“I don’t think I can do it, Travis,” she admitted and laid the flat of her hand against a stomach that was spinning and churning with nerves.
“Oh, you’re going to do it,” Travis told her and took her shoulders in a hard grip. “We’ve got a garden full of guests out there and the musicians are tuning up. Reporters are standing out on the drive and security just caught a photographer sneaking in over the paddock fence.”
“Oh, God….” He’d always been a favorite of the paparazzi. They followed him everywhere, taking pictures of Travis with whatever woman happened to be hanging on his arm. It just hadn’t occurred to Julie that now she’d be a photographer’s target. Her whole life was about to change and she wasn’t sure she could go through with it.
“You’re just nervous.”
“Oh, boy, howdy,” she said, nodding frantically.
He tipped her chin up, stared into her eyes and said, “You’ll get over it.”
“I don’t think so,” Julie said, willing her stomach to settle. “I’ve really got a bad feeling about this, Travis. It’s all so much…more than I thought it would be. This is marriage, Travis. Even if it’s only temporary, it’s marriage. I can’t do this again.”
He frowned at her. “If you think you’re backing out now, you’re nuts. A King wedding is big news. A King being stood up at the altar is even bigger news and that’s not going to happen.”
“Fine,” she said, snatching at his words desperately. “Then you dump me. I don’t care. I’ll explain that you’ve changed your mind and—”
“What’s this all about?” he interrupted and stared down at her.
Julie refused to be swayed by the soft brown of his eyes. Instead, she steeled herself, stomped across the room and pointed out the window at the elegantly decorated garden below. There were two hundred people, sitting in rented white chairs on opposite sides of a white carpeted aisle.
A minister waited at the head of that aisle in a gazebo draped in brilliantly shaded roses and a quartet of violinists were off to one side, playing classical music for the waiting guests. Farther in the distance, a white tent, strewn with yet more roses, awaited the reception party.
“That, Travis,” she said, swallowing hard against the ball of nerves jostling the black flowers of death in the pit of her stomach. “That’s what this is about. I can’t face those people and lie. I’m a terrible liar. You know that. I get blotchy and start to giggle and then it gets bad.”
“You’re making too big a deal out of this.” He strolled across the room, as if he had all the time in the world. “Think of it like a play. We’re a couple of actors, saying our lines then celebrating with a party.”
“A play. Great.” She threw her hands high, then let them slap against the cool silk of her gown. “The last time I was in a play, I was a strawberry in the fourth grade pageant.”
He sighed. “Julie…”
“No,” she said, repeating herself now and not even caring anymore. “I can’t. I’m really sorry, Travis.”
“Oh, well, as long as you’re sorry.” His mouth tightened up and Julie frowned right back at him.
“I warned you that I was no good at this.”
“You signed a contract,” he reminded her.
Yes, she really had. He’d put their little agreement into writing and one of a fleet of King lawyers—or was that a herd?—had notarized her signature. So technically, she was stuck. Emotionally, she was still looking for a back door.
“This was a bad idea.”
“So you said.”
“It bears repeating.”
“Maybe,” he said and took her hand in his. “But it’s the one we agreed on. So pick up your bouquet, we’ll go downstairs and get this over with.”
“I think I’m gonna be sick.”
His eyebrows went straight up. “I believe that’s the first time a woman has gotten nauseous at the thought of marrying me.”
“First time for everything.” Julie looked out the window again and her gaze seemed to arrow in straight on her mother and stepfather. Her mother was worried. Not hard to tell even from a distance, since she was wringing the handle of her new purse. Her stepfather looked uncomfortable, tugging at the collar and tie strangling him.
They didn’t approve of what she was doing, Julie knew. But they were there for her. Supporting her. Her gaze slipped to the other side of the aisle where the King family took up the first two rows. There was Gina, pregnant and glowing, with Adam standing beside her, waiting to take his place as best man. Jackson, the youngest of the King brothers, was seated beside Gina and there were King cousins and aunts and uncles there as well.
Everyone was waiting on her.
But no pressure.
Beside her, Travis whispered, “Think of the future, Julie. Your future. In a year, you’ll have your bakery, I’ll have my distribution deal and everything will go back to normal.”
She wished she could believe him. But that bad feeling inside wouldn’t go away. And that, more than anything, warned her that “normal” might not be what either one of them were expecting.
Two
T he ceremony was over fast and Travis was grateful. Hard enough standing there holding Julie’s hand and feeling her nervous tremors rocking through her body. But as promised, when she said her vows, her voice had shaken and she got the giggles halfway through.
She really was a terrible liar, he thought, watching her dance with his younger brother, Jackson. But the deed was done now. He glanced down at the plain gold band on his left ring finger. Idly, he rubbed the ring with his thumb and tried not to feel like the small circle of gold was somehow a tiny noose shutting off his air supply.
This had been his idea after all, despite the fact that Travis had always avoided marriage. Generally, he stayed with a woman until she started getting that let’s-get-married-and-make-rich-babies-so-I-can-get-a-fat-settlement look in her eye. Then he was off, moving on to someone new. It kept life interesting. Kept him footloose, which is just the way he liked it.
Now, he was married and looking at a sex-free year.
Hmm…
“Second thoughts?”
Travis turned his head to meet his brother Adam’s curious gaze. In the last several months, there’d been a change in the oldest King brother. Oh, he still looked the same, but his attitude had shifted. He wasn’t concentrating solely on the King ranch anymore. Now his life revolved around Gina and their coming baby.