With the water noisily tumbling around her, beating off the tile walls and porcelain tub, she let herself scream.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
As Gina said her greeting, Gerrick slid his arm around her waist and pulled her to him so he could kiss her, confirming the only solid conclusion she had drawn sorting through this mess.
Gerrick was not sorry they had slept together, and he was not sorry they had married. He probably did not know she didn’t remember marrying him or making love. And she didn’t know how she was going to get out of this situation gracefully.
She didn’t know if she could get out of it gracefully.
“Let’s get a cab,” Gerrick said, taking the tote bag she had purchased to carry home her changes of clothes and new toiletries, and ushering her through the hotel casino and registration area and into the hot Las Vegas sun.
A line of taxis sat waiting and Gerrick and Gina were directed to the first one by the doorman. Gerrick pushed their two small bags onto the back seat of the cab, helped Gina in, and then tipped the doorman before sliding in beside her.
Gina smiled at him, but the hotel they had chosen was less than fifteen minutes away from the airport and she needed more time to think. So she turned her face to the window as if she was sight-seeing and began processing the facts.
She met Gerrick when she was sixteen. He was twenty-two, fresh out of college and going to work for her dad. She, of course, thought he was cute. No self-respecting sixteen-year-old could not think he was cute. He was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. But he was also six years older than she was. An important six years since he was an adult and she was still a schoolgirl. And that had been the end of that.
At twenty-two she had joined her father’s company. She was immediately put on the executive fast track, because she was the daughter of the chairman of the board and majority shareholder, and therefore the person most likely to take over someday. A few of the other executives had resented her. Gerrick had welcomed her. For that she had immediately liked him. But she also knew she would someday be his boss, so she kept her distance.
So had he.
Over the past six years they had worked together, exchanged pleasantries about weekends and vacations, but never shared a long, detailed personal conversation until Friday night.
And now they were married.
Surprisingly, part of her wasn’t sorry. First, she was attracted to him. Second, he was a good person. She had known him for twelve years. In that twelve years he had proven himself to be generous, honest and hardworking.
And she liked him. She had always liked him.
Silly as it sounded, she could become a giddy bride with only the slightest push.
Gerrick took her hand, squeezed lightly and smiled at her, and Gina felt herself tumbling over the edge into giddiness.
Could she do this?
Could she be a bubbling bride with a man she didn’t really know, but with whom she was clearly infatuated?
Oh, God, she wanted to! She wanted it so much it scared her.
They arrived at the airport, checked in and immediately found a restaurant. The entire time Gerrick held her hand. She felt young and beautiful and on the verge of a brand new life with a wonderful man. For the first time since her fiancé Chad had dumped her the year before, she felt happy.…No, what she felt was hopeful. Life had meaning and purpose again. She had things to do other than be Hilton Martin’s daughter.
“Okay,” Gerrick said the very second their waitress served their breakfasts and indicated she would let them alone unless they waved her over. “I think we have some talking to do.”
“Yeah, I guess we do,” Gina said, still not sure how to handle this. Even if she decided to stay married, she knew she would have to confess that she didn’t remember getting married or making love. That was the fair, appropriate thing to do. And, once she confessed that she didn’t remember making love or getting married, Gerrick might not want to stay married to her. Which effectively took the decision out of her hands, and also saddened her. If she told him she didn’t remember marrying him or making love and he told her that he couldn’t stay married to a woman who hadn’t made a real commitment, then all this wonderful fun would be over.
Still, she had to do the right thing.
“Gerrick, I don’t know how to tell you this but…”
“The first thing we need to discuss is how we get you from Atlanta to Maine in less than two weeks.”
“Excuse me?” Though they had spoken at the same time, Gina hadn’t missed what Gerrick said. It awakened her like a glass of water splashed into the face of a sleeping person, and her eyes widened.
“Gina, you can’t stay in Atlanta if you’re married to a man who lives in Maine,” Gerrick said, with a chuckle.
Gina sat back on her seat. Okay. Here was reason number one why their being married might not work. She had spent her life being groomed to take over her family’s company. In her head, she saw herself as an executive. Now, she was an executive’s wife. She didn’t know if it was a promotion or a demotion. She didn’t know if she liked it. She didn’t even know if she could do it.
“You’re still going to Maine?” she asked.
“This job is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. I can’t turn it down.”
“Some people might think getting married is the biggest thing that ever happened to you.…”
Gerrick reached across the table, took her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. “They would be right.”
Oh, boy. The pit of her stomach went soft again. Tears filled her eyes. He was so darned romantic. He even looked romantic. His dark eyes were warm with affection. His beautiful mouth held just the hint of a smile. Wearing jeans and a simple polo shirt he should have looked rumpled and unkempt. Instead, he just looked cute.
How could she give him up?
“So maybe then it would be appropriate to absorb one big change before making another?”
“Don’t be silly. We’re two of the smartest people I know. We can handle this transition in our sleep.”
It bowled her over that he so easily, so casually called her smart. A lot of people believed she was only in her job because of her family status. Hearing Gerrick acknowledge her intelligence and readily accept it proved he knew more about her than the simple surface things everyone else saw or assumed.
She licked her dry lips. He seemed so sure, so happy. He seemed to know her. He seemed to love her. His love made her long for things she never thought she would have and made her eager to abandon everything for the chance to grab the life he could give her.
“But I have family responsibilities.”
He looked her right in the eye. “Do you?”
She wasn’t a hundred percent sure what he was asking, but if he was hinting at what she suspected he was hinting at, she needed time to think about that, too.
Luckily, he smiled. “You know what? I think we’ve just jumped into the ‘too much too soon’ category. So what do you say we enjoy our breakfast, enjoy our flight and then talk when we get home?”
Because that sounded very good to her, Gina nodded. She had never been so confused in her entire life, but one thing was clear. Gerrick Green knew her. He anticipated her moods. He didn’t push too hard or too far. He respected her. Somehow even tipsy—or maybe because she was in a freer, more open state of mind—she had recognized all this more quickly than in real time. And that was probably why she had married him.
They made small talk waiting for the plane, then chatted about inconsequential things