Page 11 of Seeking Happily Ever After

A wife.

The whole thing was ludicrous, and he couldn’t make any sense of it.

“I take it the call with legal didn’t go well.”

In response, Nick lifted his shoulders and dropped them again with a sigh.

“Are you going to run?”

Damon’s question shouldn’t have surprised him, considering he himself had thought about it. But coming from hisby-the-bookfriend, it was startling.

“We’ll back you up, Nick. If you need to—”

“No.” He cut him off before he had the chance to actually convince him it wasn’t a terrible idea. “She doesn’t deserve that kind of life.”

Damon nodded a bit and took a sip of his drink. “Talk to me. What happened?”

Nick didn’t hesitate. The sooner he got it off his chest, the better chance he had to make sense of any of it. “I need a wife.”

Damon raised his eyebrows and smirked, but didn’t say anything until Nick was done relaying the story completely.

“So,” Nick wrapped it up, “if I’m going to convince the judge that I’m the best choice to legally adopt her, I need to be a family man. Stable and secure. And that’s onlyifJessica doesn’t decide to come back into the picture.” He sagged back against the couch. “So you see, it’s a big friggin’ mess.”

“It definitely sounds like it.” Damon raised his glass to his lips, but put it back down before speaking again. “But you’ve come to the right place.”

Nick perked up. “You can find me a wife?”

His friend chuckled. “Do you forget how I got my own wife?” He tilted his head until Nick finally smiled, remembering that Damon himself had convinced his longtime best friend, Katie, to pretend to be his wife to satisfy some sort of crazy condition his father had on ElkView Ridge in order to buy his childhood home. “And see how that worked out?”

Nick couldn’t help it; he laughed and roughed his hands through his hair. “That’s different. You two were always in love with each other. And you had an obvious choice for a pretend wife.”

“True.” Damon put his drink down and stood, and stretched his arms over his head. “But still. I do have some experience in the area if you need a little help.”

“I can’t do what you did.” Nick shook his head. He’d rejected the idea almost as soon as Chris suggested it. A fake wife? Even if he did think it was a good idea, where would hefinda woman willing to go through with it? His mind flashed back to Charlotte standing next to his vehicle.“Let me know if I can help in any way.”He almost laughed out loud. There was no way that was the kind of help she was offering. And even if he did think she was gorgeous and strong and talented, and would love to ask her out on a date if circumstances were completely different, there was no way he could ask her to do this. He needed another solution. A real one.

“Do what?” Katie reappeared with Amelia fast asleep in her arms. Nick stood by reflex and went to take the baby from her, but Katie quickly turned to the side and dodged him. “She’s asleep, Nick. I like holding her. It makes me think…” She lifted her eyes in Damon’s direction.

“See?” He shot a look at Nick and chuckled.

But Nick couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t say no. Instead, he looked at his wife with a look of love and adoration that, if Nick wasn’t so stressed out, he might have made a quip about how completely whipped his best friend was.

As it was, all Nick could muster was a shrug and an honest answer. “Being a dad is pretty awesome, actually.”

“See?” It was Katie’s turn to shoot the pointed word at her husband before turning to Nick. “And you’re doing an amazing job at it.” Her smile quickly turned to a frown. “What’s going on?” She glanced between the two men and back to Nick. “Damon told me there might be a…”

“Problem,” Nick finished for her. “I need a wife.”

Her eyes went wide and Damon filled her in on everything Nick had told him.

“Seems like an easy solution to me,” Katie said when the explanation was over. “Who do we know in town who can stand in for a bit?”

“You’re serious?” Nick finally reached for his whisky but still didn’t take a sip.

“Totally,” Katie said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because it’s insane?”

“Is it?” She tilted her head in challenge.

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