The Beach Wedding (Married in Malibu Book 1) (6 page)

“I doubt luck had anything to do with it. I bet you went out and hunted down the people you really wanted, the best ones for the job. I know you, Liz. You don’t give up when you have your mind set on something.”

Only, she had given up, hadn’t she? The one time it really mattered...

“Thanks for agreeing to do this,” he said in a deep voice that set fire to her insides. “I know it’s a ton of work to get everything ready in time.”

Maybe she should have downplayed how much work it was, but with everything going topsy-turvy inside of her—from being in the same room with him, from thinking about the past, from going around and around inside her head with all the mistakes she’d made and how she wished she could have done things differently—she found herself saying, “The trouble is that there are so many different jobs popping up from moment to moment. I truly do have the best people on task, but even so, I’m wondering if we simply don’t have enough pairs of hands.”

“I can help.”

Liz froze. “No, I can’t ask you to help. I mean, you have your writing to take care of, and—”

“Like I said, the first draft of my book is done, and I don’t want to edit it right away because I need to let it settle for a while. Besides, right now, there’s nothing more important to me than making sure that Amber gets the perfect wedding.”

Okay, so maybe Jason did have the time, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea. “I know you want her wedding to be perfect—and I do, too—but it wouldn’t feel right for you to work with us when you’re paying us to do the work.”

“There must be something I can help out with—errands, manual labor, whatever you need. Come on, Liz. You just said you could do with some more help, with an extra pair of hands.”

She did need the extra pair of hands. But even more striking was that a man this successful, this wealthy, this famous, would actually offer to do menial errands and manual labor. She’d fallen in love with him for so many reasons, and again and again, she could see that those reasons hadn’t been wrong.

“All right,” she said. “Thank you. We could use the help.” She tried to make her response sound friendly, but not too friendly. Professional, but not cold. “I’ll get back to you soon with a list.”

She expected him to get up and leave then, but instead he continued to gaze at her. She could see his mind working...and what she saw in his eyes scared her. Scared her enough that she couldn’t figure out how to head him off at the pass. Couldn’t manage to get her feet to move her out the door, either.

“Thank you for telling me why you left, Liz.” She could hear the emotion in his voice, the same emotion she’d been trying unsuccessfully to tamp down ever since she’d left his house days ago. “It wasn’t easy to hear some of what you had to say, but you were right. I wasn’t ready to be with you then. We were just kids. I tried to convince myself that I didn’t need adventure, that I didn’t need to see the world. But I did. I wasn’t ready then—” She’d never seen him look more serious. “But I am now.”

Liz felt her mouth fall open. Had he really just told her that she’d been right to leave?

And...oh my God...had he also just said that he was ready to be with her now?

“Don’t do this, Jason,” she finally managed to reply, her voice barely above a whisper from the shock of it all. “We’re here to support Amber and her fiancé. We need to focus on that. Let’s put together an incredible wedding for her, and then—”

“Go our separate ways again?”

Liz forced herself to nod. It was really hard, but she managed it somehow.

But Jason was already shaking his head. “No, I don’t want to do that—and I don’t think you do, either. Can’t you feel the heat, the electricity, the emotion between us?”

Of course she could, but she couldn’t admit that to him. Could she?

“Heat? Electricity? They weren’t enough to keep us together once,” she pointed out. “If it didn’t work before, what makes you think the second time would work any better?”

“Because we aren’t kids anymore. I can see that we’ve both changed a lot since those early days, but one thing hasn’t changed at all—how I feel about you. If we don’t at least try, then how will we know? And I promise, if you agree to try again with me, I’ll make sure I don’t overwhelm you.”

Liz had never been good at lying to herself, so she couldn’t possibly lie to Jason right now and tell him that she wasn’t feeling all the things he’d just said—the heat, the electricity, and the emotion. But at the same time she couldn’t see that it was a good idea to just give in to it all so easily. Not when she knew firsthand how quickly everything could get sucked into the vortex of their relationship—with every plan, every bit of focus, being swept away before she even realized it was happening.

Somehow she needed to let him know it was all too much. Too fast. Because even though he’d promised not to overwhelm her again, couldn’t he see that he already had?

She felt so topsy-turvy inside, in fact, that the only words she could get out were, “We need to focus on Amber’s wedding.”

For a long moment, he remained silent. Finally, he nodded and said, “You’re right, again. Amber’s wedding is the most important thing of all right now.”

But even though he’d just agreed with her about their priorities for the next ten days, something told her he wasn’t going to make any similar promises about his intentions after the wedding...

