Accidental Bride (Beaufort Brides #3) Read online

  He nodded, relieved at least that this was the truth. “But I should have stopped us. I shouldn’t have…I should have stopped us.”

  “But you were drunk too.”

  “Even so, if I’d been smarter, I would have known that you didn’t really want this.”

  Her shoulders straightened, and she turned to frown at his face. “But you didn’t want it either, did you?”

  He stared at her, his mouth slightly parted. Of course, he’d wanted it. He’d never wanted anything more. But how the hell could he tell her that now, when she looked so astonished and upset by the very idea? “Of course not,” he said gruffly, looking back down at his phone. “I’d had too much to drink.”

  Her face and body relaxed. “We both had. It’s no big deal. We might have grounds for annulment. We should look into that right away.”

  He didn’t want to have their marriage annulled, but he had no choice in the matter. “Right.”

  She must have read something on his face because she reached out and put a hand on his thigh, over the towel. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

  Maybe he should just admit the truth. Maybe he should just come out and let her see exactly how stupid he was. “Y—yeah.”

  Her face twisted as she choked, “Peter, you don’t want to be…to be married to me, do you?”

  His courage sank at the sight of her horrified face. “Of course not. It’s just that…” He suddenly remembered something. “It’s just that my mother left me a message.

  “Your mom?”

  Out of the blue, Peter was hit with a blinding inspiration. He knew exactly what he should do. There was no way he could admit the truth to her right now. It was too new, too unexpected. Kelly wouldn’t understand, and she wouldn’t like it. Their friendship might not survive.

  But maybe he could delay their annulment to give himself some more time. After being married to him for a little while, maybe Kelly would realize it wasn’t so bad.

  Maybe he’d have a chance to make this marriage more than an accident.

  “Yeah,” he said, holding his phone out. “She already found out about the marriage.”

  “What?”

  “Heidi must have told her mom, who proceeded to tell everyone else in Savannah. Mom found out.”

  Kelly gasped and closed her eyes. “Grandmama. Grandmama must know by now. Oh, God, she’ll never forgive me if I don’t stay married to a Blake.”

  “My mom will be crushed too. She’s been wanting me to settle down. I’ve already disappointed her enough. I hate to add something more.”

  Kelly was shaking her head. “I know it’s terrible, but we can’t stay married just so we don’t disappoint our families. I mean, that wouldn’t be right.”

  “No. It wouldn’t be right. But maybe…” He didn’t need to trail off. He knew exactly what he was going to say. He just couldn’t sound too excited about saying it.

  “Maybe what?”

  “I think it would be worse if they knew it was just a stupid, drunken mistake. It will be easier to break it to them if they think we really tried to make the marriage work.”

  Kelly was frowning. “Maybe.”

  She wasn’t buying it. He had to make it more convincing. “I don’t know about your grandmother, but my mother takes marriage really seriously. She’ll never accept that I gave up on a marriage without even giving it a try for a little while.”

  “So you think we should pretend to try for a little while?”

  It did sound like a ridiculous scheme. An absolutely ridiculous scheme. And one he would never agree to if he hadn’t had ulterior motives. “We don’t have to,” he said, trying to convey a sense of bleak resignation. “It’s not fair to ask that of you, just to make it easier for me.”

  “I’ll do anything you want, to make it easier on you.” Kelly’s eyes were wide and earnest. “Seriously, Peter. If you think that would help you, I can pretend for a little while, as long as it doesn’t go on too long. Neither of us should be trapped in this marriage for too long.”

  Trapped in the marriage. Evidently, that was how Kelly viewed it. He ignored the pain in his heart to push on toward his goal. “It doesn’t have to be long. Just a month or two would help.”

  “Okay.” She was nodding, thinking hard, staring at a spot in the air. “That’s okay. At least it would delay Grandmama’s horror about my breaking up with a Blake. What about we stay married until after graduation. That would be a natural end point, if we were going to call it quits for real. I counted the days up early this week. It’s forty-five days now until graduation. We can give it that long, and then get annulled or divorced.”

