“Are you nervous?” Tyler asks as we’re about to walk out into the backyard.

“No,” I say, shaking my head as my heart pounds in my chest. I shake out my hands and then try to place my arms naturally, but any position I put them in seems anything but natural.

“What are you doing?” he asks, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “You look like you’re playing with an invisible marionette.”

“I don’t know!” I snap. My palms are so sweaty. This dress is so tight. “I’m freaking out!”

“It’s just a party,” he says in a calm voice. “Just try to have fun.”

“A party with a hundred people I don’t know,” I fire back. “And they’re all expecting me to be your perfect new wife.”

He smiles as he looks me up and down in my new red dress. “You definitely look the part. That dress looks fucking perfect on you.”

I feel like I’m going to puke. This can’t be happening. Over a hundred of the most powerful people in the country are in the backyard waiting to meet Tyler’s new wife. Waiting to meet me.

I’m not prepared for this. I hate being unprepared.

“I’m leaving,” I say, turning to the front door as panic starts to settle in.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Tyler says, grabbing my hands before I can bolt. He bends his knees until our faces are level. “It’s going to go great,” he whispers in a soothing voice. I can already feel my nerves going away as I stare into his bright green eyes. “I’ll be beside you the entire time. Everyone is going to love you.”

“You don’t understand,” I say, gulping down panicked breaths of air. “I’m not good with people, and I’m definitely not good at parties.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re fun to be around. Just be yourself.”

I shake my head out, trying to get rid of the migraine that’s raging forward, and take a deep breath. I have to do this. If I don’t, Mr. McMillan will still be in charge of the company and will surely close down the factory in Summerland.

I squeeze my eyes impossibly tight, thinking of the park in the small town of Summerland where all of the families gather on Sunday afternoons for a huge communal barbecue in the summers, and the little elementary school that puts on the most adorable plays at Christmas time. I have to do it. For them.

“Okay,” I say, opening my eyes and slowly exhaling as I look at Tyler. “Let’s just go.”

He nods and then turns to the door. My eyes glide over his body, admiring the fitted suit he’s wearing. It’s a gorgeous dark blue with a light blue collared shirt underneath. He’s not wearing a tie, and the first few buttons are open, giving me a mouth-watering glimpse of the tanned skin of his muscular chest.

He takes my hand and gently pulls me to his side. I catch our reflection in the mirror on the wall and gasp at how good we look together.

It’s all pretend, Dahlia. Don’t forget that.

The next thirty minutes are a blur as I’m whisked around the McMillans’ spectacular backyard, meeting dozens of people. I smile and nod as Tyler introduces me to cousins, business associates, family friends, neighbors, and on and on and on.

“This is my cousin, Jason,” Tyler says, smiling as he introduces me to a handsome young man in a sports jacket and jeans. “He’s the real brains behind McMillan Worldwide.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say, shaking Jason’s hand. “I was wondering who the real brains of the company was. I knew it couldn’t be this guy,” I say, pointing at Tyler.

“I’m more like the cock of the company,” Tyler says with a grin.

“You sure are,” Jason says with a grin. “You’re always good at fucking things up.”

We all laugh and then chat easily for a few minutes. Jason seems like a nice guy, and I’m glad I’ll have a friend at the new corporate office and in Tyler’s family.

“I like him,” I say when we move on.

“He’s the good cousin,” Tyler says with a nod. “His older brother Nick, on the other hand, is the asshole of the company.”

We walk around the lit up inground swimming pool and slowly make our way to the grass, ducking under the tall maple trees with beautiful lanterns hanging from the thick branches. My head is spinning with a million names that I’ll never remember when I finally get a break.

“That was… something,” I say when Tyler comes back with a beer for him and a white wine spritzer for me. I down half of it in one gulp.

“You did great,” he says, watching my lips as I take another sip. “Everyone believed that you were my wife.”

I take another long gulp as my heart finally stops pounding. Mack McMillan has very powerful friends, and I just met dozens of owners and CEOs of the nation’s biggest companies. Every time I shook a hand of a CEO, I saw it as another company that I won’t be able to work for once this all blows up in my face.

“Oh, fuck,” Tyler mutters, rolling his eyes as he looks away from the smug-looking guy who’s approaching us with a smirk on his face. “I was hoping he wouldn’t come.”

“Cuz!” the man says, opening his arms as he arrives.

