Page 28 of Hail Marry
“After saving your life,” he shoots back.
“And crushing me.”
“Didn’t you say you’d rather be under me than a semi?”
My eyes widen. How dare he repeat my own unintentional double-entendre?
Zach’s head moves back and forth with each comment like he’s watching a tennis match. He laughs. “You guys are absolutely nuts. But”—he raises his brows at Luca—“I know how hard you’ve worked for the past few years, Callahan. I’ve been racking my brains trying to figure out another option since that judge’s idiotic ruling, but I’ve been coming up short.” His eyes narrow as he looks from Luca to me and back again. “This could actually work, though.” He rubs his chin, still staring at us. A smile creeps back onto his mouth. “I thought we were totally done for, and then you come up with this Hail Mary move, you sly dog.” He rushes over to Luca and fake-punches him in the gut a few times. “Congratulations, man. This is huge.” He pulls Luca in for a hug.
He’s not much shorter than Luca, but he’s still dwarfed by him. Zach takes care of himself, but Luca’s body-fat percentage is probably half of his.
Zach pulls back and comes over to me. “And congrats to you, Mrs. Callahan.”
I give a breathy laugh as I let him hug me. Mrs. Callahan? That’s a whole new level of weird.
“I owe you two a wedding gift,” Zach says after. “I’ll send you an Instant Pot from Amazon or something.” He heads to his desk and takes a seat, straightening the certificate for a better look. He chuckles and shakes his head again, then sets it down and looks at us. “All right”—he cracks his knuckles—“the deed is done, so let’s get rolling. We’ve got our work cut out for us. You two will need to get your story straight—and keep it that way.”
“Our story?” I repeat, not quite sure what he means.
“You’re USC’s best wide receiver, Callahan,” he says. “People will be interested in the woman you married, and rightly so.” He winks at me. “So, whatisour story? Long-time secret relationship? Whirlwind romance after you saved her life?” He snaps. “That’s the one. People will totally eat that up. It’ll be great press. Besides, keeping close to the truth is probably for the best.”
I blink quickly, and my mind hops to Tyler Warren, who’s under the impression Luca and I were already engaged before the hospital. An impression I handed him on a platter.
“Oh!” Zach snaps again. “We need to get some good shots of you two together for the media. I’ve got some contacts, so I can set something up.” He scribbles something on a sticky note. “Obviously, we need to get the ball rolling ASAP on all of the paperwork. Immigration stuff is notoriously slow, and this type of visa isn’t my domain. But”—he pulls out his phone—“I’ve got a buddy from college who works at a boutique firm that handles high-profile immigration cases. I’ll bet he can push things through. It won’t be cheap, but hey, the payoff will be worth it. Right, Callahan?” He grins at Luca and starts scrolling through his contacts.
Luca doesn’t smile back, which, I realize, doesn’t mean anything. Maybe inside he’s jumping up and down and screaming like a tween at a Harry Styles concert. Whatever he’s feeling inside, he’s looking at me, not Zach.
Only now that Zach has stopped talking do I realize how fast my heart is going. The way he’s talking makes it sound like “marriage on paper” isn’t the most accurate way to describe things. Getting our story straight? A photoshoot? Good press?
“Can I talk to you for a minute, Victoria?” Luca asks me. “In private?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Zach puts his phone to his ear and smiles like he suspects we’re heading to the closest closet to make out.
Luca holds the door open for me, and I step into the hallway, which is lined with a row of newspaper clippings highlighting accomplishments of some of the athletes represented by the company.
“What’s up?” I say, hoping I sound calmer than I feel.
He looks at me for a few seconds before responding, and suddenly, it feels like the man who never shows emotions can see straight through me. That seems unfair.
“You don’t have to do this,” he says.
I let out a laugh, but it doesn’t sound right. “Um, we kind of alreadydiddo it. We’ve got the certificate to prove it.”
“Who cares? This”—he gestures back at Zach’s office—“isn’t what you signed up for.”
I let out a breath. Just having him acknowledge that fact helps me relax a bit. “Guess we should’ve done a bit more research before sprinting to the courthouse.” I look up at him, and the level of seriousness on his face drives me to diffuse things with a joke. I fake pity. “You just couldn’t resist me, though.”
He gives a half-hearted chuckle, but his expression slides right back to the usual broody brows. “I’m so sorry I roped you into this. I knew it was dumb. I guess I just…” He grimaces.
“It’s not dumb, Luca. It’s your dream.”
“It’s not yours, though.”
I meet his gaze for a few seconds, then smile wryly. “The only reason I can eventalkabout dreams right now is thanks to?—”
“Victoria,” he says, cutting me off unapologetically. “Yeah, I saved your life. So what? That doesn’t mean you should spend the rest of your life strapped to me.”