  Peter nodded. “Are you sure? I know it’s kind of crazy.”

  “This whole thing is kind of crazy. I just want to make sure neither of us suffers too much because of it. So…so are we going to…to live together?”

  “We’ll have to,” he said gently, starting to wonder if he was an asshole after all, tricking Kelly into something unfair. “It wouldn’t be convincing otherwise. No, we shouldn’t do this. It’s not fair to you, to put you through this, just so that I can—”

  “No! I want to. I want to do this, if you think it’s best for you. I don’t mind moving into your place for a little while. We hang out there a lot anyway.” Before he could agree to this, she gave a little jerk. “Wait, I can’t leave Grandmama on her own. We’d have to live with her.”

  Peter gulped at the thought. “Okay. Whatever works for you.”

  “Okay. Surely, it won’t be too bad. If we’re both practical and honest about it, I think we can get through with no problem.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah.” She smiled at him. “I’m sure. Let’s do it.”

  Peter was still conflicted, wanting it desperately but not sure if it was the right thing to do to Kelly, no matter how willing she seemed. But before he could say anything else, a phone started to ring from the main room of the suite.

  Kelly stood up. “That’s mine.” She hurried into the room and picked up her phone from the floor. Peter stood in the bathroom doorway and watched as she checked the screen. “It’s Deanna.”

  “She probably heard about us.”

  “Right.” Kelly took a deep breath. “Okay. Here goes. Day One of a forty-five day marriage.”

  Peter couldn’t believe she’d agreed, and he couldn’t believe she was so casual about the whole thing, as if it was a little game they were playing.

  It was probably best she thought that, though. She couldn’t know how he felt.

  She wasn’t ready to know it yet. He would lose her for good.

  At least this was something. He had forty-five days to win her over, open her eyes, make her fall for him.

  Forty-five days was a long time.

  Anything could happen by the end of it.

  Four

  Kelly felt like a different person as she walked into her family home, late that afternoon. There was no reason to feel that way, since she’d been gone for less than two days. But the old house seemed smaller somehow, slightly unfamiliar, as if she didn’t fit into it the way she had just the morning before.

  She didn’t like things to change. She especially didn’t like to feel like she had changed.

  She brushed off the feeling and smiled over her shoulder at Peter. “You ready for this?”

  “Of course.” Peter had been remarkably calm and casual about this whole situation. It was probably not as important to him as it was to her. She couldn’t really be offended by this fact. He was her friend. He’d always been her friend. And, once he’d grown accustomed to the idea¸ he obviously saw no reason to treat their current circumstances with anything other than his normal, reasonable friendliness.

  If something in the back of her mind kept screaming at her that they were now married, Peter obviously didn’t hear the same voice.

  At the moment, he was looking around the grand entrance to the house—lovely polished staircase, newly restored chandelie
r—with a slight smile on his face. His brown hair looked almost gold in the sun from the windows, and he was lean and masculine in his jeans and T-shirt, a bag slung over one shoulder.

  “Grandmama?” Kelly called out, trying to push the idea of how attractive he looked out of her mind.

  She waited a minute and, when she heard nothing, gave a little shrug. “Maybe she’s not in.”

  That would be good. It would give them a chance to get settled a bit before they faced her grandmother.

  “Upstairs?” Peter asked, nodding toward the staircase.

  “Yeah. My room is up there.”

  They both walked upstairs and turned to the right toward Kelly’s room. When she opened the door, she stared inside at the small room. It was neat, since she’d picked everything up before she’d left town. But the twin, four-poster bed in one corner looked even smaller than usual.

  Peter arched one eyebrow. “You want us to live in here?”

  She swallowed hard. Of course, they would have to live in the same room, since they were supposed to be married for real. But that would mean both of them would have to fit into that tiny bed.

