Summer Kisses (322 page)

She’d balked initially, but gotten over her initial protest when she realized she could get “lost” in the maze and force him to find her in some secluded corner. He’d found her all right, but he’d been holding Emma by one hand and TJ with the other so her plan of maze-seduction hadn’t panned out. Though he understood the sentiment. He’d been more tempted than he wanted to admit to sneak off and corner Lou.

After the maze, they’d met up with his parents at a weenie roast and hayride. Katya had looked at the hotdogs like they were toxic, and hadn’t had much more appreciation for the hay. Jack’s parents had taken turns grilling Katya with questions about her past and what she wanted out of the show, which gave Jack the chance to settle down next to the fire to make s’mores with Lou and the kids.

He’d been relieved to see Lou laughing as she licked marshmallow goo off her fingers. The pinched expression she’d worn when she first met Katya had eased and she’d been easy with him again for the first time since the infamous Jacuzzi incident.

After the hayride, his mother had pulled him aside and informed him—in full view of the cameras—that he would have to be out of his ever-loving mind to marry that twit. Apparently the only thing Katya knew about him was that he was a doctor and she wanted to marry a doctor. His mother had not been impressed. He hadn’t been surprised.

The producers had been in heaven.

Now, he and Katya were alone in the limo—if you didn’t count the camera crew—headed to her hotel to drop her off. She’d been in a pissy mood since the corn maze and things hadn’t improved since. If she’d been a better sport about it, he might not have been tempted to tease her now. As it was… well, it was all in the name of ratings, right? It had nothing to do with the fact that he was mad at her for making Lou feel awkward this morning.

“I’m so glad you had fun,” he said with false good cheer. “We try to go to the corn maze and hayride every year at least once. And then there’s the camping. I just can’t get enough camping.” The truth was, he hadn’t been camping in years. They just never had the time, but he did enjoy it, so it wasn’t a complete lie.

An expression of bald horror flashed across Katya’s face before she managed to school her features. She must have sensed she’d lost ground today, because she suddenly leaned into him and gave him a syrupy smile. “Outdoorsy men are so sexy,” she purred.

Jack looked down into her exaggeratedly sexy face and marveled that she had once made his insides knot with pure lust. She was gorgeous. Jaw-droppingly so, but the more he got to know her, the less attractive she became. And it wasn’t just that her inner beauty couldn’t compete with her outer shell. There was something else at work here.

Lou. It wasn’t that Lou was his ideal of beauty, but rather that she’d somehow taken over that concept in a bloodless coup d’etat. Katya looked overblown next to her. Her face seemed
wrong
somehow, because it wasn’t Lou’s.

God, he had it bad. What was he going to do if she really didn’t want him? If a parade of gorgeous women on
Marrying Mr. Perfect
couldn’t cure him of wanting her, what could?

He would worry about that tomorrow. Right now he had to focus on getting away from Katya without getting smeared by her lipstick. Everything else could wait.

Marcy Henrickson was perfect and the worst part was, Lou couldn’t even hate her for it.

Natalie had been nice enough—a little nervous, but sweet. Lou hadn’t been able to imagine her with Jack, but she was a lovely girl, if a little undefined, as if she hadn’t been shaped by life yet. But Marcy.

Damn.

The petite brunette had a sharp wit, an easy smile and a ready laugh. And worst—or perhaps best—of all, she made Jack smile. He was comfortable with her. Happy.

The kids took to her immediately. Emma even crawled into her lap with her worn-to-pieces copy of
The Lorax
and demanded Marcy read to her. And she did. Complete with funny voices and goofy sound effects. Emma had looked at her like she was pure magic from that moment on.

And Lou hadn’t even been able to work up a good bout of jealousy. Marcy was just too damn likeable. Too down-to-earth. Too sweet. And far too sympathetic. Her slightly tilted green eyes seemed to see
everything
, like some benevolent, omniscient goddess who just happened to have been dropped into the body of a petite and pretty romance novelist from Ohio.

It was almost too demoralizing for words.

Of course Jack would be three-quarters in love with Marcy by now. Who wouldn’t be? Lou was practically in love with the woman herself and she’d never swung that way.

