The Billionaire’s Fake Bride: (Crystal Beach Resort Standalone Series: Book 2)

by Hart, Hanna

  Everything was perfect now. Today was the day, he decided. Today he would tell her how he felt.

  Soon, the sun began to set, and he could think of no better time to speak his mind. The sun hit the water so perfectly; the whole ocean looked like it had been dipped in honey.

  Cooper watched Grace from across the deck and saw the way the salty breeze washed over her and sent her hair into a tornado of curls.

  “Grace,” he said. His voice was loud enough to cut through the wind, and she turned around to give him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen before.

  “I’m in love with you,” he said.

  She blinked and replied with a simple, “Oh.”

  It wasn’t his favorite response to the sentiment. In fact, it wasn’t a reaction he’d ever had before to such a declaration.

  He smirked nervously at her word and patiently waited, but nothing came. He swallowed a gulp of air and asked, “Do… you love me?”

  Grace blinked in surprise, and her cheeks lit up with a coral hue. Finally, she nodded. “I love you, too,” she said with a wide grin.

  Cooper breathed out an audible sigh of relief and pressed his eyes shut. He ran to Grace and scooped her up by the waist, spinning her around in excitement.

  “When the thirty days are up, I want you to stay with me,” he said with a smile. “I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for you and I don’t want to spend another day without you.”

  Grace’s enthusiasm faded quickly at his professed love, and he needled his brows together, setting her back on solid ground. “What is it?”

  “I uh…” she stammered. Her voice was full of nerves, but she looked at him with love.

  “What, Grace?” he said, smiling. “Don’t you want to see where things go?”

  “I do,” she said. “But…”

  His stomach sank again. He had watched a younger man walk up to Grace the other day and glanced on as they had an animated conversation.

  It was Shane, he knew.

  Grace didn't say as much, but he could tell from the atmosphere they created around their words that he had been watching two people who had once been in love.

  Their exchange didn't last long, but it was enough for Cooper to wander the rest of the day with a pit of darkness growing in his body.

  Cooper and Grace had spent the night together after that. They stayed up until the early hours of the morning watching a five-part mystery series and just when he was about to head back to his room to catch some much-needed rest, she asked if he wanted to come and watch the sunrise with her on the beach.

  He waited for her to bring the conversation up, but she never did. In turn, she looked like she was waiting for him to ask about it, but he couldn't bring himself to form the words.

  He didn't want to hear that she and Shane Gallagher were getting back together.

  “I want to be with you, and I think you want to be with me, too,” he said evenly. “Something is holding you back, and I think we both know who he is.”

  Grace drew her brows together in offense and snapped, “Who, Shane?”

  “Of course, Shane!” he scoffed. “Don’t take this personally, Grace, but you need to get rid of your baggage.”

  Grace’s blue eyes went impossibly wide, and she snapped back, “And I’m not supposed to take that personally?”

  “I got rid of mine!”

  “Well you shouldn’t have done that for my benefit,” Grace snapped back at him.

  “I didn’t! I did it for my benefit. I needed her out of my life. As far as I was concerned, she was taking up space in my heart that I now see was meant for you. I’m just not sure you feel the same way about me.”

  Grace swallowed and looked somewhere halfway between panicked and angry.

  “Cooper, of course, I do!” she reasoned.

  “But something’s holding you back?” he asked.

  Grace rolled her eyes. “And you think it’s Shane?” she asked back.

  “If not Shane, then what?” he asked and suddenly grew nervous. His palms began to sweat, and he could feel his whole body go cold under the breeze.

  Grace stayed silent. She sloped her shoulders, and he could see her tongue grazing her gums nervously.

  “You’re holding back from me, and I don’t know why,” he said, pleading with her.

  “I’m not in love with Shane,” she said in a quick but firm tone.

  “Then what is it?” he practically begged. Everything between them was so perfect, and he couldn’t begin to understand why, if she loved him, she didn’t want to pursue something real together.

  “Because as far as I can see,” Cooper continued, “there's nothing in the world that could stop me from being with you. Grace, when I'm around you, I feel like myself. I feel like I’m more than a name or a business or a son, even. I'm someone who can make you smile, and your smile Grace—”

  “—It’s about money,” Grace interrupted bashfully.

  Cooper felt his mouth go dry.

  “Money?” he repeated.

  Grace shrugged and brushed her hand up against her left arm. “I can’t believe you’re going to make me say this,” she exhaled in an exhausted frustration. “The contract says that after thirty days…”

  “You get a million dollars,” he finished.

  “Right,” she nodded, “But if I stay here with you…”

  Cooper’s heart sank. “Then you get nothing,” he said.

  “Right. And Shane told me the apartment is gone. That means once this is over, I’m basically homeless.”

  “We'll give you another staff apartment, or you'll get an apartment on the mainland and ferry out,” he said with a whispered laugh. “Or you'll stay here with me! What's the difference?”

  Grace’s eyes filled with tears suddenly and she began blinking quicker than normal, trying to rid herself of the emotions that threatened to spill.

  “And what about after that?” she said, lip quivering. “What about my debts?”

