A Wife by Accident (5 page)

She set some potatoes to boil. The house seemed strangely lonely and far too quiet without Gary there. Of course, he didn’t talk much when he was there. But still, she almost hoped he would come home early just to give her something to take her mind off the lousy day she’d had.

“Home?
What
a stupid word to even think
,” she said aloud to herself. This wasn’t her home. She shouldn’t kid herself for a second about that. No sense getting too cozy. As soon as the six months were up, Gary would give her that promised ten-thousand-dollar bonus and send her on her not-so-merry way back to the small apartment that really was her home.

•

Gary stood inside the foyer and grinned when he saw
Hayely’s
shoes kicked off in the corner. She was always so timid about scuffing the marble floor. He should have designed a log cabin with floors people could track dirt in on, but the architectural artist in him had gotten carried away and designed the house he’d pictured in fairy tales. He unlaced his big work boots and set them down beside her little black pumps.

An amazing, heavenly smell drifted to him as he lined up his boots. These were not the usual smells of paint and plaster; this was the aroma of a good old-fashioned home cooked meal. How many years had it been since he’d had one of those? He couldn’t even remember.

He walked into the kitchen and plunked himself down wearily at the table.
Hayely
heaped his plate full of food and smiled at him. His nose had a black smudge on it and there was a ragged tear above the pocket on one of his white T-shirts.

“You shaved,” she noticed. Her gaze scanned the planes of his face and he saw her hands tremble just so slightly.

He looked up at her with curiosity as she set a bowl full of mashed potatoes, a platter of asparagus wrapped in bacon, and another dish of poached salmon down in front of him.

“You don’t have to cook for me, you know. That wasn’t part of the deal.” He gazed up at her and thought he caught something wistful in her expression.

Hayely
stood next to him. “I don’t mind. It’s nice to be able to do something that someone else appreciates.
Especially after eight long hours at that office.”

He took a huge fork full of fluffy potatoes and gulped them down. “I was getting sick of fast food. And I can’t cook worth a darn.” He shoveled in more potatoes after swirling in some more butter.

“Well, I’m glad you’re happy. I’ll be painting the living room if you need anything.” She started to walk around him when he caught her.

His fingers closed gently around her wrist. “You’re not going to eat?” he asked with only the faintest hint of disappointment and then quickly resumed his former manner.

“You’d want me to? With you, I mean?” She looked from his green-brown eyes to his hand at her wrist.

“Absolutely.”
He released his loose hold and gestured brusquely to the seat across from him. “I’d like to talk with you.”

“You would? I didn’t think you’d want to converse with the hired help.” The gleam in her eyes showed that she teased.

He nodded and swallowed his food. “Why wouldn’t I? We all have to suffer through meetings sometimes. You’re not the exception.”

She sat down and helped herself to some asparagus. “You told me you didn’t want conversation or questions.”

He smiled wickedly. “You paid attention to that? I said a lot of things in that sentence I should amend.”

“Well, you don’t generally seem to be the talkative type. Anyway, it doesn’t matter.”

“What type do I seem?” he asked.

Hayely’s
hand shook again as she picked up her fork. “I didn’t mean anything bad. We just haven’t exactly spoken much.”

He propped his muscular arm up on the tabletop. “I figure if I don’t know a person or don’t like a person, there’s not really much need for small talk.”

She rolled her head side to side and relaxed. “Guess I must have passed the test.”

“This fish is delicious,” he said with a sound of appreciation low in his throat. After a steady week of hamburgers and fast food tacos, a salmon dinner was just short of heaven. “Actually, I wanted to talk with you about something in specific.”

“Okay.”

“You need to move into this house with me,” he declared with a casual shrug.

•

Hayely
almost choked on her food and her eyes widened. His actions had already surprised her several times over. He alternated between setting her on edge with his insane demands and then soothing her with his low, calm voice.

But this?
This was crazy talk.

“I’ll hire someone to move your things into one of the empty bedrooms tomorrow,” he continued. He waved his fork in the air as if in the grip of some great revelation. “Or even better—buy yourself new furniture for that room and sell your old things if you want. Or put them in storage.
Whichever.
I’ll have the movers do what you want tomorrow while you’re at work.”

Hayely
stared at him in dumbfounded silence. This was the second time she’d seen him genuinely expect the impossible to be done in the snap of a finger.

“Are you nuts?” she finally asked in the calmest tone she could muster.

Gary stopped chewing and looked up at her with the same \self-assured expression she’d seen when she stepped on his watch.

“I made a promise when I was younger and I mean to keep it. I won’t be able to keep it unless a particular man in a position of power allows me to. And he won’t allow me to unless he sees I’m a family man with a stable home and a wife.”

“I still don’t understand why I have to move in,” she said with a hint of stubborn confusion.

“Because I’ll be contacting this man tomorrow and the minute I do, he’ll start keeping a very close eye on me.
And on you.
If you come and go every evening and he catches wind of it, he’ll know something’s not right. I can’t afford for him to suspect anything.”

“This whole thing had better not be about some multi-million-dollar acquisition you promised yourself you’d chase down and conquer when you were younger.”

“It’s not,” Gary said through clenched teeth. “And I don’t think that’s what you think of me either.”

Hayely
planted her elbow on the table and rested her forehead in the palm of her hand. “I have a one-year lease on my apartment. Ten months left to go.”

