CHARLIE GAZED INTO her black coffee, hoping that it would supply answers. Her memories had started to filter back in as she’d sipped her first cup; shame had started creeping in with her second. She hoped that this cup, her third, would be the one that made her feel human again.
‘So how do we undo this?’ she said bluntly. ‘This is Vegas. They must annul almost as many marriages as they make here. Do we need to go back to the courthouse?’
She looked up and met Joe’s eye. He was watching her intently as he took a bite of another slice of toast. ‘We could,’ he said. ‘If we want an annulment, I guess that’s how we go about it.’
‘If?’ She nearly spat out her coffee. ‘I don’t think you understand, Joe. We got married.’
‘I know: I was there.’
‘Am I missing something? The way I see things, we were joking around, we thought it would be hilarious to have a Vegas wedding, and we’ve woken up this morning to a major disaster. Aren’t you interested in damage limitation?’
‘Of course I am, but, unlike you, I think the reasons we got married were sound. Not necessarily the best reasons to enter into a legally binding personal commitment, but sound nonetheless.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘Remind me.’
‘Okay, obvious ones first. Publicity. The band needs it. The album is almost finished, we’re looking for a new label, and there is no such thing as bad publicity, right?’
‘Mercenary much?’
‘Look, this isn’t my fault. You were good with mercenary last night.’
She snorted. ‘Fine, publicity is one reason. Give me another.’
‘It shows you’re serious about the band.’
She crossed her arms and sat back in her seat, fixing him with a glare. ‘I’ve signed plenty of bands before without marrying the lead singer. They signed with me because they trust that I’m bloody good at my job. Are you seriously telling me that whether or not I would marry you was going to be a deal-breaker?’
He leaned forward, not put off by her death stare. In fact, his eyes softened as he reached for her hand, pulling her back towards him. She went with it, not wanting to look childish by batting him away.
‘Of course it wasn’t,’ he said gently. ‘But breaking the marriage now? I’m not sure how that’s going to play out. I’m not sure what our working relationship could look like with that all over the papers.’
She shook her head, looking back into the depths of her coffee, still begging it for answers.
‘All of which I have to weigh against the heartbreak of my family if we don’t bury this right now.’
She avoided eye contact as she tried to stop the tears from escaping. But she took a deep breath and when she looked up they were gone. ‘Do you think anyone knows already? The press?’
‘We weren’t exactly discreet,’ he said, with a sympathetic smile. ‘I’d think it’s likely.’
‘And that can’t be undone, annulment or not.’
He leaned back and took a long drink of his orange juice. ‘So let’s control the narrative.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘What story would hurt your family more—a whirlwind romance and hasty Vegas marriage, or a drunken publicity stunt to further your career? Because that’s how the tabloids are going to want to spin it.’
‘What’s your point, Joe?’ She’d taken her hand back and crossed her arms again, sure that this conversation was taking a turn that she wasn’t going to like.
‘All I’m saying is that we can’t go back in time. We can’t get unmarried, whether we get an annulment or not. So we either dissolve the marriage today and deal with the fallout to our reputations...’
‘Or...?’
‘Or we stay married.’
Her breathing caught as just for a second she considered what that might mean, to be this man’s wife.
‘But we’re not in love. Anyone’s going to be able to see that.’
He scrutinised her from under his lashes, which were truly longer and thicker than any man’s had a right to be. ‘So we’re going to have to work hard to convince them. You can’t deny that it’s a better story.’
‘And you can’t deny that it means lying to my family. Ruining all the plans they were making for my life. I don’t know what your relationship with your family is like, but I’m not sure that I can pull it off. I’m not sure that I want to. Things are diffi—’
She stopped before she revealed too much. Joe raised an eyebrow, obviously curious about why she had cut herself off, but he didn’t push her on it.
‘Would you rather they knew the truth?’
Of course not. She had been hiding the truth from them for years, ever since she’d found out that she could never be the daughter or the Princess that they needed her to be.
‘Are we seriously having this conversation? You want to stay married? You do know that you’re a rock star, right? If you were that desperate for publicity you could have found a hundred girls who actually wanted to be your wife.’
‘Wow, you’re quite something for a guy’s ego. For the record, this isn’t some elaborate ruse to get myself a woman. I don’t have any problems on that score. All I’m doing is making the best of a situation. That’s all.’
Charlie took a big bite of pie, hoping that the sugar would succeed where the coffee hadn’t. ‘Well, I’m glad to hear that you’re not remotely interested in me as a woman.’
He fixed her with a meaningful stare, the intensity of his expression making it impossible for her to look away.
‘I never said that.’
Heat rose in her belly as he held the eye contact, leaving her in no doubt about how he thought of her. She shook her head as he finally broke the contact. ‘I can’t believe that I’m even considering this. You’re crazy. There’s no way we can keep this up. What happens if we slip? What happens when someone finds out it’s not for real? What happens when one of us meets someone and this marriage of convenience isn’t so convenient any more?’
He reached for her hand across the table, and once again there was that crackle, that spark that she remembered from the night before. She saw him in the chapel, eyes creased in laughter, as he leaned in to kiss her. Those eyes were still in front of her, concerned now though, rather than amused.
‘It doesn’t have to be for ever. Just long enough that it doesn’t look like a stunt when we split. You weren’t planning on marrying someone else any time soon, were you?’
‘Never.’
