her hand to his lips as the audience—her parents—watched in undisguised shock. “Please?”
Maggie couldn’t believe him. Oh, overacting! she wanted to shout. God, she hated improv because she was never really sure how the other actors wanted her to respond. Now, did Matt really want her to say yes, or did he want her to say no? Or was he too caught up in the drama of the scene even to think rationally?
Didn’t it occur to him what would happen if she actually said yes?
She looked down at Matt, still waiting on bended knee like some kind of fantasy husband-to-be. Damn him for making her wish this wasn’t just a game. She almost smacked him.
“This is silly,” she said. “Matt, get up off the floor. We have to tell them the real truth.”
Whatever he was expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. Matt covered a laugh with a cough. “The real truth.” He pulled himself back onto the couch. “Oh, you mean the real truth.”
She looked at him expectantly, innocently, waiting for him to take the lead. Which of course he couldn’t take since he had no idea what she had in mind.
She threw him a bone. “The Internet thing,” she said, “www.VegasWedding.com?”
He almost completely lost it, and he covered by kissing her. In front of her parents.
“God, I love you,” he said, with so much emotion in his voice, she almost believed him, too.
Her father cleared his throat. “What Internet thing?”
“You don’t have to go to Las Vegas anymore for a quickie wedding,” Matt explained to her parents, taking her cue and running with it. Were they actually going to believe this? “You just go online and visit the Web site, and you can actually get married in a virtual ceremony.” He kissed Maggie’s hand. “We did that last night.”
“Is it legal?” her mother asked.
“Absolutely,” Matt said. “They send the marriage certificate in the mail. It takes a couple weeks, though, because they, you know, laminate it first.”
Her father looked as if he were going to protest, and Maggie cut him off. “Dad, I’m twenty-nine years old.”
He nodded. “You are. I think your living here is a mistake, and I think rushing into marriage with someone you haven’t seen in ten years is also a mistake. We would like it if you came home. That’s what we came here to say. That and we love you.” He looked at Matt. “And if you hurt her, I’ll make you wish you were never born.”
He stood up, and held out his hand for Matt to shake, then gave Maggie a hug. “This is the biggest barrel of crap I’ve ever heard,” he whispered to her. “But your mother believes you. You just decide whether or not you’re going to marry this guy, and you do it fast, you hear me?”
Maggie nodded, and he kissed her cheek. Her mother hugged her, too, and then they were out the door.
Matt put his arm around her as they watched her parents drive away. “How about another kiss for show?” he asked, nuzzling her neck.
She elbowed him hard in the ribs. “You had your chance last night, babe,” she said. “Matt, how could you tell my parents that we were going to live together? Didn’t it occur to you that my mother might have a heart attack right there on the living-room rug?”
“And I’m telling you they weren’t going to believe that we could live here in platonic harmony,” Matt said, rubbing his side. “I can’t believe you came up with www.VegasWedding.com. It was beautiful—I wish I’d thought of that. You know, this was the best improv I’ve been in in a long time. Did you see their faces?”
Maggie glared at him. “That was no improv, Matt, that was my life. Now my mother thinks we’re married!”
“But it worked,” he pointed out. “You didn’t get pressured to go back home.”
“She’s going to want a look at our laminated wedding certificate,” she said. “Jeez! Laminated. Very classy, Matt!”
“I was thinking on my feet,” he said as she pushed past him into the house. “Give me a break!”
She turned back to him. “Give me the keys to your car.”
He went into the kitchen and came back with the keys to the Maserati. “Where are you going?” he asked as he handed them over. “Can I come along? After all, it is our honeymoon.”
“Shopping,” she said. “No. And stuff it.”
Eight
The sun was sinking in the sky by the time Maggie returned from the mall.
Matt was out on the front-porch swing. He watched as she unloaded one huge shopping bag after another from the car.
“Honey, I’m home,” she singsonged.
“Well, if it isn’t the little wife,” he said, coming to help her. “Thank God you’ve got your sense of humor back.”
“Nothing like a little shopping to ease the soul.”
“A little?” His arms were piled high with packages. “You’re going to be paying off your credit cards until you’re eighty years old.”
“Your credit cards,” she said smoothly. “We’re married now, remember?”
“Oh, good, I’ll keep that in mind, later, when it’s time to go to bed,” Matt said in his best Groucho Marx imitation.
“I was kidding,” Maggie said darkly.
Matt wasn’t.
“I paid cash for this stuff,” Maggie told him. “I worked at A&B for three years. Remember me? I used to live at home. I saved all my money all that time. I can afford to splurge. I wanted to splurge. So I bought myself clothes that I like.” She hadn’t bought one single corporate clone suit.
Matt pulled a sundress out of one of the bags. “Put this on,” he said, draping it over her shoulder. “I’m taking you out to dinner. We’re celebrating.”
She shot him a look. “Celebrating what? And if you say ‘Our recent marriage,’ I’m going to smack you.”
“How about celebrating our getting the leads in the summer musical?”
“No kidding?” Maggie’s face completely lit up.
“Nope.” He smiled back at her. “Dan Fowler called while you were out. You got Lucy. And I’m ‘Cody Brown, at your service.’ First rehearsal’s tomorrow night.”
“This is great!” Maggie did a victory dance around the entry hall. “I’m so jazzed—I really, really wanted this part.”
Matt grinned, watching her. But then she stopped and stared at him accusingly. “Why didn’t you tell me right when I got home?” she asked.
“I