  “Money isn't a worry, Grace!” he smiled.

  “For you! For you, it isn't. But for me? I need this. This could mean an entirely different life for me.”

  “I will take care of you,” Cooper said, reaching for her hand. “I want to.”

  “I know you do,” she said quietly. “But what happens if we don't work out?”

  Cooper felt a choke in his throat then. He lowered his brows, and finally it all clicked together.

  “You don’t think we’re going to work out?” he asked and couldn’t hide the hurt in his voice.

  “I’m not saying that,” she defended, “I’m asking what happens if we don’t?”

  He wasn’t sure what to say to that. It wasn’t something he ever thought about. Yet, for the first time in his life, money was finally a problem for Cooper Grant.

  There was an irony to this that Cooper refused to appreciate.

  His whole life, money was no object to him. He wasn't lazy, and he wasn't a trust-fund snob. He used the money he had to get an education and to better his family's business. He liked his job, and he was good at it. All of his family's fortune couldn't stop him from going after bigger and better ventures for the island.

  And then there was Grace, who had always struggled with money. Her father was poor. She lived in a cottage boathouse and watched her mother suffer through addiction.

  Grace told Cooper that when she got a job at Crystal Beach, it officially made her the highest paid person in her entire extended family. And even that was a stretch for her, considering the immense sum of money it cost for her to live on the island.

  The temptation of a million dollars was now keeping Grace at arm’s length.

  All this time he thought it was an emotional attachment. Now he almost wished that were true.

  Grace feared they would break up.

  Cooper never believed at love at first sight. He still didn't. But second or third sight?

  Yeah, he was beginning to be a believer.

  After only a
few days with Grace, he knew he didn’t want to go anywhere without her. And this was why them not working out was something he had never entertained. Never even considered before.

  “But, what if we don’t?” he argued.

  Grace shrugged and said, “But what if we do? Cooper, I can’t afford to take that risk.”

  "Please don't say that," he pleaded, "Please, Grace. I'll give you anything you want. You want money? I can get you as much as you need."

  "I don't want that," she said, almost forcefully, "I earned this. It was contracted to me, and it’s a payment I’ll get fairly. I don’t want to be someone’s charity case. Please try and understand that.”

  "Grace, if you think that I'm going to hurt you or that... or that you're not good enough because of where you come from," he trailed off, but he could see he'd struck a nerve with her. Her tears finally spilled in one fluid motion. It was a solemn cry that she quickly wiped away, but it stung him nonetheless.

  From the beginning, Grace had been self-conscious about her social standing. At first, he thought it was just her bruised ego talking from after her wedding disaster. But now he could see the truth. The comments about not deserving the over-the-water bungalow, saying being spoiled made her feel guilty, arguing with him about Addison.

  Could it be that she didn’t feel good enough to be with him? That the line that was drawn in the sand, their class distinction, had nothing to do with him?

  It was all Grace.

  “If I’m with you, I will never feel good enough,” she said.

  “Grace, I couldn’t care if you had one dollar or a million. A trillion! All I want is to be with you.”

  Grace shook her head. “I need to get my life together. I need this. Please, I’m asking you to understand that, okay?”

  Cooper bit back. What could he say?

  “Of course,” he said.

  He left the deck after that and said he needed to go back to the office. She didn’t follow him, and he didn’t expect her to. All this time, with all of Grace’s hesitations, Cooper had given her space. He never wanted her to feel uncomfortable or wary or forced to fall for him. He wanted her to be at ease and have a good time with him.

  But he couldn’t pretend things were fine tonight.

  He headed into the office and stayed there until it was so late he could barely keep his eyes open. Once he knew Grace would be asleep, he drove back to the apartment.

  Once inside, he made his way to his room and locked the door behind him.

  He laid sideways on the bed and wondered how he had ended up here again. Why did Grace kiss him if she had no intention of being with him? Why reciprocate his love for her if she didn’t truly want to be together?

  The heartbreak was familiar, but it seemed more painful this time than it ever had before and he kept wondering how a declaration of love could leave him feeling so empty.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Grace

  Grace awoke with a gasp.

  She launched herself over in the bed and picked her cell phone up off the ground. It was almost noon.

  She’d overslept.

  How could this happen?

  She vaulted out of bed and ran to her closet, pulling out the outfit she had specially prepared for the day. The regatta.

  The regatta was to start at noon and last for at least two hours.

  After her conversation with Cooper, she had spent most of the night crying, as evident by the puffy bags under her eyes. She examined them in the mirror with a wince and shook her head.

  Grace Stevens loved Cooper Grant. There was no question about it. She had fallen hard for him and agonized over their conversation with great pain in her heart. And even now, with just a few precious hours left as Cooper’s live-in wife, she couldn’t decide if she’d made the wrong decision or not.

  She needed the money. With no home and a pile of debt, every time she allowed herself to imagine how wonderful it would be to let herself be in love with Cooper, the dread of money would come flooding back into view.

  With a million dollars, she wouldn’t have to work if she didn’t want to. She could have enough money to start her own event-planning business. She could settle her debts. She could buy her parents a house.

