“What the?—”
I yank the phone away from my ear at the volume at which Baylee is swearing at me like an experienced ranch hand. When there’s a pause in the yelling, I put it back to my ear.
“I’m sorry,” I say first.
“Jordan, I’ve been terrified,” Baylee cries.
“That’s my fault. But I was on a plane, and then there was the wedding.” I smack myself in the face. Way to just drop that in there, smarty-pants.
“Wedding?” Baylee repeats. “Did you go to Maui with Libby for a friend’s wedding? Why didn’t you say so? What was with all the ‘I’ll explain my mysterious trip later’ stuff?”
“It’s not a friend’s wedding. Promise me you’ll hear me out before you freak out again?”
Baylee scoffs. “My freak-out is completely valid, Jordan Atkinson. You went radio silent for almost a full day.”
“You’re right,” I say, hoping I sound genuinely contrite. I don’t feel genuinely contrite—I mean, I feel bad about making my sister worry, but I am a thirty-year-old man. There were plenty of hockey trips in the past when I couldn’t talk to my family for over a day with travel, games, the press conferences, and whatever else. But since Baylee moved in with me after Bryce and everything that happened in the fallout, there’s been a lot more texting and calling this past year.
Baylee takes a deep breath. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“First, you have to promise that you won’t tell Mom and Dad any of this. Actually, you can’t tell anyone. At all.”
“Jordan, I’m working up to freak out again,” Baylee warns.
“I’m serious, Bay. I’ve had to sign NDAs. I’m only telling you this because I convinced Libby I could trust you.” I promised Libby that Baylee would never tell anyone our marriage was fake because I can’t stand lying to my sister. I know I can trust her, but she has to understand how serious this is.
“I promise, Jord. What’s going on?” Her voice holds fear again, but it’s worse than her swearing terror when she’s quiet.
“I married Libby so she could buy the Denver White Wolves. It’s a minor-league hockey team.” I’m met with complete silence, so I go on, rushing to get as much of the story in as I can. “The league didn’t want to let her buy it because she’s young andunmarried and doesn’t know anything about hockey. She couldn’t convince them that hiring me as a consultant was enough, so we hatched this plan. We’re going to tell people we’ve been secretly dating for the last six months. Even Mom and Dad have to believe it’s real. I don’t want them to have to lie to reporters and stand up under scrutiny.”
There’s still silence even when I finish.
“Bay?”
“You have to be joking,” she says in a hushed voice. “Like for real, Jord. No one actually gets fake married. That’s only in movies and books and stuff.”
“I didn’t get fake married,” I tell her, but as she releases a sigh, I add, “I definitely got real married. I can text you the license and everything.”
Again I’m met with silence. “This is insane,” she finally says after several seconds.
“Probably. But it was the right thing to do. Libby has signed contracts with the network already. She couldn’t lose the sale, and those chauvinistic jerks would only cave after she told them we were engaged.”
“Jordan…”
“It’s done, Bay. I’m serious. We just got back from the actual wedding. So there’s no use lecturing me on what you think I should have done or not done or whatever. Libby needs this, so I made it happen.”
“Yeah, because she gave us ten million,” Baylee says under her breath.
My defenses rise immediately. I love my sister, but Libby doesn’t need this on top of everything else. We did what we had to. I couldn’t stand by and watch her lose the team when there was something I could do.
“This has nothing to do with that money. She made it clear to me that the money stayed with Redhaven no matter what I chose.” Baylee doesn’t need to hear that I do feel a little bit of an obligation because of the money, but after the couple weeks withLibby, I feel more of an obligation to help because I like her. Because she needed it.
I needed ten million dollars and she gave it to me.
She needed a husband so I gave her one.
I’m honestly not sure which one of us made the bigger sacrifice.
“Youlikeher,” Baylee says softly.
