by Vivian Wood
Geez, he’s gorgeous, too. Is being insanely hot a requirement for employment here? Stop it, Addy. You’re already married.
She shook her head and walked toward Philip.
“—get the splint started. Mr. Holton, if you’ll follow Nurse Bostian here, he’ll get the paperwork—Addy. Hi!” he said as he saw her approach.
His face lit up as the nurse ushered the father away. “It’s good to see you survived the wedding night.”
She could have sworn the blonde doctor shot her a look, but she wasn’t certain. After all, it seemed like the whole town had their eyes on her.
“Er, yeah—”
“Jack said you hadn’t got out of bed yet. He’ll be glad you’re up and about.”
“He did? He will? How did he …”
Philip looked at her oddly. “Uh, yeah. Everyone around here has been dying to meet the woman who ensnared Dr. Stratton. He’s a hot commodity, you know. Handsome young doctor, small town. Well, actually they weren’t dying since nobody really knows him around here. But then after he charmed them all with some stories from your wedding night, and bam! You hooked him, alright.”
“That’s me,” Addy said awkwardly. “I’m magic.”
The blonde stood up straight and squared off with Addy, though she kept a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Addy, you’ll be glad to meet someone from Jack’s past. This is Rosalie Crane. Rose, meet Mrs. Stratton! Also known as Addison.”
Before either woman could react, Philip reached out and gently pushed her toward Rosalie.
“Hi,” Addy said and held out a hand. “I’m, um … how do you know Jack again?”
“I’m Jack’s ex-girfriend,” Rosalie said with a frown. “We went to med school together.”
“Oh. Um…”
Jack entered the main room from the trauma area and pulled off a gown and mask. He stopped short at the sight of Rosalie and Addy side by side. Quickly, he made a beeline for Addy.
“Hey, the man of the hour! I was just telling these two—” Philip started, but fell silent when Jack grabbed Addy tight and bent her backward for a kiss.
“Ew!” Addy could hear the young boy say from somewhere behind her, but there was too much fire between them to stop.
“Please just go with it,” Jack whispered in her ear before he pulled her back up.
She was too shocked to say anything.
“You must have finally climbed out of our bed!” he exclaimed. “I was worried I’d worn you out permanently.”
She blushed and saw both Philip and Rosalie give him startled looks. Addy worked her face into something close to neutral, though she worried that her heart pounded so loudly the entire ER could hear it.
“Hey, where’s your ring?” Jack asked.
She bit her lip and dug it out of her pocket. Addy held it out like an offering, flat in her palm.
“I told you not to worry about damaging it, darling. People want to see it on you!”
Addy blinked and obediently put the ring on her finger. It was strange to have a virtual stranger do something so … personal. Command something so intimate.
Jack grabbed her hand and extended it out to Philip and Rosalie, along with a few nurses who had gathered around the commotion to see. Addy heard the oohs and aahs all around them, but it was Rosalie’s deadly gaze that held her attention. Rosalie blanched, then made an excuse and fled.
Addy felt like she’d done something hurtful to Rosalie, even though she’d only just met the woman.
“Hey! What about my leg?” the boy cried after Rosalie, and a nurse immediately began to tend to him.
Addy searched Jack’s eyes.
“Can I talk to you a minute? Privately?” she asked.
“Ooh!” one of the nurses said, and made kissing noises in their direction. “Stratton’s got dibs on christening the new break room, I think.”
Jack took her hand and led her to a private, curtained room that was empty. He perched on the small bed with paper sheets that crinkled beneath him. “What’s up?”
“What’s up? What happened to dealing with the legal stuff when we got back?”
“Well, hello to you too, love. That plan went out the window when I thought about it a bit.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
“I was working on this guy who came in with chest pains, and the idea struck me. We should stay married for a bit.”
She gaped at Jack, who smiled at her expression.
“Hear me out,” he said. “My mum has been breathing down my neck, wanting to partner me with some dimwitted blonde. In this deal, I get to say, “Sorry mum, I’ve been married, it’s all been arranged”. Which will both delight me, and relieve me of some of my mother’s expectations.”
“Okay but… where does that leave me?” she said, confused.
“You get to show your ex how wrong he was when he ignored you. I will make sure that he realizes what a mistake he’s made. This was your idea, after all!”
“Jack, I was drunk. We were both drunk. And besides, I meant that we should pretend to date, not get married!”
“Keep your voice down, people might hear.”
“Right. Anyway, we can probably annul—”
“No, no. We have to stay married for a while. I’m thinking … two, maybe three months.”
“What?” Addy crossed her arms over her chest and started to vehemently shake her head. “No. You’re crazy!”
“Just think of it! I’m not the only one getting something out of this little arrangement. Imagine how miserable we can make Jeremy. So much PDA in public… And my mum will look at pictures of us together, and get so angry…. I’m sure the vein she has in her forehead will pop out.”
He had her there. It was insane, but the damage was already done.
What difference does it make if we’re married two days or two months? An annulment is still an annulment.
“Okay, how about this?” Jack asked as he considered the frown on her face. “You stay married to me for two months, I take care of the annulment, and you don’t do anything.”