  Money was fleeting. Love would come again.

  But could she find a love like Coopers again? She didn’t know if that was replaceable.

  How could she gamble on Cooper staying in love with her? How could she reason that someone as kind and sweet and amazing would want to be with someone like her forever?

  Especially when she’d already believed the man of her dreams truly loved her, only to have the world fall out from underneath her.

  It was just too much money to pass up for a relationship that wasn’t a sure thing.

  But then, why did her chest feel so tight whenever she thought about leaving?

  Grace wandered through the empty apartment searching for Cooper, only to find he'd already left for the marina without her. There was a written note on the kitchen island addressed to her.

  Wife,

  Spending the last thirty days with you saved me. Before you, I lost my passion. My heart. My life. And then you brought them all back to me.

  I hope you understand why I’ll be entering the regatta alone [don’t feel bad. You weren’t that good a deckhand ;) ha-ha]

  Whatever you do is going to be legendary.

  Thanks for letting me love you, Grace.

  Your husband.

  Grace re-read the letter several times as tears spilled from her eyes.

  Underneath the note was a check for one million dollars in her name. She took a deep swallow and stared down at the amount, written in a quick chicken-scratch writing she knew to be Cooper’s.

  He would enter the regatta without her.

  She was holding a check for a million dollars in her hand, and all she could think about was Cooper entering the regatta without her.

  They had promised to make this their favorite memory ever, and she blew it.

  Suddenly, she was overcome with anxiety. Did she really blow it? Was this really the end of them? After all they’d been through?

  She should have been the happiest girl in the world, but all she wanted to do was be near him again.

  What started out as a business arrangement between her and Cooper had turned into something real. Her engagement to Shane—that was the true sham. The relationship she had with Cooper was more like a marriage than her entire relationship with Shane ever was.

  Cooper wasn't afraid to talk to her, and in turn, she wasn't afraid to tell him when something was wrong. They could talk to each other. She loved him.

  Then her stomach sank.

  "Oh no," she breathed. "What am I doing?"

  Grace dropped the check onto the kitchen island, ran for her purse and went for the door. Then she stopped, bit her lip, and ran back into the kitchen.

  She picked the check up and held it between both her hands. She took a long look at it, sipped in a deep breath, and then ripped it in half.

  "So that I can't change my mind," she said to herself. Then she was out the door.

  She had to make it to the regatta.

  The marina wasn’t far from Cooper’s extravagant condo, and she’d made it to the docks with mere moments to spare before the race began.

  She could see Cooper on the deck of his boat, pulling away from shore to reach the start line. He looked absolutely perfect.

  Grace began running toward him, hoping to catch his eye, only to be stopped by a bulky security guard.

  “Ma’am,” the guard said in a nasal drawl, “The marina is closed for anyone who isn’t entering the regatta.”

  “I’m on the list! I’m on the list!” she yelled and pointed wildly at Cooper’s boat. “I’m with him!”

  “Name?” the guard said, and Grace sighed inwardly. She was just feet away from the dock. If she could just reach him.

  “Ma’am?” the worker repeated, and she shook her
head.

  “It’s not going to be on there,” she said in frustration. “He probably took me off, we… we got in a fight.”

  “Ma’am I’m going to have to ask you to step aside. Even if you are on the list, the boat is too far away from the docks now. Your partner will have to enter alone.”

  Grace's heart sank as she watched Cooper's boat launching away from shore, just inches away from the loading dock. She thought about screaming for Cooper and getting his attention. She could imagine the way he might race back to shore to collect her. Then she remembered the story of Brielle and her kiss—the way she forced Cooper to forgo first place just to prove his love for her.

  There was no way Grace was going to be that girl.

  She bit her lip and looked at the crewman. The man narrowed his gaze like he knew instinctively what she might try. With a hard push, Grace ran past the crewman and down the docks until she reached the end. She ran as fast as she could and jumped for the edge of Cooper's boat

  And she got on.

  Slamming her body into the side of the vessel, she pulled herself over onto deck, bumping her leg as she landed.

  "What are you doing?" Cooper said with such a shock that he nearly laughed out loud.

  "I couldn't let you leave," she said desperately, almost starting to cry. "I'm sorry, I was wrong."

  "You could have hurt yourself!" he insisted, holding onto the wheel by a thread, wanting to get closer to her.

  Grace made her way over to him and ignored the pain in her leg from her graceless landing. "I was afraid."

  "I know," he said softly.

  "I was stupid," she cried.

  Cooper smirked but said nothing.

  "It's okay, you can say it," she laughed through her tears.

  "You were stupid," he chuckled. "But, I'm scared too. You know that, right?"

  She blinked. "You are?"

  Cooper ran a hand through her hair and said, "Of course. But you're the only thing that makes sense to me."

  "I ripped the check," she said.

  "You...?" Cooper trailed off. "I can write you another one."

  Grace shook her head vehemently. "No! I don't want that. Cooper, this is the strongest connection I've ever felt to anyone in my whole entire life. You could throw all the money in the world at me right now and it wouldn't make a difference. I want you, I want you, I want you," she said, pressing her face into his chest.