Lou sat on the stairs, watching the cozy family scene in the living room below. Marcy fit in so easily. Jack’s parents already adored her. Lou wrapped her arms around her knees and tried not to let her depression show, but it must have. Marcy smilingly separated herself from the group, weaving behind the cameras. Everyone assumed she was slipping off to find the washroom, but instead she crept over to where Lou sat in the shadows on the stairs.

Marcy sat a couple steps below Lou and pressed her back against the banister. “Do you mind if I join you?” she asked belatedly.

“I’m not exactly the life of the party up here, but you’re welcome if you want to hide from the cameras for a few minutes.”

Marcy’s smile turned wry. “We’ll see how long they let me go unfilmed. Usually we max out at about seven minutes of privacy.”

Her smile invited comment, so Lou asked, “Do you mind? About the lack of privacy?”

Marcy shook her head. “It can be a pain in the ass, but the experience is flat out fascinating. Can I tell you a secret?” She glanced surreptitiously at the cameras and a pair of dimples flashed in her cheeks. “I didn’t come on
Marrying Mr. Perfect
expecting to fall in love. I mean, seriously, the odds are terrible, and I’ve seen these shows before. Scandal, drama, you betcha. Love? Long odds, sugar. Very long odds.”

Lou had to agree. The odds of ever meeting a guy like Jack were terrible. “So why do it?”

“Oh, honey. The drama. The scandal. It is nirvana itself for a girl with an eye for the ridiculous and a yen for romance. I’m a student of human nature and this is a pretty extreme example of human mating rituals. It is just fascinating.” Marcy leaned in conspiratorially. “It probably makes me a horrible person, but every time one of the girls threw a screaming fit about how
her
connection with Jack was more profound than some other girl’s connection, Hell, I ate that shit up. My mother would tell me I wasn’t being Christian, but I wasn’t the one pulling some girl’s hair just because we’d both been put in an awkward situation.”

Lou’s eyebrows popped up. “Was there really hair pulling?”

“Mostly metaphorical, but yeah, there was one actual cat fight. I thought Miranda was going to wet herself with glee.”

Lou laughed in spite of herself. Marcy was so relaxed, so easy to get along with.

So perfect for Jack.

Her laughter died on her lips. Neither Marcy nor Jack had gone on the show
expecting
to meet the love of their lives. They’d just gotten lucky. That one in a million shot. Lou should be happy for them. She knew she should, but instead she just felt hollow. Maybe she could be happy for them later. After the engagement was announced and the last of her hope died. That damn bulletproof hope.

Lou looked up to find Marcy watching her closely.

“So, Lou, is there anyone special in your life?”

A blush started on her chest, climbing north. “Sorry?”

“You’re so important to Jack. I’m glad we finally got to meet,” Marcy said. “I knew from day one when he was talking about you that any girl who wanted to end up with Jack was going to need the nod from you. I was glad he had someone like that who would always have his back and I know how badly he wants you to be happy. I was just wondering if you had anyone who set you on fire.”

“I’m not really a fire kind of girl.”

“Honey, every girl is a fire girl with the right guy. We just need to find you yours.”

Lou grimaced. “I guess I’m behind the curve. You’re supposed to be spending your twenties dating, right? And now…”

“All the good ones are taken,” Marcy finished for her. “I hear you, sister. You’re preaching to the choir here. Guys like Jack just aren’t unattached out in the real world. And I don’t do unrequited passion for unavailable guys. Not my thing.”

No, that’s all me.
Lou glanced across the room to the man of the hour. Jack had noticed their conversation. He was watching them and for a moment she thought she caught a hint of an unguarded expression. Was that love she’d just seen as he looked across the room at Marcy?

Some of the cameramen had also noticed their tête-à-tête and a crew was circling closer for a better shot.

“Do you love him?” Lou was surprised to hear those words spring out of her mouth.

Marcy looked over at Jack, a wry little smile tugging at her mouth. “Jack is an amazing guy. He’s the kind of guy it would be hard not to fall in love with.”

Lou followed her gaze.
Preaching to the choir, sister.

Marcy’s hand closed over hers, pulling her attention back to the woman smiling at her side. “I do hope we can be friends,” she said softly. It was a far cry from the borderline threats the other girls had given her, as if they couldn’t get her out of Jack’s life fast enough.

