Ten
“It’s really beautiful here,” Leighton said as Axl jumped on board his boat and held out a hand to help her.
“The most beautiful thing I see is you,” he said, and it wasn’t a line. He meant it. Not only was she beautiful, she was special. He didn’t take women out on his boat because the lake was his sanctuary. His quiet space. He loved the lake but he had some serious like going on for Leighton.
She rolled her eyes but she gave him an indulgent smile as he took his hand. “You need to get out of Minnesota more often.”
“I’ve been out of Minnesota. Don’t plan on doing it again.”
Leighton was gingerly stepping onto the boat in shorts and an off-the-shoulder sweater. She had pristine white shoes on that he suspected would no longer be white when he dropped her at the hotel later.
“You’re never leaving Minnesota?”
“For vacations, sure. But I don’t plan on living anywhere else.”
Leighton gave a squeak and jumped delicately onto the boat deck from the marina dock. She dropped his hand and put hers on her hips. “Nice rig. Is that what you call it?”
“No. I call it a boat.”
She rolled her eyes again. It was her favorite expression, it seemed. “My parents have a sailboat. I’m seaworthy.”
That made him smile. She had the cutest way of talking. There was something almost retro about Leighton that made him think his grandmother would have really liked her. His father’s mother, who had passed away the year before. She had been very feminine, into all things domestic. She had run her house with an organizational skill that rivaled his drill sergeant.
“Good to know you won’t get seasick.”
Leighton rubbed her arms. “It’s a little chilly. The temperature took a nose dive.”
“I think it’s sixty-eight degrees, so yeah, that’s a little cold for August. Do you want a sweatshirt? I have one below.”
“Maybe I should.”
Axl went and retrieved his sweatshirt for her. Leighton peeled off her sweater, something he wasn’t expecting her to do. She had on a tank top underneath but it clung tight to her curves. He went for her. But she was on to him and she darted out of the way.
“No touching!” she said, laughing. “We’re in broad daylight and there are a half dozen people here at this marina. Behave yourself, Officer Hottie.”
“That’s boring.” He went for her again but she dragged his sweatshirt over her head and everything good in the world disappeared beneath blue cotton. Damn it.
She ignored that comment. “Sadie thinks we should do a video post.”
The real world intruded and he did not like that. “For what?”
“For the show.” She anxiously chewed her fingernail.
“Sure.” He liked the idea of having something concrete. A captured moment of him and Leighton. One, for him to see whenever he wanted. Two, to show the world that even if it was fake, there was something real there too. A connection. A friendship, sexual chemistry.
“Ugh, you’re supposed to say no.”
He laughed. “What? Why?”
“I hate doing videos or taking photos. Everyone has these amazing Instagram shots and I’m over here stuttering and squinting.”
“Leighton.”
“What?”
“You’re bananas.” He used one of her catch phrases. “Give me your phone and we’ll do a video and everyone will think we’re fucking adorable and you know why?”
She shook her head. “Why?”
“Because we are adorable.”
Leighton pulled her phone out of her shorts pocket and smoothed her hair back. She handed it to him without a word.
“Come here beside me with the water in the background,” he said.
She obediently stood next to her. He had them on her phone screen.
“So here we are out on Lake Superior on this sunny Minnesota day. It’s three days until our wedding, so we’re super excited. Aren’t we?”
Leighton nodded. “Yes.”
Axl glanced over at her, amused. “Don’t sound so excited.”
“I’ve very excited.” She sounded stilted and nervous.
He looked back at her phone. “She’s cold. Minnesota is rough on a California girl.”
He could see on the screen she still looked uncomfortable. So he kissed the side of her face. “I’m happy to have Leighton out on the lake with me.” That was true.
“Ack!” she said, wrinkling her nose and pulling away.
That made him laugh. “No sugar for me?”
She turned and stared up at him. What he saw there, in her eyes, made his laughter cut off. “Of course there’s sugar for you.”
He forgot about the camera. All he saw was her and something that damn near made his heart skip a beat. She opened her mouth to speak.
The wind whipped her hair across her face and broke the moment.
Leighton swiped at it.
“See you Saturday,” Axl said to the phone. “We’re going below deck.” He ended the video.
Leighton shook her head. “Oh, my God, doing that is so hard. How do people film themselves constantly?”
