Surrogate and Wife (5 page)

He must have heard the pure horror in her voice, because he said, “Hey, it's not like I'd take you to the Bates Motel or anything. I was thinking something more along the lines of a B&B in Fredericksburg. Just for a night or two.”

Right. A couple of nights in one of the most charming historic towns in Texas? She'd prefer the Bates Motel.

“No,” she said firmly. “We're not going anywhere.”

“But—”

“We're going to spend the weekend moving your stuff into my place like we discussed. We can tell people we're planning a big trip in the fall, if you want.”

Before he could protest further, she said good-night and ended the call.

“I
can't believe you're doing this.”

Beth sat in the spare chair in Kate's office. Her normally serene features were twisted into a frown, just as her hands were twisted into fretful knots where they lay on her lap.

Kate squelched her nerves and forced her attention back to her computer screen and the open document she'd been reading when Beth arrived at the courthouse a full hour early for the wedding.

“I know,” Kate said, hoping to placate her sister's nerves. “I can hardly believe it myself.”

“The thing is, Stew and I…” The tension in her voice drew Kate's gaze back to her. “Well, we never meant for this to happen. I mean, we knew we were asking a lot, but…”

With a sigh, Kate finally gave up on getting any more work done and closed the document on the screen. She
rounded her desk to stand by Beth's chair. “I know you didn't. No one could have predicted things would turn out like this.”

Beth looked up at her and Kate was surprised to see her sister's eyes brimming with tears. At the sight, the tension that had been building inside Kate over the past two weeks began to seep away.

“Hey.” She leaned down and rubbed Beth's arm. “There's no need for tears. Everything's going to be fine.”

Beth stood and clutched Kate's hands. “So you don't hate us?”

Kate hadn't realized it, but until that instant, she had been harboring some resentment.

Not for having to marry Jake. No, she blamed only herself for not realizing sooner the threat Hatcher posed to her career. But she did resent Beth because being pregnant had made Kate realize all that was missing from her life. Made her yearn for things she couldn't have, but that Beth could. But faced with Beth's obvious remorse, that, too, disappeared. “No,” she reassured. “I don't hate you. How could I?”

“Because you…” Beth's voice broke. “You have to marry Jake. You hate Jake,” she finished with a wail.

Even though there was nothing at all funny about the situation, Kate couldn't help chuckling. “I don't hate Jake.” She glanced at the door to her office, verifying—again—that it was firmly closed.

“You were right about him, you know?” Kate admitted. “Jake is a really good guy.”

More and more, Kate was realizing just how distorted her initial impression of Jake had been. When they first met at Beth and Stew's rehearsal dinner, she'd been put off by Jake's charm and good looks. She'd assumed they were all he had going for him. Funny, how
wrong she'd been, when she was usually such a good judge of character. She couldn't think of any other man—not even Stew—who would marry a virtual stranger under such circumstances.

Beth smiled weakly. “He is a good guy, isn't he?”

“Absolutely. So you don't need to worry at all. Everything is going to turn out just fine.” Kate smiled gamely and hoped it hid her own nerves. Despite her reassurances to Beth, she wasn't at all sure that everything would be anywhere near fine.

Beth must not have sensed any of the doubts plaguing Kate, because she offered a wobbly smile of her own.

“I brought you something. For the ceremony.” She held up a brown paper shopping bag from her store the Health Nut. “I was hoping you'd wear it.”

Kate felt a wave of sinking dread. “Oh, Beth…”

“I know you don't think of this as a real ceremony, but you should still have something nice to wear,” Beth said in a rush. “It's not fancy. Not a real wedding dress or anything.” She laughed nervously. “Not even I would bring you a real wedding dress in a grocery sack.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I'm okay wearing what I have on.”

“Please, Kate,” Beth all but pleaded. “Let me do this. You never let me do anything nice for you.”

“It's really not necessary.”

“But I still hope you'll wear it. It would mean a lot to me.”

Reluctantly Kate took the bag from her sister and pulled out the dress inside. It was a simple, cream-colored dress that would fall nearly to her ankles, with short cap sleeves and lace around the deep, heart-shaped neckline. Very feminine. Definitely the kind of thing she'd wear only to mollify her sister.

