“You’ve got this, baby.”
My already racing heart jolted. We didn’t call each other that in private. This was meant to be a careful, co-parenting relationship. Not a romantic one.
He didn’t mean to say it like that. He couldn’t have.
He was just getting into character.
Right. I just needed to believe that for the rest of the night.
***
I couldn’t lie. The night was going much better than I thought it would. As soon as we walked into the party and started mingling with people, I relaxed.
This was my element—socializing with polo people, discussing games and future tournaments, making fantasy teams with strangers I just met. The only difference this time around was calling Jack my husband. I hadn’t realized how comfortable I’d gotten around him until the first time his touch moved from my arm to my lower back.
But I didn’t spook like I thought I would. Instead of scaring me, it heated me. The light touches of his fingertips on my bare skin sent tingles up my back. The way he traced the rough calluses of his fingertips on the open back of my dress made my heart race. My core slick.
And shutting that down when it felt like we were the only two people in the room felt impossible.
A few familiar faces approached me, and I recited my love story with Jack, time after time. It left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like a script. It felt like Jack and I were preventing a chance at something real happening for our baby. Maybe it couldn’t be a real marriage, but at least it could be an honest one.
“Wow, so you two were basically lovers from childhood,” Kyra Blake, another new face who played low-goal polo at the club,swooned. “And that Jack is a cu-tie!” She separated the syllables to enhance her meaning and lifted her drink to her lips.
“Sort of,” I offered. “We didn’t really start seeing each other until we were older.”
Not technically a lie.
“Well, that is just too cute! And I hear you’re pregnant too.” She reached out to touch my bump, and I instinctively moved backward. No one had tried to touch it before, and I wasn’t keen on changing that. Before the woman could say anything, Jack returned to my side after leaving to get me a glass of sparkling water.
“Another new face.” He smiled with that damn charm of his and held a hand out. “Jack. Pleasure to meet you.”
Kyra blushed—and briefly glanced at her wedding band—as she took Jack’s hand and shook it. I didn’t miss the way he instinctively placed his hand on that bare divot in my lower back right after handing me my drink. “Oh, the pleasure is all mine,” her voice turned sultry. I tucked my forehead behind Jack’s shoulder. She was flirting with him infrontof me. I couldn’t handle watching whatever smooth line he might have given her. His hand pressed harder into my back, fingers scraping against the bare skin.
Leaning his head down so only I could hear, he whispered, “You look fucking perfect, right now. Who does this lady think she is, touchingourbaby?”
Red covered my face as I let out a short breath. My eyes locked with his. They looked hungry. And I was starving. I couldn’t even recover before Jack cleared his throat and looked back at Kyra.
“I see you’ve met my beautiful wife.” He shot me a burning look, making me feel like the luckiest girl in the room. The dirtiest, too.
He knew exactly what he was doing, because Kyra’s face turned red as she glanced between us.
It’s fake, it’s fake, it’s fake.
“Oh.” Her expression said it all.
At this level of money, marriages could be purely for financial and societal benefits. But who was I to talk? Just because someone was married—and especially if they lived by the fifty-mile rule—it didn’t mean they were unavailable. And hungry prowlers wouldn’t hesitate to take a bite of what wasn’t theirs. Scandals and disloyalty were nothing new. In fact, they were nearly expected of traveling players like Jack and me. Working in different places throughout the year provided the opportunity of finding a new lover in each place—or multiple. It was rare that someone shut down flirting in front of anyone, because it was classic banter.
So, Jack's use of the words “beautiful wife” in the first few seconds he met Kyra gave me a sense of comfort—well, that and a little smugness. I eyed her carefully before glancing at Jack, who offered a small grin. He felt the same smugness.
I liked pretending.
Jack never left my side after that conversation with Kyra. I didn’t know if it was because he wanted to be near me or if he didn’t want the temptation of other women flirting with him, but I convinced myself it was the latter.
We mingled throughout the rest of the night, introducing ourselves to dozens of people. Nearly everyone we met was so kind, so cordial, that this could feel just as much like home as being back in Pennsylvania with Dad and our ranch. A western charm resided here. People called us “honey” and “darling.” They brushed my arm by accident and apologized as if they had hit my car. They offered to go out for dinner and drinks just to get to know each other better.
It felt like Jack and I were different here, too. We weren’t two messes trying to find our way. We weren’t faking a marriage. We weren’t sea-sawing about our current relationship status.We werereal. We belonged, and it didn’t take much to feel that sense of comfort. This place was special.
I think I loved Golden Meadow.