“I have no idea. Not my scene. Normally. Until I met you.” He grinned and moved to undo the rope tying the boat to the dock. “Now I kiss you streaming.”
“That makes two of us. I told you about my beauty pageant failures. I like being a behind-the-scenes kind of girl.” Leighton sat down on a cushion.
“When I’m not at work, I’m a leave-me-alone kind of guy.” Axl went to the wheel. “Okay, I’m starting this thing up.” He didn’t want to talk. He just wanted to enjoy the sun and the lake and a beautiful woman.
He didn’t want to stop and think about why he not only did he not mind Leighton on his boat, he liked having her there. She was a cute little skipper to his captain.
Which meant he was fucking nuts.
She was going back to LA and her Beverly Hills life and he was staying right here, on the lake. It didn’t matter that nothing about Leighton screamed California other than her blonde hair and her very put-together outfits. She wasn’t arrogant or spoiled or attention-seeking or any of those other stereotypes he had in his head about rich girls from LA. But that was still her home and where she’d grown up and where she belonged, presumably.
Axl drove along the coast until he got to town and then he cut the engine so they could float past Beaver Bend.
“This is a good perspective on the town,” she said, lifting her sunglasses up and scanning the shore. “It’s a cute place. Like what I imagine Norway looking like.”
“Sure, if Norway was drowning in coffee shops and pet groomers.”
Leighton laughed. “And what’s wrong with coffee and clean dogs?”
“Nothing.” Axl sat back, tipping his head to feel the sun on his face. “Someday I’d like a dog. But I’m concerned I work too much. Dogs need time and attention.”
“I’ve never had a dog. My dad is allergic. I would love a dog. But my apartment is too small and I travel too much.”
“I always had a dog growing up.” That was how he envisioned his life as an old man. Fishing with his dog. It was a good goal.
Leighton cocked her head. She was sitting with her ankles crossed. “Why do I picture you as being the kid who ran wild in the woods slapping down branches with a stick?”
“That’s probably pretty accurate. In the summer, I was in the woods. The winter, the ice rink. I loved playing hockey.” Leighton didn’t strike him as a kid who had played sports. “What did you do as a kid?”
“I read books. And suffered through dance lessons and singing lessons. I went on a few acting auditions at my mother’s insistence but I cried at one and ran out on another so my mother gave up on that dream.”
He felt bad for young Leighton. She must have been terrified. “Why do parents want to live vicariously through their kids? I don’t get that.”
“Do you want kids, Axl?” she asked, and her voice sounded wistful.
It told him right away that she wanted a family.
“It’s not what I ever pictured for myself, no,” he said truthfully and reluctantly. He hated when women pressed him, wanting an explanation. He didn’t even know entirely why. He’d just never seen that future for himself and he never wanted to defend that to anyone. “But I don’t know,” he said. “Never say never. I like kids, just never thought I would be good at raising them.”
Leighton didn’t ask him intrusive questions.
She just said, “I completely disagree. I think you’d be a great dad.”
“Thanks.” Axl didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t want to talk about feelings. And he didn’t want her to compliment him. It wasn’t his thing. But he reluctantly asked, needing to hear her answer. “Do you want kids?”
“I’m not sure, honestly. I do, in theory. But in reality, it seems scary. Too much responsibility. I would be happy with a dog.”
That wasn’t the response he had thought he would get. He thought she would say she wanted kids as soon as possible and that he would be able to dismiss him and her as never working because they weren’t on the same page.
But damn, it seemed like they were exactly on the same page.
It wasn’t something he should even be thinking about at all but he was. He couldn’t shake it. Leighton was special and it felt like the ground underneath him was rocking like this boat.
“How did you get your name?” he asked, wanting to change to the subject.
“It’s my mother’s maiden name.”
“That makes sense.”
This story always kind of amused him, even though he’d hated his name growing up. Well, he should say it amused him now, because the idea of his mother throwing caution to the wind seemed so out of character. As a kid, he’d hated when they would tell this story because it was just embarrassing. “Back in the day, my mother was a huge Guns N’ Roses fan. Apparently, I was conceived in a hotel room after the concert. My parents had to drive to Wisconsin for the show and my mother was really excited. My father likes to joke he had an appetite for seduction, which is awkward as shit when you’re sixteen and he tells that at holiday dinners.”