“Oh! I don’t know …”
“Addy, the hard part is done! We’re already married. All you have to do is stay married to me for two months. I promise it’s not that much of a hardship. I’m not that bad, alright?”
But if it sounds too good to be true…
Jack grinned at her. “C’mon. I’ll even help you move after my shift.”
“Help me … what? Move?”
“Well, yeah. If this is going to work, we have to look married. And married people live together. Unless you’d prefer I move in with you?”
A rush of panic flooded her. The idea of Jack even meeting her father was enough to put her in a tailspin. She couldn’t fathom telling her father she was married.
“No. Definitely not,” she said quickly. “We’ll, uh… we’ll move to your place.”
“Dr. Stratton?” A nurse popped her head into the makeshift room. “They need you in 2-C.”
“Alright, great,” he said as he swiftly switched to what she’d figured out was his “doctor voice.” Jack stood up and kissed Addy firmly on the lips. “I’ll call you when I get off work.”
The nurse rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
“Okay,” Addy said quietly. “Hey!” she called after him. “Wait! I need your number.”
Jack turned around and grinned. “It’s already in your phone. Don’t you remember?”
“My phone? No …”
“You were quite insistent that you would remember. You put me in as Dr. Hottie.”
Addy felt her face flush red. “Oh, God …”
“But I think you changed it on the wedding night. See you later, wifey.”
As Jack left, Addy pulled out her phone. There was nothing under Dr. Hottie, but there was a new recent contact. “Husband.”
Addy hung her head. I have no idea what I’m in for.
Chapter Five
Jack put Addy’s last box in the J
eep. He frowned down at the four boxes, and glanced at the additional two piled in the backseat of her car.
Either she lives a really disgustingly minimalistic life, or she’s not planning on keeping this up for long, he thought.
He crossed his arms and gazed up at the front porch of her house. Jack hadn’t known what to expect when she gave him the address. He still didn’t. She was adamant that he stay outside, and already had the six boxes neatly lined up on the front steps ready to go.
“What if I have to use the toilet?” he’d asked when he arrived and she physically blocked him from the stairs.
“Use the bushes!”
“Why? What are you hiding in there?”
“Nothing,” she’d stressed, and pushed one of the boxes into his hands.
From the outside, it looked like a typical, classic Tahoe house. Designed like a large cabin, it had plenty of rustic charm and a porch swing that could use a paint job.
“Big house for just three people,” he told her. “It looks like a bed and breakfast.”
“It wasn’t always just three people,” she’d muttered.
He’d backed off then, reminded that her mother was still a sore spot for her.
“What do you mean you’re moving? What’s gotten into you?” Her bewildered little sister, Kenzie, faced off against Addison on the porch. Kenzie’s eyes were wide.
“Who goes off and marries a total stranger? Especially you! You were always the responsible one, the planner. I look away for two seconds at the bar, and you’re halfway to Reno with someone who could totally be a serial killer for all we know. No offense,” she called down to Jack.
“None taken. I do know how to use a scalpel, after all.”
“Don’t worry about it, I know what I’m doing,” Addy hissed. “Did you get my email? Dad has to have the pills split into morning and evening doses, or they’re not effective. And the cleaners always come on the second Tuesday of the month, so don’t deadbolt the door on those days. Kenzie, are you listening? The whole house can’t fall apart just because—”
“Oh my God, yes, I get it, okay? And I got your freaking three-page checklist. Just… go have fun with your hot doctor husband, okay? Go bonk your brains out or whatever.” Kenzie gave a sudden laugh. “Maybe we’re more alike than I thought.”
“I wouldn’t take it that far,” Addy said, and Kenzie wrapped her arms around her.
“I’ll miss you,” Kenzie said, barely loud enough for Jack to hear.
“I’ll see you almost every day at the restaurant.”
“It’s not the same.”
Jack looked away. That kind of familiar affection made him nervous. It was foreign to him, and he felt like he’d stepped into something he wasn’t meant to see.
His family just didn’t do affection. He imagined what would happen if he hugged his mother the way that Kenzie has just hugged Addy. Distressed would be one way to put it, that was for sure.
He sat in the Jeep to wait out the goodbyes, and couldn’t help but think of his own family back in Melbourne. His own parents had never been in the same room as one another if they could help it. And after his dad died, his mother had seemed … almost relieved. He’d never attributed that word to it before, but that’s what it was. Like a weight had been lifted from her life.
“Ready?” Addy was at his window, a cautious smile on her face.
“I am. Are you?”
“I guess so. As ready as I’m going to be. This isn’t so strange, right?” she asked as she dropped her voice to a whisper. “I mean, in some countries, people get married and they’ve never even seen each other before.”
“Yeah. But I think a little more thought and preparation goes into arranged marriages compared to what we’re doing.”
He kept an eye in the rearview mirror as she followed him to his condo.
“This is where you live?” she asked, nervous. “This is where Jeremy lives.”
“Oh yeah? I think I’ve seen him around, now that you mention it. I had a pretty unpleasant run-in with him, and that was without the news of our marriage! Maybe it’ll be easier to make him jealous than I thought.”