“I’ll pay it off.”

She groaned. “What about my mail?
My phone?
I’ll have to give the new information to my office and my family, too. What if someone calls and you answer the phone?”

“I’ll give you a cell phone with your own private number tomorrow. I don’t see a problem with the address change. No one will recognize it.”

“Are you kidding? This is the most exclusive area of town.” Gary’s estate took up most of the area all on its own, she mused.

“Tell them you’re house-sitting for friend for a few months.” He cut apart the last succulent piece of salmon.

Hayely
leaned back in her chair. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

She knew he enjoyed the way her emotions swam so openly across her eyes when she was coming to an agreement. She’d never been able to help that.

“You’d never make a good corporate negotiator.”

She sighed.

“Think of it this way, Mrs. Tarleton. You’ll have something to put into a savings account now. You’ll be saving all that rent money. Grocery, electricity, water and phone bill money, too. Look at me as your financial plan.”

She waved her hands in the air.
“And that.
That’s another thing.” Laughter threatened to bubble up inside her.
Incorrigible.
That was the word she’d use to describe him.
Incorrigible and slightly antisocial in an endearing way.

“That?”

“That ‘Mrs. Tarleton’ thing.
It’s on all the accounts and all the credit cards. I think I can avoid changing it on everything else. Lots of women keep their maiden names. And I’ve tried not to buy much locally, but I have to sign that new name for all the delivery men anyway, so I might as well just shop here. Everyone in this city is going to know we’re married within the month at this rate.”

“All the more reason for you to move in here by tomorrow.
At least we’ve managed to keep it out of the papers. What does it really matter, though? If letting the secret out makes it more convincing, so be it. I kind of like the idea.”

Hayely
pushed herself away from the table, alternated between laughing and gritting her teeth, and finally stomped her foot down once. He was absolutely infuriating without even trying. She’d lose her job instantly and her family would disown her for sure, but he didn’t seem to give that much thought at the moment.

“I’ll be ruined! Don’t you even care if I’m ruined?”

She rose up on the balls of her feet a little and then marched away from the table. Just as she passed Gary, he reached out and caught her arm again. This time he stood to face her.

Without a word, he caught her other wrist, gently guided her back around to face him, pulling her slightly closer to him in the process.

“Look up at me,
Hayely
,” he commanded.

She turned her face up, meeting his gaze defiantly. “You know, I enjoy decorating your home. But I hate the circumstances of it.”

“We signed a contract. What would you have me do?” he asked softly.

“Get a new homeowner’s insurance policy that would have covered that stupid watch.”

•

Gary dropped her hands and stepped away. He wasn’t sure where the boundaries were. He’d paid for her services, and if he crossed any line she might feel—well, she might believe he looked at her without the respect she deserved and would hate him for it.

But he did respect her. He hadn’t been able to get the way she spoke with such poised, calm fire out of his head for the last two days. He admired that quality in a woman. He also wondered how anyone as classically pretty as
Hayely
could come across so sure of herself yet so uncertain about everything around her at the same time.

They stood facing each other in silence for moments, unsure, breathing. The thud of the front door shook them both and the spell was broken.

“Charlie,”
Hayely
greeted too enthusiastically. “Would you like some pineapple upside down cake?”

Was that relief or disappointment in the air between them?

Charlie crossed the room toward them, quickly closing the space with his long, skinny legs. “No one’s fool enough to say no to that offer,” he said.

As Charlie sat down, Gary nodded at him and then left the room.

“What’s with him?” Charlie asked.

Hayely
poured them both a cup of coffee to go with the cake. “We just had a discussion, that’s all. Looks like I’m moving in tomorrow.”

Charlie looked from
Hayely
to the dirty dishes scattered across the table. “Did you two just eat dinner? And I missed out?”

Hayely
nodded. “You’ll have to come earlier next time. I got a new recipe book the other day.”

Charlie shook his head. In the twenty years since he’d met Gary, the times they’d had to relax and eat a home-cooked meal had been few and far between. There had been too many business luncheons, too many airplane meals to count, too many well-meant setups with women who were mostly captivated by Gary’s bankbook.

“Didn’t you hear me say I’m moving in?”
Hayely
frowned at him. The man had seemed lost in his own world for a moment.

Charlie waved his hand cheerfully. “Oh, I already know about that. Gary was worried someone might see you leave. Then sure enough, our accountant was coming here last night and asked him why his wife was going out of town so soon after the wedding. Gary didn’t want that kind of assumption to happen again.”

“Oh.” She took a sip of coffee and looked thoughtfully at Charlie. “Gary was just telling me about the promise he’d made—why he needed a temporary wife. It sounds awfully important to him.”

Charlie assessed the casual look on her face carefully. If Gary trusted her, then he could. “Well, after growing up in that place, he knows firsthand what
it’s
like. He wants to make sure those kids have the absolute best.”

Hayely
gazed into her coffee mug. If she pushed the subject, Charlie might realize how little she really knew and not let something slip later. And she didn’t know when she might need to understand more about her new boss.
Co-conspirator.
Husband.
Whatever he was to her.

“I’d better go upstairs and let Gary know which room to move my things into.” She gave Charlie a smile and left him alone at the table with the entire cake and a fork.

She reached the top of the stairs and called out, “Gary? Are you up here?” Without much in the way of furniture, a cold museum-like echo came back her. “Gary?”