“Your mom is intense, man. She always has been. That’s why we could never hang out at your house as kids,” Rick said.
That was true. They had always been at Sullivan’s because his father let them do whatever the hell they wanted and his mother had skipped town ages before that, when Sullivan was a toddler. “My mother means well, but yeah. She’s a lot to deal with.”
“She’s going to lose her shit when she finds out this is a con.”
“She’s never going to find out.” He was confident in that. “I’m not admitting anything ever. Neither will Leighton. She has her own reasons to keep quiet.”
“Marriage isn’t a joke,” Sullivan said.
“I know that,” he said. He refused to be irritated by Sullivan’s sullen attitude. His friend had good reason to defend the institution of marriage and he respected that, but this was his life, not Sullivan’s. “But reality TV isn’t real. That’s the game and I feel like playing.”
“How’s the sex?” Rick asked with a grin. “Because that kiss on that video was clearly foreplay.”
“None of your damn business.” He wasn’t the guy who told the juicy details about a woman he was dating. And if Leighton was anything, it was juicy.
“So, no chance you’re going to fall for this girl?” Jesse asked.
Axl scoffed. “No.”
He didn’t think so. Not much.
And if he did, because okay, he was, he’d be fine. He wasn’t the guy to fall head over ass.
It hadn’t happened yet and he didn’t see why it would.
That was the whole damn point.
He was emotionally shallow, to quote his last girlfriend.
There was no way he was going to end up wanting the marriage to be real.
And if he did, for whatever crazy reason, he wouldn’t do that to Leighton.
He just wanted to enjoy today and worry about after the wedding after the damn wedding.
He put his hand down on the table. “Full house, assholes. I’m lucky this week.”
And it had everything to do with meeting Leighton.
* * *
“Open your mouth nice and wide,” Axl urged her. “I have more for you.”
Leighton shook her head at him, amused, and slightly embarrassed. He was holding a bite of cake on his fork in front of her lips. He knew precisely how his words sounded.
They were at Cakes by Autumn, sampling flavors for their wedding cake.
Autumn clearly got the innuendo as well. She was in her late twenties and she shot Axl a dirty look. “Stop embarrassing your fiancée,” she told him. “You’re the worst.” She looked over at Leighton. “We went to school together. Axl and his friends were notorious for getting in trouble.”
“That is not true,” he said. “That was more Sullivan and Brandon. I kept my nose clean.”
“I’m not sure I believe you,” Leighton said, giving him a wry look. “What flavor is this before you shove it in my mouth?”
Her choice of words made Axl laugh and lift his eyebrows up and down. “It’s true. I am, for the most part, a rule follower. And I have no idea what flavor this is.”
She thought back to him actually following through and giving her a speeding ticket. Maybe she could believe he wasn’t a troublemaker. She opened her mouth and Axl eased the fork between her lips gently.
“That’s vanilla almond,” Autumn said. “With a champagne buttercream frosting.”
Flavor exploded in her mouth. Briefly, she closed her eyes before chewing and swallowing, savoring the sugary delight. “Mmm. That’s really good, Autumn.” She meant it and that was a substantial compliment coming from her. She had probably tasted two hundred cake flavors in her tenure as creative director.
Since the details of each couples’ wedding were supposed to be a secret, part of their whirlwind wedding makeover, that included the cake. Which meant Leighton had to choose them for the majority of the episodes they filmed. Everyone on staff seemed to think that since she was already “overweight” she had nothing to lose by taking on the calories, so it fell on her to taste them. The size zero girls ran away from the cake like it was the physical manifestation of Satan.
Vanilla almond was a standard wedding flavor but Autumn’s frosting was a cut above a lot of the samples Leighton had experienced. “What do you think?” she asked Axl.
“I want red velvet.”
“You’re getting the red velvet in your groom’s cake. We need something else for the display cake.”
“And what is the groom’s cake going to be?” Autumn asked. She looked slightly panicked, probably because of the timeframe. “Am I doing that too?”
“Axl wants a fish. With red velvet,” she told Autumn. “Can you do that?”
“That’s going to look like fish guts,” Autumn told Axl. “And your mother will freak out.”
“Don’t hate on my groom’s cake.” Axl switched plates, pulling a chocolate sample in front of him. “And I’m a grown-ass man. I am not getting a cake to please my mother.”
Autumn snorted. “I know your mother. That might be a mistake.”
Uh-oh. Leighton’s mouth felt dry. Damn sugar. She sipped the water Autumn had brought her. Axl hadn’t said much about his parents. Not that they had spent a ton of time talking. She swallowed. Nope. Lump was still there. “Oh? How so?” she asked Autumn, striving for casual.
“Oh, Lord, you haven’t met his mother yet, have you? You might want to do that ASAP.” Autumn smiled. “Just a suggestion, I’m sure it will be fine.”
Leighton turned to Axl but he looked unperturbed.
“What flavor is this?” he asked.
“Lemon with blueberry filling.”
He made a face. “That’s a no.”
“Aren’t you even going to try it?”
“Nope. I hate lemons.”
“Then what do you want to try?” she asked him.
“Chocolate.”