Tyler gives him a quick hug that lacks any real emotion.

“Dahlia,” Tyler says, sliding a protective arm over my shoulder, “this is my cousin, Nick.”

Nick gives me a warm smile as he shakes my hand. I can feel Tyler’s body tighten beside me, and it only eases up when I get my hand back from Nick.

“It’s nice to finally meet the woman who locked down my cousin,” he says with an easy smile. He looks similar to Tyler but is not nearly as good-looking and definitely doesn’t have the same je ne sais quoi. His nose is thicker, and his eyebrows are starting to look like scary caterpillars the more I look at them.

Stop staring at his eyebrows!

“So, Tyler kept you hidden from us for two whole years?” he says, glancing at my breasts. “I can see why. He must have been worried that I would steal you for myself.”

“I don’t think that would have been a problem,” I say, staring him dead in the eyes. I know Tyler doesn’t like this guy, and after thirty seconds with him, I can see why. The arrogant looks, the condescending tone, the sinister eyebrows-it’s all turning me off faster than being on a date with a guy who can’t stop bitching about his ex.

He laughs it off. “You’re the one from the Summerland factory,” he says. “Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to have a job for a wife of Tyler’s in the company once we close the plant down.”

I whip my head around to glare at Tyler with accusing eyes. The whole reason I’m here is because he promised that the factory would remain open. I wasn’t aware they had already made plans to shut it down.

“That decision is not final yet,” Tyler says, raising his chin as he stares his cousin down.

Nick shrugs. “It’s only a matter of time. That was why we bought it in the first place.”

My heart is thumping in my chest. That’s why they bought it in the first place? What the hell?

“Oh, really?” I say through gritted teeth as I try to melt Tyler with my eyes.

“Would you excuse us, Nick?” I say without taking my eyes off of Tyler. “My new husband has a lot of explaining to do.”

Nick cringes and then leaves, laughing to himself at the trouble he’s caused his cousin.

I cross my arms over my chest as I glare at Tyler with hard eyes. “Explain.”

“I told you,” he says, looking exasperated.

“The truth. I want the truth or I’ll scream out that this whole marriage is a sham.”

“Dahlia, I told y—”

“Three.”

“Dahlia…”

“Two.”

“Okay, okay,” he says in a panic. “I’m not the only consideration for the top position at McMillan Worldwide Inc.”

I want to skin him alive.

“Just wait,” he says, looking jittery when he sees my furious face. “I’ll explain everything. My father is also considering my cousin Nick for the spot.”

My arms drop to my sides as an empty pit forms in my stomach. “And Nick wants to close the factory?”

Tyler nods his frustratingly beautiful head.

“I told you the truth,” he says, running a hand through his hair. “If I become the boss, I give you my word that I’ll keep the factory open in Summerland.”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “And how can I trust you?”

“Because you scare the shit out of me when you’re like this,” he says with a laugh.

My stomach is rolling with nerves as I quickly think it through. I didn’t know there was another person in the running for the job. Now I really have to make sure this sham of a marriage works. It’s crucial that we pull this off.

“All right,” I say, taking a deep breath as my nerves start to settle.

“All right, what?” Tyler asks, gulping as he watches me. “All right, you’ll help me, or all right, you’re going to tell everyone the truth?”

I stare at him for a few seconds letting him stew nervously. “All right, I’ll help you. Nick can’t become the boss.”

Tyler exhales long and hard. “Thank you,” he says, looking relieved. “You must really like that town to stay married to me.”

“I do,” I say, nodding. How can I explain to him what the town really means to me? I grew up in chaos, living in vans and trailers, moving from one hippie commune to another every few months, all while my parents loafed off all day and let me handle the important stuff like making food, money, and paying the bills.

The town of Summerland was the first place that ever felt like home to me. I had moved there by myself in my late teens and had immediately fallen in love. It was stable and sweet and loving and just normal-something I had always dreamed of growing up.

I’ll die before I let it be destroyed.

Tyler’s mother Kirsten rushes over, barely able to contain her excitement. “Eeeee!” she squeals, grabbing my hand and squeezing it so hard that I let out a whimper. “I have a surprise for you!”

I should be happy. Getting a surprise from a billionaire is usually a good thing, but for some reason, a cold chill is snaking down my back, and I feel like I should be running in the opposite direction.