“I know it's not what you would usually wear,” Beth began before Kate could protest. “But it matched the shawl.”

With a sense of resignation, Kate reached back into the bag. She knew what she would find before her hand even touched it.

The delicate lace shawl that Beth had worn with her own wedding dress. The shawl that Stella—their adoptive mother—had worn with hers.

Shaking her head, she tried to hand the heirloom back to Beth. “I can't accept this.”

But Beth refused to take the shawl, pressing it back into Kate's hands. “Stella would have wanted you to wear it.”

No, Stella had wanted Beth to have it.

Kate and Stella had rarely gotten along during the nine years Kate lived with Stella and Dave—the adoptive parents that Beth adored and Kate could barely stand.

Before Kate could log any more protests, Beth squeezed her hand and said, “Please, do it for me. This way I'll know you've forgiven us.”

How in the world was she supposed to say no to that?

“Besides,” Beth added with a grin, “you can't wear what you have on. You look like a waiter.”

Kate looked down at her outfit of wide-legged black crepe pants and tailored white shirt. “A waiter?”

So she caved. As she usually did when Beth looked at her with those big sad eyes. Funny, Beth was the older sister, yet Kate had always felt like the tough one. The one in control. The one who got things done and held things together.

Because she'd always been the tough one, she'd never been able to stand seeing Beth upset. Which—she admitted to herself as she was changing into the cream
dress in the bathroom of the courthouse annex—was what had gotten her in this situation in the first place.

Just before sending Kate off to the bathroom to change, Beth had whipped out a brush and sparkly hair clip. She'd twisted and smoothed until Kate's scalp ached, forcing the black waves into some semblance of a style. Now, Kate smoothed the dress over her hips and eyed herself critically in the mirror. She was now fifteen weeks pregnant. The fabric clung a little snugly across her belly, but not noticeably so.

Never in a million years would she have picked this dress for herself. It was too frilly. Too girly. Exactly the kind of thing she thought she looked ridiculous in.

Kate looked longingly at her folded pants and shirt. Maybe she had resembled a waiter, but at least she'd looked like herself.

Now she looked like freakin' Snow White.

As she and Beth walked across the park to the main courthouse, she half expected birds and little woodland creatures to scurry to her side, chirping music.

Just outside the J.P.'s office, Kevin caught up with them.

“I'm sorry I'm la—” He cut himself off as he looked at Kate. “Whoa.”

She glared back. “You're not late. And don't you dare say anything about how I'm dressed.”

He held up his hands. “I was going to say you look great.” He caught Beth's eye as he leaned in to brush a kiss hello on Kate's cheek. “This your idea?”

Beth smiled. “Absolutely.”

He smiled. “I heartily approve.”

Kate narrowed her gaze. “You are worthless as a best friend. First you're late and now this?”

She reached for the handle of the door to the J.P.'s office, but Beth plastered herself against the solid wood.

“Hold on, you can't go in there.”

“What? Why not?”

Beth clucked disapprovingly. “Because they might not be ready for you. You can't go in until they are, otherwise the groom will see you before the wedding and that will be bad luck.” Beth cracked open the door and peeked inside. “Jake and Stew are already inside. I'll just check on things.”

Kate opened her mouth to protest, but snapped it closed when Kevin caught her eye.

In front of him, she couldn't point out that it hardly mattered if Jake saw her before he wedding, because this wasn't a real wedding. So she kept her mouth shut, fumed silently and tried to ignore the satisfied smile Kevin was bestowing on her.

After several moments, she gave in to her curiosity and demanded, “What?”

“What?” he parroted.

“You're looking entirely too smug. Why?”

“I don't know what you mean.” He smiled innocently.

“I hope you don't have anything silly planned because—”

Before she could finish with her threat to make his life miserable, Beth opened the door to the J.P.'s office, revealing exactly why Kevin looked so smug.

Kate had expected to see five people at most inside Judge Walthen's chambers. Instead, dozens of people were crammed into the already small room. Judge Walthen stood behind his desk, which had been cleared to make room for several large vases of day lilies. Her favorite. To Walthen's left, stood Jake—looking so breathtakingly handsome that he…well, he took her breath away.