But which would be worse—a sudden eviction from Jack’s life or being force to watch him be wonderfully happy with someone who wanted to be her friend? A quick slice or a slow interminable burn. She must be a masochist. Endless torture seemed infinitely preferable.

Lou turned her hand beneath Marcy’s to clasp her fingers. “I hope he picks you. And when he asks you to marry him, I hope you say yes.”

Marcy’s eyes flared wide with a sudden flash of surprise. “Thank you,” she said, though there was a note of question under the words.

Lou looked away from Marcy’s too-intuitive gaze, relieved when the Suitorette was called back into the planned scene with her future in-laws. Lou stayed in the shadows on the stairs, focusing on keeping it together as the foundations of her world seemed to shift beneath her.

In some small corner of her soul, she’d expected Jack to come home unattached. She’d assumed he wouldn’t meet anyone good. That they would all be as plastic and fake as Katya. She’d assumed the show was exploitive and contrived and there couldn’t possibly be real emotion fostered in that pressure-cooker environment.

She just hadn’t factored in the existence of someone like Marcy.

She’d told him to look for love on the show and in two weeks, Jack could be engaged to Marcy. Lou had to prepare herself for that.

Across the room, Jack laughed at something Marcy had said, rocking back and forth in his chair. Lou searched her memories, trying to pin down the last time she’d seen him laugh like that. Marcy had done that.

Her romantic fantasies that he would realize Lou was the best one for him were just that. Another form of pretend.

It was for the best she’d already stepped aside. He hadn’t exactly confessed his undying love in the kitchen the other night, and heaven knew they’d both been too drunk to be sensible back in the Jacuzzi. Perhaps he’d just been trying her on for size before settling down with Marcy. The show certainly encouraged that sort of thinking.

As Lou sat on the stairs, a strange sense of closure came over her—like she was watching a chapter of her life end. Sad, undeniably, but there was also an odd freedom beneath the grief.

Four years of fantasies and delusions. Four years of wanting someone as close as the next room who never grew a single inch closer.

Had she really wanted him at all? Or had he just been a convenient fantasy? So much more convenient than taking a chance and striking out in search of her own life. He said he could never have done it without her, but that wasn’t strictly true. His parents would have helped—though they weren’t exactly warm and Gillian’s parents were more the jet-setting type than the babysitting kind. Lou could have helped. She hadn’t
needed
to move in. And she certainly hadn’t needed to stay as long as she had, infiltrating his life, falling in love with him and his children a little more every day.

She’d been selfish and foolish and so scared. It was safe to love a man who would forever be out of reach and never return her passion. Her heart was never truly at risk because it was padded by the cushion of impossibility. She might as well have fancied herself in love with Leonardo DiCaprio—telling herself that she really did have a chance with him as long as he remained a bachelor.

Cowardly. That’s what she was. All the while feeling so proud of herself for being so noble. So helpful.

It was time to stop living the lie.

She had to move out.

~~~

“I thought I had you all figured out, Jackson Doyle, but you pulled a fast one on me.”

Jack ambled toward the street where a car was waiting to pick Marcy up, his arm looped through hers as they strode up the walk, surrounded as ever by cameras. “Oh?”

“I thought you were head over heels for Katya or Natalie, but you’re not, are you? That change I saw in you last week wasn’t about them at all.”

Jack felt a slow flush creeping up his neck and wondered if the cameras would be able to detect it in the dark. “Oh?” he said again, trying to keep any inflection out of his voice.

Marcy grinned at him, showing him unsuccessful the attempt had been. “
Oh
, indeed.” They took two more steps before she cocked her head at him and murmured, “She’s crazy about you, too. In case you were wondering.”

Jack almost missed a step. “Excuse me?”

“Head over heels. It’s written all over her face.” Marcy tipped her head to the side and smiled knowingly. “I approve wholeheartedly. If I’m going to be jilted, I’m glad it’s not going to be Katya’s silicone perfection taking home the prize.”

“What makes you think...” He wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence.

“Let’s call it women’s intuition.” Marcy stopped a few steps from the limo and turned to face him. “So, what are you going to do now? She doesn’t know you care for her. It was almost tragic watching her pine for you tonight.”