Leighton looked confused. “I don’t get it.”
“It was the Appetite for Destruction tour. So, my dad’s lame joke.”
“Oooh. Oh, gosh, that would be embarrassing as a teenager. But at least your parents are still together. It wasn’t a wham-bam.”
“Whoa.” Axl put up his hand. “Can we just move on? I do not want to think about my parents having spontaneous sex.”
Leighton shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s nice to know my parents have passion. Obviously, I don’t want details but I love that they still flirt with each other. It’s…reassuring.”
That was an interesting response. “Reassuring of what?”
“That they love each other. But also that passion isn’t solely for the young. Don’t you want to know you’ll still have passion when you’re eighty? Like Bill and Soon-ja?”
Every time he tried to keep the conversation casual Leighton seemed to steer it into something serious. The future. She was the kind of woman who wanted a commitment.
And he actually wished for a brief second that he could give it to her. Full on, marriage and the house and the boat and the dog and the kids.
“I don’t think I’ll ever stop wanting sex,” he said, purposely missing the point. “I certainly want it right now.”
She could have pressed, but she let him change the subject. “I am not having sex with you on this boat in front of a hundred buildings.”
“There is always below deck.”
She was considering it, he could tell. Axl moved closer to her, pulling her sunglasses off her face so he could see her eyes. “It will warm you up,” he murmured.
“That sounds like man logic.”
“Let me show you.” Axl ran his hand over her thigh, up to where he could brush over the front of her shorts.
Suddenly, her phone started squawking. She jumped back and dug in her pocket. “That’s my alert. Oh, my God, what did I forget?”
Axl sighed. Blue balls on the lake for him. He could just tell she wasn’t in the sex zone. She was distracted by plans and parents and future dogs.
“Darn it! I totally forgot I have a staff meeting in thirty minutes. Axl, we have to go back.”
He could have argued with her. Used all his sexual powers of persuasion, but he decided to let it go. Leighton was right. He had started all of this. Now his job was to make sure Leighton didn’t lose her mind in the process of pulling out a fake wedding on five days notice. They worked really well as a team, something he wasn’t used to, but had to admit he liked. They brought out the best in each other, complemented each other. It was more enjoyable than he ever could have imagined.
“Hang on,” he told her. “I’ll have you back in ten minutes.”
But he did give her a kiss, hard, and cupped her sex through her shorts.
“I’m glad you drive too fast,” he told her truthfully and stood up to start the boat.
“I wasn’t speeding,” Leighton said. “You just drive too slow in Minnesota.”
“Maybe I should call you Speed Demon instead of ‘babe.’”
“Maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe you should just call me Leighton.” She gave him a sweet smile.
Maybe what he wanted was to call her his.
CLEAVAGE.
Leighton laughed when she read the text from Axl as she stood in the dressing room of a local bridal shop the next day.
NO.
“What’s so funny, sweetie?” the bridal attendant, whose name was June, asked her.
“My fiancé wants my dress to have cleavage.”
June, who was in her sixties and wore a perpetual frown, shook her head. “Men are pigs.”
Leighton was starting to think her mother had been right. She had wanted to have a gown flown in from LA but Leighton had thought it would be good PR to use a local shop. But June, the bridal shop employee, was the equivalent of the weather pattern they called June Gloom in LA. Cold and completely lacking in sunshine. This woman just didn’t appear to enjoy her job because she had a serious attitude.
She also seemed to be a man hater.
Which was a buzz kill even for a fake wedding.
Leighton wished she had a friend with her.
But in a way, she did. Axl had been texting her nonstop.
He thought that he really was deserving of the stupid Ice Man nickname, but he wasn’t. He was funny in a very dry way.
Send me a pic.
Leighton amused herself by sending him a picture of June, picking through the racks.
Axl sent her back an emoji with its tongue sticking out.
June shot her an annoyed look over her shoulder. Leighton had yet to even try a gown on, she’d been there all of six minutes, and June clearly wanted her to disappear. It was time to take charge of the appointment.
She was good at making quick decisions and sorting through bullshit to get results. It was her job. She came by her nickname honestly. Taking a selfie blowing a kiss, she sent it to Axl. He texted back immediately.
You are so cute.
It gave her butterflies. Fucking butterflies.