  A flush of heat washed over her at the thought.

  Peter was peeking into the room next door.

  “That’s Grandmama’s room,” Kelly said.

  His eyebrow lifted even higher. “Is there a room downstairs we could use?”

  She almost chuckled at this expression. She could hardly blame him for not wanting to sleep right next door to her grandmother. Being in the same house would be intimidating enough. “Yeah. There’s the guest room downstairs with a connecting bathroom. I guess we could sleep down there, since it won’t be for very long.” She glanced over at her grandmother’s room, feeling a sliver of worry. “If Grandmama needs me, she can call me downstairs or something.”

  “Does she need a lot of help at night?”

  “No. She’s really in pretty good shape for her age, but you know she fell last year and it took her a long time recover. I just worry about her being by herself.”

  “She won’t be by herself.” Peter put a hand on her upper arm. It should have been a casual gesture, but it felt strangely intimate. “We’ll be in the house with her. We’ll just be downstairs.”

  Kelly nodded, telling herself to be reasonable. Her grandmother was fine. They would all be fine. Peter would just be staying here for a month and a half, and then she could move back upstairs where she’d always slept. Things weren’t changing permanently. She could easily deal with this for the next forty-four days. “Okay. Good. Let’s go downstairs, then. It’s a really nice room. We completely redid the bathroom when we fixed up the house last year.”

  The guest room was immaculate, as it always was, with a beautiful handmade quilt in white and pale blue and antique mahogany furniture. Kelly tried not to focus on the bed, although she kept imagining what it would be like to sleep there with Peter.

  They’d evidently spent last night together, but she couldn’t remember anything about it.

  “I can sleep here,” Peter said, putting his bag down on the small settee next to the windows. It was about a foot shorter than Peter, with velvet upholstery and wooden arms and trim.

  “You won’t be able to fit!”

  “Sure, I will.” He grinned. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, Kelly.”

  Even the sound of his saying her name made her feel ridiculously jittery. “I’m not uncomfortable.”

  “Yes, you are. You’re trying not to look at the bed. I know you’re doing this mostly for me, and I’m not going to make it any more awkward for you than I have to. I’ll be perfectly fine here. You know, when I was traveling through Europe, I mostly slept on the ground.”

  He was still graciously taking the blame for the marriage, when Kelly knew very well that it was her own fault. “Okay. We’ll see how it goes.” She took a breath. “I guess I’ll go get my stuff from upstairs.”

  “Okay. I’ll go over to my place and bring back what I need for the next month.” He stepped over very close to her, studying her face intently. “You’re okay with this, right? If you’re not, we need to put an end to it now.”

  She smiled at him, in both self-consciousness and affection. She wouldn’t have been comfortable going through this charade with anyone put Peter, but she would trust him in anything. She could trust him in this. “I’m fine. I’m not a child, you know.”

  “I know that.” There was a timbre to her tone that made her shiver a little. Then he gave his head a little shake. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

  She smiled again, but she felt strangely disappointed, like she’d missed something that might have happened a moment ago.

  Walking upstairs, she told herself to get a grip.

  Nothing really had changed. She was the same easy-going, no-nonsense person she’d been the day before. The most important thing to her still was her family, making sure she took care of her grandmother.

  Peter was still her friend, even though he was temporarily her husband.

  Nothing important about her life was different than it had been two days ago.

  ***

  A half-hour later, she heard a sound from the front door, and she stepped out from the guest room, where she’d been folding some of her clothes in the dresser drawers.

  Instead of Peter, Deanna walked in, looking pretty and breezy in a casual green dress and tall boots. In place of her normal smile, she was frowning as she put down her purse. “Where’s Peter?”

  “He’s over at his apartment, getting some of his stuff.”

  “Where’s Grandmama?”

  “I don’t know. She wasn’t here when we arrived.”

  Deanna’s frown deepened. “Oh, she said she was having tea with a friend this afternoon. So tell me what the hell is going on!”

