“I can’t believe you got married and you didn’t invite me,” Penny sulks at the dinner table.

“It wasn’t a real wedding, Penny,” Ethan says with a big, exhausted sigh.

He’s still wearing his work clothes, although he has taken off his suit jacket and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, exposing a pair of strong, muscular forearms. All around us, San Francisco starts to light up as the orange-and-pink sunset gets darker and darker.

For the last ten minutes, Ethan has been trying to explain to his daughter that whatever we did this morning wasn’t a big deal—which it really wasn’t, except for that kiss. But that kiss was at least a PG-13 anyway, and Penny’s only ten.

At the kitchen, a man is throwing the vegetables he has chopped into a pot on the stove. Matt is their personal chef—and mine, too, I suppose—who comes over every night to prepare dinner, as well as an easy breakfast for everyone to reheat in the morning.

Matt’s not supposed to know that we’re only pretending to be married. Luckily, he’s far enough away from us that the audio from the TV should be sufficient to drown out our conversation.

With Ethan’s busy schedule, he doesn’t have any time to do house chores himself. I should bump into a cleaner or two in the next few days. I can’t imagine Ethan mopping the floor in his Armani suit, even if the sleeves are rolled up.

“You’re really married, though, aren’t you?” Penny asks.

Good question, kid. I’ve been asking myself the same question myself. It’s hard to know what’s real anymore.

“Well, legally we are. But you know we’re not actually…” Ethan runs his fingers through his dark hair in frustration and gives me a look, asking for my help.

I may not know much about how to deal with kids, but I remember being a little girl, and getting excited about going to weddings.

“We did get married, Penny, but it wasn’t a wedding,” I try to explain.

“What do you mean?” Penny turns to me, her blue eyes blazing with outrage.

“I mean we just said some words and signed some papers, but we didn’t have a ceremony. It wasn’t a wedding. There was no white dress, there wasn’t any music, there was no dancing…”

“…or cake,” Ethan adds.

“Exactly,” I say. “You would’ve been bored.”

“Was there kissing?” Penny asks, challenging us.

Ethan and I glance at each other. We haven’t even talked about the kiss, even though we both know it wasn’t just a formality. We definitely went above and beyond what was needed there.

“There was, wasn’t there?” Penny insists. “I can tell from the way you’re acting.”

“Well, honey, we had to kiss for the minister to sign the papers and make it official. But that still didn’t make it a wedding,” Ethan says.

“No, Dad, haven’t you ever watched any movies about eloping at all?” Penny asks indignantly. “It’s a wedding when you say the vows, and then kiss.”

The movies. Of course that’s where Penny has been getting her ideas from.

“Well, life is not like the movies, Penny,” I say, although I don’t know if that’s true anymore. I mean, the events of my life so far have been pretty movie-like, especially the part where I freaking married my boss, who also happens to be my nemesis.

“It was a wedding. You got married and you didn’t invite me,” Penny repeats. Great. Now we’ve come full circle.

“You know what? There’s nothing I can do about it, Penny,” Ethan says in defeat. “Whether it was a wedding or not, it’s not like we can repeat it just for you right now.”

“Okay, but you would if you could?”

“Yeah,” Ethan says off-handedly.

“Okay. Then do it.”

“What?” Ethan asks.

“Do it, whatever you did at the office when you ‘didn’t actually have a wedding.’” Penny draws air quotes with her fingers when she says the last part of the sentence.

I cast a worried glance at Ethan. What are we going to do now? Looks like we just got trapped by a ten-year-old. I’d be embarrassed if I weren’t also confused about the feelings swimming in my chest right now.

A part of me feels like it would be wrong to reenact the fake wedding and further insult the institution of marriage—which is already perplexing because I don’t believe in marriage anyway.

A different part of me, the one that has been replaying the kiss again and again all afternoon, kinda wants to do it again.