I just hope it’s not what I’m worried it is.

“Mom,” Tyler says, stepping forward. “Dahlia doesn’t really like surprises.”

“Yeah,” I say, shaking my head. “I hate them.”

“Not this one,” she says, squealing as she yanks me in the direction she came. She drags me across the lawn and through the crowd of guests, only stopping when we’re on the stairs leading into the house where everyone can see. I have a really bad feeling about this.

“Excuse me,” she yells, waving her hands in the air to get everyone’s attention. The DJ stops the music, and every head in the enormous backyard turns to look up at me.

Luckily for Tyler, he steps up beside me. I would have killed him later if he would have left me all alone up here.

“I just want to welcome Dahlia to the family,” she says, smiling warmly at me.

Ah. It’s so genuine, which is making it really hard to hate her right now.

“But when my son got married, our family grew by more than just Dahlia,” she says, getting the giggles.

No.

My stomach hardens as the painful realization hits me like a punch in the face.

“We also got Dahlia’s parents!” Kirsten spins on her high heels as she points to the door.

Oh, God—No!.

My blood pressure goes through the roof as my parents appear behind the glass doors, looking like they just walked out of Woodstock, stepped into a time machine, and arrived in the McMillan’s kitchen.

The whole backyard is silent, so everyone hears my mother swearing as she can’t figure out how to open the sliding glass door. The. Sliding. Glass. Door.

How the hell does someone get to be in their fifties and still not know how to open a sliding glass door? Hundreds of LSD hits, that’s how.

Kirsten rushes up the stairs and easily slides the door open for them.

“Hi, Rainbow!” my mother says, waving her hand over her head as she steps through.

I cringe as I hold onto Tyler for support. “Please tell me there’s a rainbow in the sky behind me,” I say, staring in disbelief as the last two people on the planet I would want here walk out.

Tyler looks back and shakes his head. “Sorry. No rainbow in the sky tonight.”

I grit my teeth as they walk down the stairs, smiling from gauged earlobe to gauged earlobe. They know how much I hate my real name, but they still refuse to call me anything but Rainbow Solstice the First, or Rainbow for short.

My body stiffens as my mother throws her arms around me, and a whiff of stale weed hits my nose. The smell always reminds me of my childhood.

“You look so great!” she says, pulling away to look me up and down. “A little mainstream for my tastes, but you still look good.”

“You look good too,” I lie, looking her up and down. “Is that a new burlap shirt?”

She nods proudly. “I made it out of a sack of potatoes.”

I exhale long and slow. “You can’t tell at all.”

“Rainbow!” my father says, pushing past my mom to give me a hug. His long gray hair tickles my face as he squeezes me. “It’s good to see you again! What has it been? Four months? Five?”

“Six years,” I say, cringing as I start to hear whispers and giggles behind me.

The only way these two people would look more out of place is if they sprouted a second head.

“Great party!” my father says, looking around with a nod. He waves to someone near the pool. The man doesn’t wave back. “I brought rolling papers if you guys have weed.”

My mother slaps his arm. “This is a fancy party, Echo. Get the bong from the van.”

My father Bill, or Echo as he likes to be called, turns to head back to his van, so I grab his tie-dye shirt, and yank him back. “No bongs,” I warn him.

He shrugs as he turns back to us. “Good thing I have this little guy,” he says, looking down at the joint sticking out of his shirt pocket. I snatch it and crush it in my fist before he can spark it.

“No drugs.”

Tyler steps in to introduce himself as I glare at the DJ, warning him with my eyes to turn the music back on. Luckily for him, he does, and the guests resume their conversations or begin gossiping about the two disasters that are my parents.

“Hello,” Tyler says, offering his hand as he smiles at my parents. “I’m Dahlia’s husband, Tyler. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, young man,” my father says, trying to act like normal people act but failing miserably. “I’m Echo, and this is my wife, Essence.”

“He’s actually named Bill,” I interrupt, “and her real name is Carol.”

My father looks at me funny. “And your real name is Rainbow Solstice the First.”

“Don’t remind me,” I say, rolling my eyes. “I’m reminded of that every time I have to pull out my passport and the people reading it start laughing.”

“She was always this difficult,” my mother says, smiling at Tyler. “Rainbow always had this extreme need to follow the rules.”

“They’re called laws, mother,” I say, glaring at her. “And they’re what keep society functioning.”