H
e’d shocked her
. Jason understood that it would take Liz time to process what he’d said about the two of them trying again. Time for her to realize how good they could be together—a million times better than they’d been before.

So even though he wished he could find some way to convince her right there and then that they should be together again, as she walked him out to the parking lot, he forced himself to stay quiet and give her room to think. He definitely didn’t want to make the mistake again of suffocating her with his love.

Unfortunately, as soon as they stepped outside, he saw a camera flash. It was instinct to turn around to look directly at the flash, which unfortunately gave the photographer a better shot. The young woman holding the camera was wearing jeans and a denim jacket, her hair cut spiky short. As she leaned against a motorcycle to get more shots, he was tempted to run toward her to grab the camera, but he knew she would probably just leap on her bike and ride away before he could get close.

“Damn it,” Liz said beside him. “Travis was supposed to stop things like this from happening.”

Sure enough, Liz’s big security chief came stalking around the side of the building. He expected the woman to run. Instead, she walked forward with a cocky gait.

“Laurel Kingston,
LA Fame Scene
blog,” she said. “I thought that was you, Jason Lomax. Are you here about your niece’s wedding?”

“Miss Kingston,” Travis said in a stern voice before Jason could reply. “You’re trespassing on private property. I’m going to have to ask you to leave and to please hand over your camera.”

“Touch my camera, and I’ll sue you. Hey!” She yelped as Travis grabbed the camera and quickly deleted the pictures. “You can’t do that!”

“As I said, you’re trespassing.” He handed the camera back to her.

“You still can’t do that, and you can’t dodge the question,” she said as she pointed at Jason. “Are you here about Amber’s wedding? You might as well just answer me, because otherwise I’ll… Hey! Get your hands off me!”

Travis hadn’t actually touched the woman, but he was good enough at his job to maneuver the reporter back toward her motorcycle just from the sheer scale of his presence.

Unfortunately, even without the pictures, the damage was already done. Just the fact that the blogger had spotted Jason at Married in Malibu would be enough to start rumors flying. There would soon be hosts of photographers trying to find proof that Amber was having her wedding there instead of at the château.

If Jason were writing this, someone might just “disappear.” But this was real life…which meant Jason needed a better idea.

In a flash, it came to him.

He reached out and took Liz’s hand, pulled her in close and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Don’t worry about her, baby. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Both Liz and the reporter looked confused for a moment, but the reporter recovered first. She got on her bike, then said, “You haven’t heard the last of me. I’m going to find out what’s going on here.” She shoved on her helmet, then sped off, but Jason held on to Liz’s hand as long as she would let him.

For a moment, it felt as if Liz were enjoying being in his arms, but too soon, she pulled back from his grip and said, “What was that? What did you just do?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer before she turned to Travis. “And how did she get in? We’re supposed to be keeping the press out, no matter what.”

“We will,” Travis replied. “We’re just not quite set up yet.”

Jason could see that she was frustrated, even a little bit angry, but instead of blowing up at Travis, she simply said, “Please hurry.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Travis assured her. He hurried inside, and it was strange to see such a big man moving so fast. Clearly, he understood just how delicate the situation could be.

Lord knew Jason certainly understood it when Liz turned back to him. “You still haven’t told me why you grabbed my hand and why you… You kissed my forehead!”

“It was for the reporter. To throw her off Amber’s scent.” It wasn’t the whole reason, of course, but after the way Liz had reacted to his suggestion that they try again, he was wise enough to guess that she didn’t want to deal with the whole reason just yet. “If enough people read her blog—especially if the right people read it—then they’ll know that Amber is having her wedding here.”

Liz ran a hand through her hair and blew out a breath. “But I still don’t get why you thought you should hold my hand and kiss me.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Was it really that bad?”

Frustration rushed forth on her face again. “You know that’s not what I meant. It’s just… We haven’t held hands, or kissed, in ten years.”

Jason had dreamed of her kisses for ten long years. But he knew that moving too fast couldn’t possibly be good. Fortunately, it looked like it could be the right time for another approach entirely.

“The reason I held your hand and kissed you is because I needed to convince the reporter that I was here for myself, not Amber. You and I both know that the press doesn’t need real proof of anything—just hints and suggestions—to go running with it.”

“Wait a minute. You want me to pretend that I’m dating you?”

“Seems to me it’s the best way to deal with the security problem right now. Because if we don’t do anything, they’ll soon realize Amber is having her wedding here.”

“Whereas if we give them the impression that we’re together…”

“Then they’ll soon find out that we do have a history,” he finished for her. “And if you and I give them a show to watch—if we let them see us on romantic dates around town—then hopefully they’ll believe that everything going on here is just about you and me.”

