“Well, I’ll be…” I wasn’t sure if he knew Maggie or Richard, but he sounded pleased about our marriage all the same. “I’ll make sure to congratulate your father as well.”
More tension pressed onto my arm as my thoughts raced to fix whatever hole I had just dug for myself. “Ah, no, not yet. We’re waiting to surprise our families, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything yet.”
“Oh, I see.” Mike let out a laugh. “Well, I’m happy for ya.”
“Thanks, Mike. But that is the other issue I wanted to tell you about. I’ll need accommodations for both of us. Preferably not a shared apartment with someone else.” I held my breath, hoping he wouldn’t be upset about me dropping the bomb about my “wife” coming with me at the last minute. Quarters could be difficult to find on such short notice, especially at a club in the middle of nowhere. Maggie’s grip on my arm softened, and my quick glance at her told me she wasn’t as rattled as she was a moment ago.
“Ooh…” Mike paused for a minute. “I’ll need to get that figured out. You might have to give me a couple of days, though. You okay with staying in your original place for a couple of nights while I find you two a more permanent place for the season?”
Permanent.
The word shook me a little more than it should have. It reminded me that this thing with Maggie would be exactly that. Permanent. Forever. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that. Hell, I had finished college less than a year ago. Nothing could have prepared me to be a dad this quickly.
Maggie must have noticed my space-out because she released her grip on my arm and moved her hand to my shoulder. Brought me back to real life.
“Yeah,” I cleared my throat. “That’s fine. Thank you.”
“Alright, kid. I’ll see you in a couple of days. Drive safe,” Mike said before ending the call.
My first instinct was to turn to Maggie and apologize until I fell out of my seat, but when I looked at her, a pair of tears streaked down her face. She squinted her eyes and sniffled.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong, Mags?” I reached my arm over to hold hers.
“God.” She wiped her tears with the heel of her hand and shook her head. Taking a deep breath, she tipped her head back to look at the roof of the truck. “It’s just a lot, you know? I’m pregnant and now we’re going to be living together and…fake married?”
“I know, Maggie, and I’m really sorry about that. I would have warned you before, but it slipped my mind to even talk to Mike about this. I didn’t think it would sound so great saying the girl that worked for me that I knocked up was coming along.” I squeezed her arm again to make up for not being able to move my eyes from the road.
“I know. It scared the shit out of me—a lot. But you’re right. This will look better for both of us if we want to keep up with sponsors’ expectations. So, thank you for that.”
“Don’t thank me for anything, yet. I still have time to screw this up.” I replied, and Maggie let out a small laugh.
“I’m sure we both will at some point.”
Chapter eight
Maggie
Ididn’t know what I thought I would be doing at twenty-two years old, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine sitting in the passenger seat next to Jack Hennicke, thanking him for pretending we were married.
Or silently swooning about the soft blanket wrapped around my shoulders and the pillow behind my lower back.
Yeah, wild things were happening these days.
We didn’t talk about specific details after the phone call. Jack asked me what I thought about everything, and I asked him for a few moments to process it.
Except a few moments turned into an hour, and an hour turned into me inwardly spiraling about the fact that I promised I wouldneverget married, let alone to a polo player. No way in hell was I ending up in the same situation as my mother. Absent as she was, she taught me one thing in my nine years of knowing her: all men were the same, and you were bound to get hurt if you thought otherwise. Jack likely fit in the same box as my dad. He would step up at first and leave me blindsided and dismantled when another woman came along. After thinkingabouther—the once maternal figure in my life that had become a stranger—I fell silent.
A few hours after Jack dropped the bomb about me being his fakewife, it began getting dark, and Jack was becoming dazed and unfocused. We had another hour until we reached our first overnight stop, but he’d been driving for eight hours, only stopping twice for gas. It had been a long day. I let my eyes settle on his thick hands gripping the steering wheel. The intensity of his grip matched the frustration I was feeling about everything: confused, terrified, shocked. As well as he had taken the news about my pregnancy, I wasn’t sure how he truly felt. I didn’tknowJack. He was still the little kid I grew up with, playing behind the trailers with all those years. While the last few weeks had taught me he was a decent person and we meshed well when working together, it had nothing on knowing thefatherof my baby. Whether we liked it or not, we were going to be connected for the rest of our lives. I trusted that Jack cared for his horses like they were people, but how did I know how he would treat ababy?
“Hey.” Jack broke me out of my thoughts. “You awake?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my eyes, hoping he didn’t notice my staring. “Are you?”
“Barely.” He brushed a hand through his blonde hair and scratched the back of his neck. His voice was low and gravelly.
“One more hour,” I reminded him.
“Nah, that GPS is off. We’re only twenty minutes out.”
