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“But I’m not Catholic,” Rylie said.
“Me, neither,” Jarrett added.
“Okay, you can have one of your preachers do it. But you have to have a real wedding.” She sat back in her chair and pulled her knitting from a bag at her feet. Without looking up, she added, “In a church.”
Rylie’s eyes pleaded with him, but he knew there was no way to change Juanita’s mind once it was set.
“We’ll think about it, Juanita. But for the moment, our focus is on Gabe.”
“You’d better focus on each other,” Juanita said. “You won’t be able to fool that caseworker. She’ll smell something fishy. The two of you don’t even hold hands.”
“Lots of people aren’t demonstrative in public,” Jarrett argued. He’d imposed on Rylie enough already. He couldn’t ask her to act affectionate when the caseworker came to visit. How awkward would that be?
“I’m just sayin’…” Juanita’s tongue clicked as her head shook slowly back and forth. “That lady makes her living watching families. She’s going to know you’re not normal newlyweds. I say we need to get some mistletoe in here so the two of you can practice kissing.”
He wished Juanita hadn’t put the thought in his head, because he would have to work hard to get it out.
“I don’t think so!” Rylie said. “Any more of that talk, Juanita, and I’m not bringing my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on Saturday.”
Gabe stirred awake, mumbling in Spanish, and Juanita turned her attention to him, forgetting her knitting, along with the mistletoe suggestion. But Rylie’s blanched face told Jarrett she was as worried as he was. Except she was worried about how to fake feeling attracted, while he was worried about how to hide it.
Chapter 11
Saturday morning, Rylie stood in shock, twirling the band around her left finger as she stared at the sea of bright red, orange and turquoise. “This is what I get for saying I didn’t care how the designer decorated the master bedroom,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Don’t you love it?” Her arm was gripped by a perky brunette who didn’t look a day over twenty, decked out in what had to be next-year’s fashions, because Rylie had never seen anything like it. “I’m Candace Kane, the owner of Designs by Kane. Of course, when we got the call Thursday, we dropped everything to get the room ready for you, Mrs. Alvarez. I just love when a client gives me free rein!”
“I’ll bet you do.” Rylie turned in a circle, pretending to examine the room in detail, though she was simply attempting to extricate herself from Candace’s claw-like grasp. She searched for a polite response. “It’s very… bright.”
Jarrett was going to hate it. Maybe she could break it to him gently.
“Yes. It’s what I call funk shui. Kind of a Bohemian-Industrial look.”
“It’s great,” Rylie said, squinting at the barrage of colors. She almost hated to ask, but she had to know, since Gabe was coming home from the hospital today. “What did you do with our son’s room?”
“I’m afraid that’s the only bedroom your husband would hardly let me change.”
Rylie had to see for herself. She marched down the hallway with Candace on her heels and opened Gabe’s door. The room still in the original soft blues and greens, Candace had added a beanbag chair and a low dresser with padded drawer-fronts in a cute animal fabric. Continuing the animal theme, the wall beside the bed had a plaque with his name, each letter formed by an animal. Rylie breathed her relief. At least this room wouldn’t raise Gabe’s heart rate when he was trying to sleep tonight.
“I like it, Candace.”
“You don’t think it’s too boring?”
“No, I think you’ve added just the right amount of funk to the shui for a little boy coming home from the hospital.”
In fact, Rylie might be tempted to sleep in here on the thick, padded carpet, surrounded by peaceful colors, rather than the garish room Candace had decorated. Jarrett had insisted Rylie should move into the master bedroom, reasoning their case worker would be suspicious if they didn’t appear to be sleeping in the same room and sharing the huge closet and bathroom. Their well-thought-out plan was that Jarrett would sleep in the adjacent room, while all his stuff remained in the master suite.
Rylie made her way back to the main living area, where dozens of men were busy moving the old furniture out, replacing it with trendy pieces that looked rather uncomfortable to Rylie. But it was Jarrett’s house, and she didn’t want to overstep her boundaries and interfere.
Out front, she heard raised voices and recognized one as Jarrett’s. Candace came racing through the house, meeting him inside the front doorway, where he blocked the two men who wrestled with his heavy leather sofa.
“Put that right back where you found it.” Jarrett’s steely tone left no room for debate. The men did as they were told.
“Mr. Alvarez,” Candace began, “I know you said you only wanted me to do the bedrooms, but—”
“Ten minutes.” The muscles along his jawline bulged. “That’s how long you have to put everything in this living room back the way you found it.”
Jarrett strode directly to Rylie, tension rippling down his neck. She was proud she resisted the urge to melt into a puddle when he placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. It was yet another key part of their outline to give the appearance of a happily-married couple. They had brainstormed well into the night until they were both satisfied they’d considered every possible complication. Though bleary-eyed the next day, her anxiety level had decreased to a bearable level.