And yet another part of me is outraged that I’d have to kiss my sworn enemy twice in one day, when even just once in my entire lifetime is bad enough.

I feel divided, to say the least.

I’m also hungry, and it seems like Matt is done with the cooking. The aroma of whatever he’s serving tonight whets my appetite. I’m ready for this little stand-off with Penny to be over.

“Can we just eat, Penny? You’re being unreasonable,” Ethan says, saying out loud what’s on my mind.

“Sure, we can eat, but only after you show me what the wedding was like.”

“I told you what the wedding was like. It was just another boring signing of a contract. We said some words, we kissed, and a man declared us married. That was all.”

“Okay, tell me what the words are.”

“I, uh, take Megan Jones as my wife,” Ethan glances at me, a strange expression on his face, before he continues, “to have and to hold until death do us part.”

“Okay.” Penny grins from ear to ear in triumph. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it, Dad? Your turn now, Megan.”

“Me? Uh… It’s the exact same thing, except for the name part.” I laugh nervously.

“Just say it. Come on, you guys already didn’t invite me to your wedding. This is the least you can do,” Penny says.

When she puts it that way, I guess we have forgotten about her, and we shouldn’t have. It just didn’t occur to either one of us that family should be involved in what’s essentially just a temporary business arrangement.

I take a deep breath. “I, Megan Jones, take Ethan Hunter as my husband, to have and to hold until death do us part.”

“Okay. Now, kiss.”

Ethan and I share another look, then stare at Penny.

“What?” Penny asks innocently, although the intelligent glint in her blue eyes tells me she knows exactly what she’s doing. She adds, “Come on, Matt’s already done with the food. Don’t you want him to think of you as a real married couple?”

Ethan raises one questioning eyebrow at me, but he remains silent. He’s not saying no to Penny’s request. He’s letting me decide what to do.

I should say no. Penny is being unreasonable, after all.

On the other hand, maybe another kiss wouldn’t be a bad idea. Maybe, earlier in the office, the whole wedding thing and the strange atmosphere made the whole thing feel more intense.

Perhaps if we share another kiss, it wouldn’t live up to my memory. And then I’ll be able to get Ethan Hunter out of my system and refocus my energy on my mission to bring him down.

“I don’t mind,” I say as casually as I can.

“See, Dad? Megan doesn’t mind,” Penny quickly comments, not wanting to miss this opportunity.

“Okay,” Ethan says, not looking like he minds it at all.

Without missing a beat, he gets up from his chair on the other side of the square table and steps toward me, his blue eyes dark with impatience—impatience due to how strange his daughter’s request is, or impatience because he can’t wait to kiss me?

I’m eager to have another taste of him, and I wonder if I’m just projecting my own motives onto him. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but for a split second, I think I catch a hint of desire in the way his gaze sears into my flesh.

Ethan rests one hand on the back of my chair and leans down. Putting his other hand on the base of my skull, he tilts my head and pulls me close until our lips touch.

I fully intended for this to be a quick peck, partly because there is a child watching and partly because I need to hate him. But as soon as I feel his hot lips on mine, I know I’m a goner.

I know whatever happened at Ethan’s office today wasn’t a fluke, a coincidence, or a one-off event. There’s definitely something here.

Ethan kisses me softly this time, slow and gentle, although his hand grabs the back of my neck possessively. It makes me feel vulnerable, and at the same time, it makes me crave being taken fully by him.

But this kiss is measured, careful. It’s not passionate or even sensual. It’s chaste and innocent—again, except for his strong hold on my neck.

When Ethan finally lets go of me and pulls away, for a short moment we share a bewildered gaze, like neither one of us understands what’s going on.

As Matt places the dishes on the table, I catch a glimpse of the little smile playing on Penny’s lips.

I can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking about.

Maybe she’s just glad to have won the battle of wills and made us put on a show wedding just for her.

Or maybe that’s just what she wants us to think, when in fact, the plan has been to bring us together all along.