She just shrugs. “I have a different view on how the world should work.”

“An insane view,” I mutter as I look away, feeling an irresistible urge to make a run for it.

“So, what do you do for weed money?” my father asks Tyler.

Tyler chuckles. “I run an international corporation that acquires companies to restructure and optimize to enhance production rates and profits.”

My father just stares at him with a blank expression on his wrinkly face. “Sounds like you can buy a lot of weed.”

Tyler laughs. “I guess I could.”

My father scratches his temple as his face twists up. I can tell he’s trying to think up something intelligent to say. “Do you work at the computer-net?”

“Dad,” I say, interrupting him. “You mean the Internet.”

“Yeah, that’s the store,” he says, pointing at me. He looks down at the old worn out tie-dye shirt that should have been thrown out in the 70s. “I make these shirts,” he says proudly. “My friend Tree Dancer is going to get me into the Internet store to help me sell them.”

My mother nods as she listens. “That’s going to be for our retirement fund.”

To my horror, Kirsten and Mack come creeping over. “Sorry to intrude on the reunion,” Kirsten says, smiling happily. “But I have to meet my new family!” She squeals again. “Dahlia, were you surprised?”

“Surprised doesn’t begin to explain what I’m feeling right now.”

She grabs my arm and squeals again as she squeezes it. “Good. I’m so happy!”

I sigh as she clings onto my arm like a needy toddler. She’s lucky she’s so nice. It’s the only thing stopping me from pushing her down the stairs.

Mack shakes my father’s hand, and the sight of my new boss and father-in-law meeting my dad makes me want to light my hair on fire just to create some kind of distraction.

“Nice to meet you, Echo,” Mack says. “That’s such an interesting name. What does it mean?”

“It means when you yell and the sound repeats,” my father says, nodding.

My cheeks burn red. “I think Mr. McMillan knows what an echo is, Dad. I think he was asking why it’s your name.”

“Oh,” my father says, looking confused. “Once I was high on acid and my echo started talking back to me. It was incredible. A real life-changing event.”

“Your echo started talking to you?” Tyler asks. I shoot him a dirty look. I don’t want him encouraging my father like this.

My father nods. “I would say something, and my echo would respond.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t someone talking to you?” I ask, folding my arms over my chest as I glare at him. My heart is beating so rapidly in my chest that I’m worried everyone can see it thumping away in embarrassment.

My father tilts his head to the side as he thinks about it. “Maybe,” he says with a furrowed brow. “I was in a Walmart at the time.”

Our pathetic little group goes silent as we all marinate on my father’s stupidity for a few seconds.

Mack breaks the awkward silence. “Dahlia got a new Ferrari today,” he says, smiling at me.

“Really?” my father says, nodding like he’s impressed. “Your mother and I had sex on a Ferrari once.”

My chest tightens as my face, neck, and ears burn impossibly hot. No way he just said that. My heart is beating so fast that it’s going to stop working. I’m literally going to die of embarrassment.

“It wasn’t ours, though,” my mother clarifies in case anyone couldn’t have guessed that the woman wearing a shirt made out of a burlap sack owned a Ferrari. “We saw it in the parking lot of McDonald's.”

“All right,” I say, stepping into the circle to break up this little party. “Mack. Kirsten. Is there anything I can help you with, inside?”

Both of my parents are already wandering off to the buffet table, muttering something about having the munchies.

“We’re okay, dear,” Kirsten says, following my parents with one eye as they walk through the backyard. “The caterers are taking care of everything.”

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Mack and Kirsten wander off to talk to their guests, leaving Tyler and me alone.

I take a deep breath as I turn back to old Echo and Essence. The other guests are moving out of their way wherever they go, like the guests are afraid of catching my parents’ poorness.

My stomach hardens as my father says something to Walter Rosendale, the eighth richest man in the country.

I turn to Tyler and bury my face into his hard chest. “I can’t look,” I whisper.

He wraps his arms around me and rocks me back and forth, making me feel a tiny bit better. “Want to get out of here?” he whispers.

I nod. “If it’s anywhere closer than China, I’m not interested.”

“It’s not China,” he says with a smirk. “But it’s way cooler than here.”

“An active volcano would be cooler than here,” I say through gritted teeth.

Tyler laughs as he grabs my hand and guides me down the stairs. “Follow me. I know just the place.”