“We get followed by the paparazzi so that Amber doesn’t have to?” She frowned. “It actually does make sense, but we have a lot to take care of here, and that could get in the way of the wedding preparations.”

But Jason was afraid of far worse than that. “Honestly, I’m not sure there will even be a wedding if the paparazzi get hold of the truth.” Amber had been so upset by the way things had been going in France, that another round of being stalked by photographers might be enough for her to break.

“Okay,” Liz finally agreed, “but only if Rose and RJ also think it’s a good idea. I don’t want them to get angry that I’m doing the wrong thing for their new business.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Jason said, and this time he took Liz’s hand simply because he wanted to, walking back with her in the direction of her office.

A few minutes later, he sat on the far side of Liz’s desk while she called Rose, and listened to her explain what had happened with the reporter.

“No,” Liz said. “It definitely wasn’t Travis’s fault. The reporter was just really good at getting into a place where she shouldn’t be. I don’t think things are ruined, however, because Jason and I have come up with a solution.”

Liz detailed the plan to Rose in calm, simple bullet points: It was simply what they needed to do to keep the wedding a secret. It was the best way to divert attention and give everyone at Married in Malibu the best opportunity to put together the wedding of a lifetime. Fortunately, Rose agreed that it was the best course of action.

After Liz hung up, she turned back to him. “Okay. So it looks like this is a go. What now?”

“We need to start going out on romantic dates. They have to believe we’re very much in love and potentially planning our wedding at Married in Malibu. We also have to make sure that our dates take place in public places where lots of people can see us.” Although he would much prefer being alone with her, he knew spending time with him in public would likely feel more comfortable for Liz. At least for their first few dates.

“I know you’re right. It’s just...” She sighed, but instead of saying more about the two of them, she refocused on the job they had to do. “What do you have in mind for our first ‘
date’
?” She put the word in air quotes as if to reinforce that it wasn’t actually real.

He tried to hide how badly he wished it were as he said, “How about I make it a surprise?” He wanted some time to make sure that it would be the perfect first date after ten years of being apart.

“A surprise?” Liz had always loved surprises, but then again, his bursting back into her life had already come as a big surprise, hadn’t it?

“Trust me, Liz. Please, just trust me.” Though he knew it was too soon to ask her to do that, she simply nodded, then looked back at her long list while rubbing the back of her neck the way she used to when she was feeling stressed. “I know you have a lot to take care of, so I’ll let you go. I’ll give Amber a ring to fill her in on everything.”

There were no reporters around this time when he walked out into the parking lot. For the entire drive home, he was consumed by thoughts of Liz. She had always been beautiful, intelligent, and captivating. But now, she was so much stronger and wiser. And every time they were together, she took his breath away.

When he pulled up outside his house, the blogger was waiting.

“I don’t know why you’re so intent on pestering me and Liz,” he said, keeping up the pretense that he’d started in the Married in Malibu parking lot. “But I would appreciate it if you’d leave the two of us alone.” With that, he went inside and called Amber.

“Uncle Jason, is everything going okay?”

“Actually, something has come up. A blogger appeared at the venue and when she saw me in the parking lot, she took some pictures and made some assumptions.”

The horrified look on his niece’s face on his computer screen was enough to let him know that he’d done the right thing by pretending to be with Liz.

“Oh no, she guessed that I’m getting married there, didn’t she?” Amber sounded like she was about to burst into tears.

“Honey, it’s okay. I fixed it.”

“Fixed it? How could you have fixed it?”

Jason explained the situation, telling Amber about holding Liz’s hand and pretending to be a couple.

“And Liz is okay with this?”

“She is,” Jason assured her. “She truly does want to do whatever is necessary to make sure that you have the perfect wedding.”

“That’s really nice of her,” Amber said. “But this isn’t just about that, is it? I know you, Uncle Jason. I can see how much you care about her. You don’t want this to just be fake dating, do you? You want this to be the real thing.”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Only to me.”

“I think I still love her,” he told his niece, needing to say the words aloud to the person he was closest to. “That’s the simple truth of it. I saw her again, and I realized my feelings for her had never gone away.”

“Oh, Uncle Jason. I can’t pretend I’m not worried about you, but I—” She sighed. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but if you feel half as much for Liz as I do for Robert, then I think I actually understand. And I hope things work out for the two of you this time, but…”

“Don’t worry, honey. We won’t mess up your wedding.”

“I know you would never do that. I really don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“I’ll be careful,” he promised Amber, but even as he said it, he knew that was a promise he wouldn’t be able to keep. Because this wasn’t about being careful. It was about so much more than that.

It was about love.