“Just plain chocolate?” Leighton was dubious about that.
“Everybody likes chocolate. Not everyone likes lemon.”
She supposed she couldn’t really argue with him on that point. Most people did love chocolate.
“Try this one,” Autumn said, handing him another plate with a slice on it.
Axl put his fork through and came up with an enormous bite. He stuck it in his mouth and gave a thumbs up. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
“I need a tier that does not have cocoa in it,” Leighton said. “Otherwise it’s chocolate overload.”
“I can do the top tier in anything you like.”
“Almond would be great. As for the design, I want blush rosettes, can you do that?” Leighton realized it might not be wise to tell Autumn what she actually wanted at her real wedding some day, but then again, she might never have a real wedding. Or if she did, her tastes might change by then. She might as well enjoy her fake reception.
“Sure, that would be gorgeous. Are you okay with that, Axl?”
“I don’t know what any of that means but it’s fine by me. It’s the inside that counts.”
Autumn put her hands to her chest. “Oh, my God, that’s so romantic.”
Leighton didn’t think he meant it to be but she would let this love train roll. It was really kind of amazing how no one seemed to think they were certifiable for getting married two minutes after meeting.
That either meant that people were accepting of insta-love as a result of two decades of reality TV or they didn’t believe it was real.
Which was possible. She didn’t seem like Axl’s type and he had grown up in Beaver Bend. He was a cop. Presumably a lot of people were familiar with his life. She really wasn’t his type. She was buttoned up, he was buttoned down, despite his intensity. He liked casual, she was drawn to the formal.
Even if this were real, which it wasn’t, it wouldn’t work. It didn’t matter that they were very similar, personality wise. He lived in Minnesota and she had a life in LA.
This was just
good TV.
Leighton suddenly had a knot in her gut and it wasn’t from an overload of sugar.
He reached over and wiped the corner of her mouth. “You have some chocolate there.” Instead of licking his finger himself, he eased it between her lips. “How does that taste?”
Delicious. Like sex and a future she couldn’t have.
Stunned at how upset that made her, she reared back so that his finger fell out of her mouth.
“Are you ready, Axl?” she asked, standing up so quickly her chair wobbled. “Autumn, I’ll call you to confirm everything but it sounds like we’ve made a decision.
The tiny shop suddenly felt too warm and stifling. The scent of baked goods in the air was nauseating and the lemon-yellow walls were closing in on her.
“What’s wrong?” Axl asked. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just got sick to my stomach all of sudden. It’s hot in here.” She waved her hand in front of her face and started toward the front door, abandoning her purse and her laptop. She’d come back for them in a minute. She needed fresh air desperately.
“Is she pregnant?” Autumn asked Axl in a low voice. “That’s how I felt when I was first preggers with Jayden.”
“No.” But then he added. “I mean, I don’t think so.”
Of course she wasn’t pregnant. They’d had sex once, two nights earlier. Well, sex twice two nights earlier. She was just on emotional overload. She’d warned Axl she wasn’t that great of an actress. Keeping up this farce was intense and confusing. Between instead of acting, she actually wasn’t. Being with Axl, she felt more like herself than she ever had with most men.
She was afraid she was going to lose track of what was real and what was fake.
Because it felt real.
As she burst out onto the sidewalk and took a deep breath of the summer air, she hated that the actual relationship was all fake.
Except her orgasms.
“Too much sugar,” she told Axl when he followed her outside. “I’m not used to it, despite what my co-workers seem to think.”
“Did you eat dinner?” he asked, looking concerned. “Let me go back in and get you some water.”
“I ate some cheese and some grapes in a little pack from the hotel snack shop. Things have been crazy today trying to redo everything. I mean, I guess I could just give us Winnie’s and Todd’s wedding crash. I planned and booked everything six weeks ago. Filming couples with their requests is a formality for the cameras. Doing a wedding in three days isn’t real.” It was the logical thing to do, to just use the wedding she had already planned. Yet, she was resistant and she wasn’t sure why. It shouldn’t matter.
“If we just use someone else’s wedding, aren’t people going to figure that out? I mean, what did you have planned for them?” Axl put his hand on her back and rubbed gently.
His touch was very distracting. It was comforting and sweet. And maybe, just a little bit arousing. “A church wedding with the boy’s choir performing and a barn reception.”
Leighton pulled her phone out of her purse and started swiping. She had a folder filled with images of the color scheme and the venue. “What do you think?”
The church was a stone chapel. The barn was rustic. The elements she had employed were all natural. Wood arches, wine barrels, chandeliers twisted with ivy. The predominant color was a butter yellow, and an entire sunflower garden was supposed to be created at the entrance to the barn. It was a beautiful event, but it was not Leighton’s personal style.
“It’s okay. But I do not see you when I look at this.”
Leighton glanced up at him, amused. “And how do you know what I would like?”
“You told me you like books and roses. Your clothes are always floral patterns in pastels. This isn’t you,” he said confidently.
He was right. But the fact that he had listened and paired that with his own skills of observation was intriguing. Yet one more thing to like about him, damn it. “You’re right. Rustic isn’t me. But does it matter?”