  Kelly sighed. She’d talked to her sister briefly on the phone that morning, but there hadn’t been time or privacy to say much. “I told you before. Peter and I got married last night.”

  “But why?”

  Kelly gave a little shrug. “Because we wanted to.”

  “But you always said you and he were just friends.”

  “We are. I mean, we were.” She cleared her throat. “Things changed.”

  “So you really want this?”

  “Why wouldn’t I want this? Peter is great.”

  “I know, but this whole thing seems a little…”

  “A little what?” It was ridiculous to feel defensive, since everything Deanna suspected about the marriage was true, but Kelly still did. She wasn’t a little kid. If she wanted to get married, she could get married—even if it was a sudden, drunken Vegas thing.

  “A little irrational.”

  “Seriously? You married a man you barely knew because Grandmama bullied you into it. Rose got engaged to her boss to get him out of an awkward situation with his ex-fiancée. And you think my marriage is irrational?”

  Deanna blinked for a moment, and then she burst into dry laughter. “I guess you’re right. I was just worried that…I don’t know how to explain it, but you seemed like you wanted to do…to be someone different the other evening. And I was just wondering if this was some sort of spontaneous way of doing that. I didn’t want you to get stuck in a bad situation.”

  “It’s not a bad situation. It’s really not. It’s Peter. It’s Peter.”

  Deanna scrutinized her face for a longer-than-normal length of time. Then she nodded, as if she was satisfied by what she saw. “Okay. I’ll go along with it then.”

  “There’s nothing to go along with,” Kelly said, knowing as she said the words that they were futile. Deanna could obviously see that something was going on, something other than a normal marriage based in love. “We’re married for real.”

  “I believe you.” Deanna grinned. “Mitchell and I were married for real too.”

  “That’s different,” Kelly muttered. She suddenly wished that she and Peter could go away for the next forty-four d
ays. It was so much harder to put on this ruse when surrounded by people who knew and loved them.

  “Of course, it is,” Deanna replied.

  Before Kelly could say anything else, the front door swung open and a small, imperious woman with a steel-gray bun and a black dress stood in the doorway. Without even a greeting, she pronounced, “I had tea with Stella Blake.”

  Kelly tried not to groan. What the hell had her grandmother been doing with Peter’s mother? “Did you?”

  “Yes, I did. We are very surprised, but we have decided we will not object.”

  Kelly wondered silently what would have happened if one or both of the women had objected.

  “We will have a wedding reception two weeks from tonight. It will be in Chevalier Hall.”

  Kelly tried not to make a face. “Peter and I don’t want a big production or—”

  “Of course, there will be a big production. We will invite everyone. There will be no arguments.”

  Kelly met Deanna’s eyes, and they shared a moment of frustrated understanding. Peter was going to hate this. He didn’t want to rely on his family’s money or connections. He didn’t want the stuffy, artificial lifestyle of his parents. He certainly wouldn’t want a fancy, pretentious party to celebrate his fake marriage.

  But what could she do? Her grandmother would go through with this, no matter what she said. And she didn’t want to hurt the old woman’s feelings.

  “Okay, fine.” Kelly tried not to sound too annoyed. “Peter and I are going to stay here for a while, if that’s okay. We can stay in the guest room downstairs.” She made it sound like it was a favor, rather than the truth that she was mostly staying here to make sure her grandmother wasn’t alone.

  “That is acceptable. Now where is my new grandson?”

  “He went over to his apartment to get his stuff.”

  “He will be here for dinner?”

  “Yes, I’m sure he will be.” Kelly cringed inwardly as she thought about eating dinner with Peter and her grandmother every night. That was sure to be awkward.

  Maybe they could decide to go out to eat several nights a week.

  ***

  When Peter had decided to use this opportunity to persuade Kelly to stay his wife longer than their agreed upon month and a half, he hadn’t counted on having her grandmother around all the time.