but I’ll happily sell it to you if you like it. Here, try it on.” He thrust the ring at me and I swallowed hard, raising one hand to reach for it. Maltrand’s hand darted in front of mine and took it, turning to me and winking, then slipping it on my ring finger. It twirled around a little, but didn’t fall off.

“Not a perfect fit, but you could bring it back for sizing after the wedding if you’d like,” the not so helpful, helpful Suit said.

“Let’s see if the other band fits me,” Maltrand suggested, picking it up and slipping it on his finger. His fit better than mine, and stayed perfectly placed on his finger.

He raised one brow at me as if to say try and argue with me, while he spoke to the salesman. I finally noticed his nametag, which said George.

“If the lady likes, we’ll take them,” Mr. I.T. said. They both looked at me expectantly and I forced a smile to my face.

“It’s beautiful. I don’t think it will fall off,” I said, holding my left hand over my right palm trying to shake the ring off my finger. It held tight to the knuckle and I let out a sigh.

My ‘husband’ had the audacity to grin when I pulled it off and handed it to him. “We’ll take them.”

They stepped away to take care of payment and I lowered myself to a chair near one of the cases. Holy hell, why don’t I stop this insanity now? The only person who knows is Katie, after all. Well, probably Katie, Gideon, and Winifred by now, but things were still salvageable. I had no idea why he told Katie we’re married. I felt like I was in the twilight zone somewhere as I watched him swiping his credit card to the tune of seven hundred dollars for rings we weren’t going to wear. Has he gone mad? At least if I don’t get the ring sized he can resell them and get most of his money back when this whole plan falls apart around our ears.

I snorted to myself when a thought skittered through my mind. He probably expects me to fall in love with him and keep the band on forever. Not happening, buddy. I’ve been in lust with you for a year already and I can’t say I’m liking it all that much. I dropped my head into my hands and squeezed my temples. This is like a bad romance novel where the couple pretends to be married and then voilà they fall in love and the happy bridal song plays at the end as the couple dances on the beach barefoot. While romantic, our ‘love story’, had no happily ever after.

I felt his presence in front of me and looked up. He was wearing a smile that went all the way to his eyes. He held the bag up. “We’re all set. Let’s go get some lunch.”

“I lost my appetite,” I groaned when he took my hand and led me from the store.

He didn’t say anything, just pulled me along back to the entrance near Macy’s where the shuttle would pick us up. I was ready to lay into him when it came around the corner, effectively cutting off my avenue to getting my questions answered, again.

Mr. I.T.

I felt like I was dragging around an angry bear. I knew this was the case because she growled every so often as a reminder she wasn’t happy. By the time we left the jewelers, it was downright comical. In order to poke the bear a little more, I made her ride the bus back to the hotel while I held her hand and made puppy dog eyes at her. I pulled her close to my waist as we walked in the front door of the hotel, not hiding the ring bag I carried in my right hand.

“Aloha, newlyweds,” Aaron called from the reception desk.

I heard another growl as I raised the bag in acknowledgement. We waited patiently for the elevator. Actually, I waited patiently and she stared at the floor, growling in the back of her throat every so often. It was a sound less like a bear and more like a rabid dog. When the doors opened, I saw we wouldn’t be riding alone, and that was okay by me. I smiled at the guests in the elevator and hit the button for the top floor, enjoying the look of torture on her face at having to stop on nearly every floor to let guests off before we reached ours. Don’t get me wrong, she had a smile on her face, but it was as fake as the boobs on the woman we dropped off on the third floor. When the car finally dinged its announcement to our destination, we stepped off in tandem and stood in front of our apartment doors.

“Your place or mine?” I asked, unable to keep the humor from my voice.

She wrenched her hand from mine, swiped her card across her door and shoved it open. I stuck my foot in it right before she tried to slam it on my nose. I pushed it open as she threw her hands up in the air and tossed her purse on the counter, whatever she kept inside the small bag making a loud thunk when it landed. I set the ring bag next to it and dug for hers, pulling it from the cute little box and turning to her. She was sitting on her bed, staring at the floor. I had to cover my gasp for air at seeing her bed with a cough. I wasn’t prepared to be in her space with her sober. The last time I helped her into her apartment she was three sheets to the wind and I never got past the living room. It felt much more personal, private, and oddly romantic this afternoon.

I knelt in front of her and picked up her left hand, sliding the band onto her finger. “With this ring,” I started to say and she shoved me backward, my arms flailing as I grasped for anything to break my fall. Thankfully, my butt touched the floor quickly and I dropped my hands to steady myself.

“I don’t want your damn ring!” she exclaimed taking it off her finger and throwing it at me. “I want you to explain to me just what in the hell you think you’re doing!”

“Shhh, Ellie, calm down. Someone will hear you.”

“Oh, sure, now I’m Ellie,” she whisper-seethed. “What happened to honey bunches, snookums pie?”

I couldn’t help it; I snorted. I take full responsibility for it. I love when she gets worked up, and, no one had ever called me snookums pie before. I sat on the floor clutching the ring in one hand and watched her break into a fit of giggles she couldn’t control. I joined her, letting the tension out of my chest and shoulders. I crawled over to her on my knees and put my arms around her in a friendly hug, but she immediately pushed me away.

“Don’t touch me,” she said, but the words only seemed to make her laugh harder.

I stood and went to the fridge, opening it up to find a cool drink, surprised when I found more than a little bit of wine in the appliance. I also found two cans of Sprite hiding in the back, so I grabbed them and brought her one. She ran the cold can across her forehead before snapping it open. She took a long drink from the can and lowered it slowly to her lap.

“I’m sorry,” she said, then seemed to think better of it. “No, I’m not. I don’t have to be sorry. You have to be sorry.”

I held up my hands and nodded. “You definitely don’t have to apologize. This situation is all on me.”

“What were you thinking? Married? Did aliens take over your brain?”

I sat next to her on the bed. “It seemed like a good idea for the three seconds I thought about it. If we’re married we can’t be part of a dating game, but then I thought, ‘What if she wants to be part of a dating game?’, but it was too late by then. I couldn’t tell Katie I was just kidding about the marriage.”

She shook her head laughing. It was great to hear her laughter instead of angry snarling. I would take it, for now. “I don’t want to be part of it. However, I’m certain we could have come up with a better way to get out of it than saying we got married and have been having a secret love affair.”