She hadn't seen Jake in a suit since Beth and Stew's wedding. The crisp white shirt showed off the tanned
column of his throat. And his broad shoulders did things for a suit jacket that should be illegal.

But it was his expression that stopped her in her tracks. As he turned to face her, the cocky grin he usually wore faded, replaced by delight as he studied her.

She couldn't help feeling a bubble of feminine pleasure at the appreciative gleam in his eyes. For a second he looked almost like a man in love.

Then he ruined the effect by flashing her a grin accompanied by a quick wink.

And just like that, the bubble of pleasure she'd felt popped.

To him this was all a joke. To her, it was little more than an obligation. A trial to be endured. Not a celebration.

As for the friends who had shown up for the wedding…she was deceiving them. And she'd continue to deceive them for as long as it took to keep her job.

Suddenly it felt right that Beth had forced her into this frilly dress and heirloom shawl. It was the perfect costume for this farce. She was little more than an actress who'd wandered onto stage during a play. Except she didn't know which play she was in and she certainly didn't know any of her lines.

Nevertheless, she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, and by the time she reached Jake's side, her uncertainty had crystallized into anger. This was all his fault.

The flowers, the guests—none of this could have been done without his knowledge. Surely he could have guessed she wouldn't have wanted any of this.

He leaned over to brush a kiss against her cheek and whispered, “Smile. No one will buy this if you keep looking like you want to kill me.”

He pulled back and took her hand in his. Knowing he
was right, she plastered a smile onto her lips that she hoped passed for either “nervous bride” or “dopey romantic.”

She could kill him later.

 

“I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

Kate's hand felt clammy in his. At least, she no longer looked ready to faint. Or strangle him.

Her expression remained strained, but most people would probably write that off as nerves. Which would be normal, under the circumstances. He didn't know how men did this for real. Hell, he'd been a nervous wreck all day.

Except for the moment when he'd turned to see Kate standing in the doorway. In that instant everything felt right. Alarmingly so.

But he'd shoved the sensation aside. Just as he'd done with the well of emotion he felt while sliding the simple platinum wedding band onto her finger.

Whatever he'd felt, surely it wasn't pleasure. Pride, maybe, in living up to his responsibilities. Doing the right thing.

Satisfied that he'd pigeonholed his feelings, he returned his attention to the judge just in time to hear the words, “You may now kiss the bride.”

A glance in the direction of the audience revealed a sea of expectant faces. Kate, on the other hand, looked as if she was wavering between feeling faint and wanting to stomp on his foot with the heel of her shoe.

But whether she liked it or not, he had to kiss her.

For a second he merely stared down into her wide brown eyes. Her lips were parted slightly and moist, because she'd licked them nervously during the ceremony.

Kissing Kate would be no hardship.

Part of him had been thinking about this moment ever
since he'd first agreed to marry her—maybe longer. His first kiss with Kate.

Maybe his only kiss with her.

He felt a surge of anticipation mixed with determination. If this was going to be their only kiss, then he was going to make it count. Why the hell not? She already wanted to kill him anyway.

So he wrapped one arm around her shoulders to pull her toward him and with the other hand he tilted up her chin in the instant before his lips came to rest on hers, he caught a ‘Don't you dare' expression in her eyes. But he did dare.

Her mouth was soft and pliant beneath his. From surprise, most likely. Because as soon as she realized he wasn't pulling away immediately, her lips stiffened and her hands pressed into his chest. She could easily have pushed him away if she'd really wanted to, but she never quite mustered the resistance.

At the feel of her lips beneath his, the taste of her on his mouth, desire sprung to life, pumping through his blood. He found himself aching to press her against his body, to deepen the kiss. He barely restrained himself from sweeping his tongue into her mouth.

But he did manage to finally pull back. He didn't want her like this—kissing him because she had to. He wanted her eager. Warm and pliant. Hell, he just wanted her.

He nearly cursed as he let her go. Because his new wife was the one woman he couldn't have.