“I need to tell you something. I’ll be right there.”
* * *
Cam spits out the sip of beer he’d just taken.
“You’re gettingmarried?! When did you even meet someone?”
I give him a hard look. My little brother and I look so much alike with our dark hair and athletic builds. Only his dark eyes and my gray ones differentiate us and, as I like to remind him just to fuck with him, I’m two inches taller with twenty pounds more muscle.
“Kind of like the way you met Savannah and then sprung her on me three years ago,” I say without thinking.
He halts. “Wait. So this is like a real thing? You love this woman?”
“Well...” I feel myself flush under his stare, and I wish to Christ I hadn’t had to tell him anything at all. “Here’s the thing…”
Cam looks at me. “Yeah? What’s the thing? Spit it out, Dec.”
He puts down his bottle of beer and crosses his arms over his chest. We’re standing by the island in his kitchen while he watches the boiling pasta that his wife, Savannah, requested for dinner. She’s nearly nine months pregnant, and Cam doesn’t want her lifting a finger. Right now, she’s out with Brayden’s wife, Leleila, but they’re due back any minute.
Cam and Savannah moved from Minnesota to Mountainview a few years ago after they got married. Cam and Brayden were always tight, closer than Cam and I were growing up. The younger Wild cousins are made up of Cam, Brayden, Colton and Dylan, both pro footballers, and Ayden, who grew up in Maine and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Bella. Those guys were always a tight-knit pack of five—six when you include Colton’s best friend, Jenson.
As the first-borns of our Wild generation, Luke and I, along with Ayden’s brother, Michael, didn’t keep as close of a bond, but we liked to joke that we know best. And I’m about to call in that joke right now.
I smirk at him. “I’m the oldest, remember? You don’t get to lecture me.”
“First, tell me what you did, and then I’ll decide if it warrants a lecture, big brother,” Cam shoots back with his typical mischievous grin.
I run my hand over the back of my neck as I realize just how bad this is going to sound. “The upcoming marriage isn’t exactly real.”
His eyes widen. “It’sfake? You’re having a fake wedding?”
“I prefer to call it ‘arranged’ rather than fake.” I fill him in on the Wild Kings’ stipulation that I need to be married in order to have an ownership stake. “And it’s only for a year. The time requirement is for her, not for me.”
Cam passes right over my attempt to distract and goes right to the heart of things. “Who is she? Your about-to-be wife?”
“Mia.” I curse myself for how tenderly I say her name. “Mia Carroll. She needs this arranged marriage just as much as I do.”And we fucked like rabbits last night.
I don’t say that last part out loud, but Cam’s watching me closely. And like he always does, he calls me out. “You’ve already slept with her.”
“Jesus, Cam.” I stare at him. “How the fuck did you know that?”
He lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “You’re a shit liar. Your face doesn’t hide much. Except when you put on that public smile for the press and when you’re around fans. You’re pretty good at that one.”
“Great.” I shove my hands in my jeans pockets. “Anyway, it was a one-time thing. We’ve agreed to strictly be friends from now on.”
He cocks his head and studies me in silence for a moment. “Don’t believe you,” he says finally as he turns off the stove.
“Well, believe it.” I glare at his back as he drains the pasta. “Mia and I have already agreed that’s what’s best.”
“And she’s probably as earnest as you are,” he says. “I call bullshit on you both.”
“You haven’t even fucking met her!” I say, hating that I sound like I care about that fact.
Why would I want my brother to meet her anyway?It’s an arranged marriage, not a real one.
“Thanks for bringing that up. I’d like to meet her.” His expression is nearly gleeful as he turns back to face me. “Before you get married. I insist. Savannah and I will meet you for dinner.” He pauses. “Savannah’s not enjoying going out to eat right now because she says it’s so far to the bathroom. So maybe…”
“Luke is having a family dinner tomorrow night,” I find myself saying. “I can invite Mia if you and Savannah want to come.”
