my fake husband?” she asked again, since he hadn’t truly responded the first time.
He pressed his lips together for a moment, and then he finally nodded. “I guess so.”
“Yay!” Lana leaped into his arms and hugged him close. She buried her nose in his neck, drawing in the scent of his cologne. The familiar musk of her best friend drew a decidedly physical response from deep inside her that she wasn’t expecting with everything else that was going on. Her heart started racing in her chest as she held his spicy male scent in her lungs and enjoyed his arms wrapped tightly around her. No one held her like he did, and there was no one she wanted to hold her more than Kal.
Then she felt him stiffen awkwardly against her. She pulled herself out of the romantic fog she’d let herself accidentally slip into. This wasn’t the reaction of someone who was comfortable with his decision. She drew back and looked at the lines on his face that reflected conflict and shame instead of excitement and confidence. Lana needed to remember that this was all for show. It might be her innermost secret fantasy coming to life, but he was only doing this for her because it was important and they were friends, not for any other reason. She needed to save her physical reactions to him for public consumption or she’d scare him off.
“Are you really okay with this?” she asked.
“No,” he said, ever honest, “but I’m going to do it anyway. For you.”
His words nearly brought tears to her eyes. She leaned in to hug him again and spoke softly into his ear. “Thank you for being the best friend a girl could ever have. I owe you big-time.”
Kal chuckled, a low rumble that vibrated against her chest and made her want to snuggle closer to him. “Oh, you have no idea.”
The door of the room opened again and Lana pulled away from Kal to turn to Dexter. “We’re getting married,” she announced before he could change his mind.
Dexter looked at Lana, then curiously at Kal and his pained expression. “Excellent. Shall I draw up a prenup? I presume that assets won’t comingle, and everyone keeps what they have going into the union?”
“Sure,” Lana said. Part of her thought that Kal might balk at the idea of a prenuptial agreement, but she wanted him to have that protection. She didn’t want any of his stuff and she wanted to make sure he knew it. “I don’t want him getting his hands on my old-school hi-fi system.”
Kal turned to look at her. “Your what?”
“It has a turntable. Records are cool again.”
He just shook his head. “Draw something up and we’ll come back to sign it in the morning. We’ll get married tomorrow afternoon assuming the wedding pavilion at the hotel isn’t booked. That should be good enough for the judge, right?”
“The two of you married and living in that big new house...oh yeah.” Dexter nodded enthusiastically. “Then you’ll just have to put on a good show for Child Services when they come for home visits. If you can pull this off, it will make my job ten times easier.”
“Okay,” Kal said, pushing up from his seat. “We’ll see you in the morning, then.” He reached out for Lana’s hand, something he’d never done before. “Come on, honey. We’ve got a lot of plans to make if we’re going to get married tomorrow afternoon.”
Lana twisted her lips in amusement. The stiff way he said the words was proof enough that he was really uncomfortable with the situation but was too good of a friend to say no. She didn’t say anything, though. Instead she took his hand and they walked out of the attorney’s office together.
They were silent until they got back to the car. Kal had parked his F-type Jaguar convertible in the shade on the far side of the parking lot. Lana had always loved Kal’s car. It was the kind of vehicle that motor-heads fantasized about. Lana drove an old Jeep without doors, so this felt superluxurious. As she climbed in beside him and looked around this time, however, she realized they had an issue.
“Kal?”
“Yeah?” he asked as he started the engine and it roared to life.
“You drive a two-seater convertible and I drive a Jeep Wrangler without doors or a roof.”
Kal pulled the car out of the parking lot and onto the main highway. “And?”
“And...I don’t think we can put a car seat in either of those.”
“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully as they went down the highway. “You’re probably right. It’s never something that’s mattered before. I’ll have someone bring a car over. I’ll lease one for as long as we have Akela. What do you think is responsible enough? A minivan? An SUV with all the airbags? Or would you rather have a sedan of some kind?”
She hadn’t really thought that far ahead, as evidenced by this predicament. “Not a minivan. That’s all I ask. Other than that, as long as it has a backseat I can put a car seat in and will protect her from the elements, I think I’m good. Thank you.”
“No problem.” Kal looked past her toward the shopping center they were coming up on. “Since we’re discussing the ways we’re completely unprepared for marriage and parenthood, I think we need to make a pit stop.”
Lana held on as he whipped the car into the parking lot and came to a stop outside a baby supercenter. She’d only set foot in it once, to buy a baby shower gift for Mele. “I don’t know what we need yet. I’ve got to go by Mele’s apartment and see what she has.”
Kal shook his head and turned off the car. “No, you don’t. We’re getting all new stuff. Come on.”
Lana leaped out of the car and jogged to catch up with him. “Are you serious? I can’t afford to buy all new baby things.”
Kal pulled his dark sunglasses down his nose to look at her with an expression that could’ve melted a woman’s panties right off. Lana had learned early on that when he looked at her that way, it wasn’t smoldering, it was irritation.
“You’re not buying it. I am.”
She suspected he might say that. “This is too much, Kal,” she complained. He simply ignored her, going into the store ahead of her. “Kal!” she finally shouted with her hands planted on her hips.
He stopped and turned around to look at her. “What is the problem?”
She narrowed her gaze at him. Women she’d had as friends over the years had asked her how she could be friends with a man as hot at Kal and not want more. While she convinced herself she didn’t want more, she used this as exhibit number one: he was stubborn as an ox. “It’s too much.”
“We’re already getting married and moving in together to pull this off. What is too much, exactly?”
She knew he was right. “I don’t want you to buy a ton of things. We might only have her for a few weeks.”
“Or we might have her for years. Either way, she needs a place to sleep, food, clothes, diapers... If it makes you happy, I’ll donate everything to charity when we’re done. It won’t go to waste, okay?”
Lana bit at her bottom lip but knew she’d lost this battle before it started. Kal wasn’t about to decorate the