She looked around as he picked up the two boxes from her car. She trailed him to the house.
“Well, this is it!” He pushed open the door with a flourish.
Addy wrinkled her nose and looked around. “Not much for decorating, huh? Or furniture?”
“I figured those could be some of your first wifely duties. Decorating and furniture shopping.”
“Ha ha,” she said, and took one of the boxes from him. “At least you got a couch. A new one. It still has the tag on it.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry ‘bout that,” he said. “It was just delivered a few days ago. Look around. I’d give you the grand tour, but that seems a bit formal.”
He grabbed a beer out of the fridge as he listened to her footsteps down the short hall.
“It’s just one bedroom,” she said, already done with the tour. She gave him an accusing look and opened her mouth, speech clearly prepared.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take the couch,” he said and held his hand up. “I washed the sheets on the bed and everything. It’s all yours, nice and clean.”
“Well. Okay,” she said.
Side by side, they went out to the cars to grab the next load of boxes, only to see Jeremy’s truck. It blocked in both their cars. Jeremy was en route to his own condo, but broke out with a laugh when he saw them.
“What’s so funny?” she asked. Jack hadn’t heard that kind of edge in her voice before. “Actually, never mind. I’m not surprised that you’d think marriage is a joke.”
“Marriage?” Jeremy asked, incredulous. He pulled down his sunglasses. “Yeah, good luck getting anybody to believe that bullshit. What, did the Aussie need a green card or something?”
“You—”
Before she could finish saying anything, Jack grabbed her and dipped her nearly to the ground. His lips met hers and even he was surprised by the magnetic pull between them. She let out a small gasp, and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue between her teeth. For a moment, he forgot where he was—or that it was all a ruse. She knotted her fist in his shirt and pulled him closer, afraid he might drop her, and the cuteness of it made his heart surge.
Finally, he pulled her back up and she let out another gasp for breath. Jeremy was silent before them, and Jack offered up a grin.
“Fuck off,” Jeremy said with a scowl. With hunched shoulders, he stalked to his building.
“That was Oscar-worthy acting,” Addy whispered to him.
They dumped the rest of the boxes on the counter and Addy headed for the fridge.
“I’m starving,” she said. “I was too busy packing this morning to eat. There’s nothing in here,” she said as she held the door open and looked at him.
“It was a bachelor pad until just now, remember? Don’t worry, I’ll order a pizza.”
“Um, yeah, because I’m not about to make a dinner of beer and … Vegemite? Seriously?”
“Americans have mac and cheese. We have Vegemite. Comfort food, what can I say?”
“Yeah, that’s all yours.”
“What about the beer? I know that’s on your Addison-approved list.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I meant real food. Besides, it didn’t exactly work out great the last time we had beer together.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll call the pizza place again.”
“Again?”
“Yeah, let’s … let’s just say they know me there. I’m already a regular, and I’ve only been in this country for about a week! That’s impressive, right?”
“Not quite the word I’d use. Tomorrow, I’ll stop by the store after my shift. Man cannot live on pizza alone.”
“The store? So, are you saying … are you …”
“Am I what? Capable of grocery shopping?”
“I mean, are you any good at cooking?”
“I’ll have you kno
w that I learned from my mother, who used to cook everything at the restaurant before she…” Addison’s eyes started to water and her words faded. “Anyway, what do you want? For dinner tomorrow, I mean?”
“Um… how about… cheeseburgers?”
“Yeah, I get enough cheeseburgers at work. Besides, aren’t you a doctor? Don’t you know they’re heart attack bombs? How do you feel about lasagna?”
“Great? I guess? What do you want on the pizza?” He hadn’t seen this authoritative side of her, at least not directed at him. And he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
“Anything but pineapple. You know the whole Hawaiian pizza thing was originally designed as a joke?”
Jack dialed the number, the third most recent call in his log. He sipped on a beer while he watched her unpack, but couldn’t quite figure out what most of the stuff was. She moved so fast as she zipped between rooms that it made him dizzy.
“Slow down, express train. Pizza’s here,” he said when he heard the knock at the door.
“Where do we eat?” she asked as she emerged from the bathroom. She’d tied her hair up in a messy knot on top of her head and her cheeks were flushed from the unpacking. Something about it, complete with that little tank top and cut-off jeans, made her look carefree and innocent in a way he hadn’t noticed before.
“How about my bed?”
“Excuse me?”
“I meant the couch. You know? My bed?”
“Yeah, you’re so funny,” she said, but she accepted the plate he handed her and pulled out a generous slice.
“You know?” he asked as they sat side by side and stared out the window. “I’ve never really lived with a girl before.”
“Never really? Or never-never?” she asked.
“Never-never. Maybe I should get to know you a little better to make the experience… not so freaking weird. So you were born here, right?”
“Yep. Don’t be jealous.”
“Didn’t you ever want to get away? I mean, before college?”
“Only every single day of my life. It got worse when my mom was diagnosed… well, let’s just say that my wanderlust hasn’t died.” She grabbed another slice and propped her feet up on the boxes, a makeshift coffee table.