“I think if we want to be believed it matters, yes.”
“What do you want? Were you being honest in the interview yesterday?”
He shrugged. “I’m not picky. But yes, I was being honest.”
“Then I guess I should change up some things. Any venue ideas? We can’t get married in a church, obviously.”
“I have the perfect place. Let’s finish up with Autumn and I’ll take you there.”
Leighton tried to whip up some enthusiasm but honestly she was a little skeptical. Axl, the small town cop could not be an expert on unique and modern wedding venues. It was a science that she had down pat by now. Every episode she had to find something different, something breathtaking, something ground breaking. She’d done aquariums and riverboats and speakeasies. Barns, boats, and a basketball arena. It wasn’t arrogant to assume she might have a leg up on Axl.
But after they ordered his plain chocolate cake with her lemon top tier, Axl drove her out of town along Lake Superior. He drove with a smug secretive smile on his face and his hand on her knee. Leighton prepared herself to get fake excited.
He turned down what looked like a private driveway. “We aren’t trespassing, are we?”
“No, we’re not trespassing. I know the guy who lives here. He’s a vet from the Korean War and he’s in his eighties. He’s owned this property since the late fifties.”
They were disappearing into a copse of trees, the concrete apron of the driveway giving way to gravel. A few hundred feet down the drive, the trees cleared and there was a small house. It was Victorian style. White with black shutters and lots of gingerbread trim. It was cute but Leighton wasn’t sure where Axl was going with this. It didn’t seem like a wedding venue. Just some guy’s house.
“What’s your friend’s name?”
“Bill Cove. We met at a Fourth of July parade and hit it off. He’s a cool guy.”
It was really sweet and cute that Axl was friends with a man three times his age.
She followed him out of the car and up the porch steps. There were two rockers on the porch and a number of flower pots, but there was nothing planted in them. She was worried she was going to have to tell Axl this wasn’t going to work for the wedding and that somehow it would hurt Bill’s feelings. Or heck, Axl’s.
Axl knocked and Bill opened the door a minute later. “Hey, Axl, how’s it going?” He put out his hand and they shook. He was tall and skinny with a warm smile. He was dressed in cargo shorts and a T-shirt, which for whatever reason, she wasn’t expecting.
“Hey, Bill, good to see you. I hope you don’t mind me dropping by without calling.”
Bill rubbed his bald head, covered in liver spots. “What, because I’m so busy? Come on in, kid. Good to see you. Who’s this lovely lady?”
Axl put his hand on the small of her back. “This is my, uh, fiancée, Leighton.”
The words sounded awkward to her. He wasn’t really selling it. But then again, she wasn’t sure she could say that with a straight face either. “Getting married” seemed less intimate than “fiancée,” which made her just silly and playing with semantics.
Bill’s face registered surprise. “Fiancée? Wow, guess I’ve been out of the loop. I didn’t know you were engaged. Nice to meet you, Leighton.”
She took the hand he offered and shook. Bill had a strong grip and curious pale blue eyes. He was assessing her, that was clear. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“Come on in, come in.”
“Actually, I really wanted to show Leighton Soon-ja’s garden. Leighton loves roses and we’re looking for someplace special to get married.”
Bill’s expression changed. It softened. “I’d be honored to show you the garden. Come through the house and we’ll go to the back.”
“Thank you,” Leighton said, now genuinely curious. A rose garden was the reason Axl had brought her here.
They stepped into the small house. It was decorated with midcentury modern furniture, w
hich struck Leighton as fascinating. It was like Bill had moved in in the fifties, decorated it, and never changed it. Bill paused to pick up a photo and show it to her.
“My wife, Soon-ja, on our wedding day. She passed away nine months ago.”
“Oh, she’s beautiful, Bill. I’m so sorry for your loss.” Soon-ja was stunning, her dark hair flipped up at the edges, her cheekbones striking. She was staring into the camera a bit mischievously. She had a small but full mouth and dark eyes.
“Thank you. I met her when I was twenty years old serving in Korea. I clapped eyes on her when she was my waitress in a restaurant and I knew she would be my wife.”
“Really?” Leighton had always been skeptical of love at first sight. “Was that because she was pretty?”
Bill shook his head. “No, though obviously, I thought she was a looker. She turned heads everywhere we went. But that wasn’t the only thing.” He ran a shaky thumb over Soon-ja’s face in the photo. “No. It was that when I saw her, I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. Our eyes met and I saw my entire future laid out in front of me. Wham. Life was never the same again.”
That sounded so amazing. So…easy. Leighton had never felt that level of conviction in her entire life. “I take it she felt the same way?”
He gave a laugh. “Oh, hell no. I asked her out every day for a month before she agreed to go to dinner. And she said she only agreed to that so I would stop bugging her.” Bill gave a grin. “But then I won her over with my incredible charm. Much like Axl here, I’m sure.” He clapped Axl on the bicep.
Axl snorted. “I’m not sure what won Leighton over, to be honest. I’m not charming.”
“It was your dance moves,” she told him, amused. It was true. She’d seen him up on that stage and while it was not instant love, it was sure in the heck instant lust.
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