“Where are your sweetheart necklines on a mermaid gown?” If Axl wanted cleavage, he was getting cleavage.
June looked at her blankly.
Determined not to be annoyed, she gave her a smile. “I’ll just look around.”
She knew her way around a bridal shop. Usually dresses were grouped by designer then displayed by style, but this shop seemed to have just unpacked stock and stuck it anywhere on the racks. Maybe there wasn’t a high demand for wedding gowns in Beaver Bend. That seemed unlikely but she had no data. This just wasn’t standard operating procedure in her experience.
After twenty minutes of pushing and shoving at dresses on the racks to see each dress, she realized two things. One, she needed to take her fitness more seriously because her arms were killing her. Two, this was an epic fail. Nothing was current or in style.
It left her wondering what the hell local brides did. Order online? Probably. Which could work except that left a woman no ability to try on a multitude of gowns and make her choice.
Super frustrating.
Leighton blew her hair out of her eyes. “June, thanks for your help but I’m not seeing anything here that works for me.”
The woman turned and shot her a look like she was the biggest bitch on the planet. “You’re not even going to try anything on?”
“No, thank you.”
“I just spent thirty minutes pulling gowns,” June said, her tone accusatory.
Leighton was taken aback. “Well, sorry, but I don’t like any of these.”
“Not rich enough for you, huh? No skin off my back, honey.”
“Uh, I should think not.” Stunned, Leighton grabbed her purse and left the store. She took a deep breath and felt a moment of pity for all the hopeful brides to step into this shop past, present, and future, and then started toward her rental car.
“Call Mom,” she told her phone.
“Hi, baby! How’s it going? What can Mommy do to help?”
Leighton realized she was about to make all her mother’s dreams come true. “Mom, I need you to find me a dress today and overnight it so I can get fitted tomorrow. I can’t find anything here.”
“Well, good Lord, of course not. You’re practically in the wilderness.”
“Now that is an exaggeration. But there’s just one bridal salon in town and the lady is a cranky-pants with a dated selection. So…” She took a deep breath. “I’m giving you free rein. Pick out whatever you want.” She was crunched for time, but also, curious what her mother would come up with.
“Whatever I want?” Her mother sounded like a kid in the candy store with a hundred dollar bill in hand.
“Whatever you want.” Leighton propped her phone on her shoulder so she could root around in her handbag for sunglasses. It was chilly for summer but it was sunny. She couldn’t see a darn thing. “Just one caveat, Mom.”
“Poop. What?”
That made her laugh. “No, you’ll like this. Axl requested cleavage so make sure the neckline isn’t too demure.”
“Sexy is my specialty.”
Truer words were never spoken.
“But I’m stunned you’re okay with that, Lele.” Her mother did sound thoroughly shocked. “Maybe there is some of me in you after all.”
That made her roll her eyes as she found her sunglasses and tried to yank them out of the handbag. “Doubtful. But I have to admit, I want to wow him. I want him to drool.” She did. Real or not, she wanted that man’s jaw to drop when he saw her on Saturday. “He seems to think I’m sexy, so I want to give him a great view.”
“Drooling. Check. Let Mommy handle everything. He’ll be eating out of your hand.”
She’d rather he just eat her, but she kept her dirty thoughts to herself. “I totally trust you. Let me know what’s going on. It’s still mid-morning there so hopefully you can find something soon. I really want a dress here by tomorrow.”
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
It wouldn’t. Money moved mountains and both of her parents were expert at using that to their advantage. Normally it made Leighton uncomfortable but right now she didn’t have much choice. “Thanks, Mom. Call me later, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yay!”
“Yay” Leighton parroted because it would make her mother happy to sound over-the-moon excited. She was tugging out her sunglasses and attempting to end the call simultaneously when she dropped her phone.
It landed on the sidewalk but thankfully she didn’t shatter the screen. When she rose again, she stuck her glasses on her face and her phone in her purse. She realized Winnie Schwartz was standing in the doorway to her groomer’s shop, smoking a cigarette.
“Hi, Winnie,” she said, waving.
“Hey.”
Since her first contact with Winnie the woman had never been anything but bubbly and sweet. Now she looked and sounded sullen. She was leaning against the wall, ankles crossed.
“Are you excited for Saturday?”
Winnie took a hit off her cigarette. “Cut the crap, Leighton. I know you’re getting married Saturday too. And thanks to you, no one has the time of day for me. I might as well have eloped. Everyone all over town is talking about you and Axl and how it was love at first sight.”
The venom in Winnie’s voice shocked her. First June had been sulky, now Winnie was angry. It wasn’t often that Leighton drew the ire of other women. She wasn’t someone who had ever inspired jealousy, at least not in Beverly Hills. “I’m sorry, Winnie. I didn’t think that it would cause any issues for you.” That wasn’t entirely true. She hadn’t really given much thought to Winnie at all. She had been worried about saving her own ass.
Winnie shrugged. “It’s whatever. I guess it’s my fault. I applied to the show without talking to Todd and he never wanted to do it. I’m just sorry that I won in the first place. And sorry that you thought it was okay to steal my special day.”
With that, as Leighton stood with her mouth wide open, Winnie tossed her cigarette on the ground, stomped on it, and kicked open the door to her shop.
Leighton stood there, feeling as kicked as that door.
If she was in love with Axl, she wouldn’t feel guilty. Winnie was right. She shouldn’t have applied to be on the show without her fiancé’s approval or knowledge. But because this wasn’t a real marriage and was just the two of them trying to save their own respective butts, she did feel a twinge of something that felt a lot like guilt.
It would suck to be the bride who had a wedding on the same day as a whole town was buzzing about a TV wedding. Especially since it involved one of their own men in blue.
Not wanting Winnie to come back out and drive her point home harder, Leighton unlocked her rental and climbed in. She needed to regroup, put it behind her, and go meet the tent guy. Yet she had a pit in her stomach and a telltale scratchy throat that indicated anxiety. God, she hated that sensation. Feeling like she couldn’t breathe, she hit the button to send the window down and sucked in some fresh air.
Her phone buzzed with a text notification.
Axl.
You okay?
How did he always know when she was vulnerable?
It was like he had a sixth sense.
Dress shopping was a failure. I’m going to have to have my mother send me something.
In three days?
My mother will have it to me by tomorrow.
Axl’s face popped up on her screen. He was actually calling her.
“Hello?”
“What else it wrong? You don’t sound right.”
Now how in the hell did he know she didn’t “sound right” in a text message? The man was psychic.
Either that or they had a legitimate connection.
Which she was starting to think they did.
“I ran into Winnie Schwartz and she said I stole her wedding day.”
There was a pause. “But didn’t her fiancé cancel their appearance on the show?”
“Yes.”
“Then she should be pissed at him, not you. Or hell, maybe not pissed at all. What’s the big deal? It’s not like we have the same guest list and they chose us over them.”
Men didn’t get it. They didn’t understand that a wedding day was life to a woman. That she waited since childhood to be the star of the show for approximately twelve hours. To know that while your wedding was going on, another woman was having a splashy wedding for TV across town would be upsetting. She totally understood that.
“I think she’s just disappointed. I can relate to that. It’s a big deal.”
“So you feel bad for her?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a nicer person than me. I think this is on her. Or her fiancé. I wouldn’t worry about it. But I think you’re very sweet to care.”
Leighton took a deep breath. “I still feel bad, but thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
She wished she could see him that night but honestly, she had so much to do and he worked until eleven. She wasn’t sure she could keep her eyes open until then, let alone fool around. It pained her to say it but she needed sleep more than an orgasm.
“Tomorrow? Are you serious? I can’t see you tonight?”
He sounded so salty about it she was touched. “You work late and I am going to be so tired. I can’t face the parents tomorrow without a good night’s sleep.”
“I understand, baby. But I want to sleep next to you.”
He sounded a little pouty and Leighton thought it was adorable. So much for being the self-proclaimed loner. “You’ll be okay, I’m sure.”
“Leave me a key at the front desk and I’ll just slip in and get in bed with you. I promise I won’t wake you up.”
Damn him for being adorable on top of being sexy and ridiculously masculine. It was a trio of traits she could not resist. She crumpled like a tissue. “If that’s what you want.”
“I want.”
There it was again. The distinct sensation in her chest of her catching feelings. “If I wake up with you trying to get in my pants I’m going to be upset with you.”
Axl laughed softly. “That is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.”
Damn it. He was right.