Page 51 of Wild Ever After
“So? It’s just an article with some pictures from the wedding.” Unease prickles up my spine. “Right?”
“Not exactly.” He pulls something up on his phone and then hands it to me.
“Holy shit,” I mutter as I look down at the picture of me and Jade on the cover ofI Domagazine.
She looks gorgeous. Of course, she does. She’s always stunning. But she looks up at me with a look of pure happiness, and even crazier, I’m staring down at her like she completes me. Something was definitely in the air that night.
“There are a bunch more inside the magazine. Like a bunch. And local news reports are picking it up. I even saw one of those Instagram WAGS accounts tagging her and referring to her as the new queen.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Congrats, buddy. You’re the uglier half of America’s new favorite couple.”
“I better go.” I hand his phone back to him. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“Call me if you need anything.” He whistles under his breath as he walks backward to his car. “One week of wedded bliss and already making national news. You should have held out longer on your contract.”
He waits to give me time to respond. I don’t. Then he adds, “Maybe I should get married.”
I flip him off and he finally gets into his car. I pull out my phone and my gut churns seeing fifty notifications. Oh, hell.
* * *
When Jade gets home from work, I’m three beers in and still not sure how I feel about everything. Leo and Ash wandered over after they heard the news, but they make their excuses when my wife walks through the door.
“Hey,” Jade says, coming into the living room.
She’s avoided me since we got back from the honeymoon, mostly staying in the guest room. Her room.
“You saw?” she asks, sitting on the edge of the couch.
“Yeah.” I tip back the bottle and drain the rest of my beer.
“I had no idea,” she says, and pulls the magazine from her purse. “Melody made a last-minute decision to swap out the cover and delay another feature to give us double the page space.”
She twists her fingers together in her lap. “Are you pissed? I can’t read you.”
“No.” I sit forward. “I’m…not sure how I feel. I wasn’t expecting this to blow up like this. I had to turn off my phone today.” I have so many interview requests, they could fill my schedule for the next two months. “It’ll blow over though, right?”
Jade’s expression makes my pulse pick up speed. “Melody wants us to…lean in.”
“Lean in?”
I sit quietly, while Jade explains that her boss has given her a spot in the print issue for the next twelve months to cover our first year as newlyweds. I can tell by the excited glint in her eyes that Jade is all in. This is probably a good opportunity for her, but it’s a lie. Does she really want to keep perpetuating that?
Melody also wants us to attend a few functions, ritzy things that I get invited to all the time for hockey, but rarely attend. Local PR fluff. James, my agent, would be thrilled, but I just signed a contract, and I don’t care about additional endorsements. Though, maybe I should. That feeling of not knowing what’s next still sits just below the surface at all times, reminding me that I don’t have anything except hockey.
When she’s finished, she asks, “What do you think?”
I run a hand through my hair and then rub at the back of my neck. “I don’t love the idea of putting myself out there like this.”
A flicker of disappointment flashes in her eyes. “Okay. Yeah, I understand.”
“If you’re going to do this,” I pause and restart, “if we’re going to do this, we need some boundaries. I don’t want personal details of my life out there as cheap fodder to sell a life that isn’t real.”
Some of that disappointment lingers, but she nods. “Of course. I will run my articles by you first, and I’ll choose only the top events for us to attend.”
She waits for my agreement. I’m still uneasy, but she looks so damn excited, and I know how much it means to her. In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose. “I’ll get you a copy of my schedule.”
I barely get the words out before she lunges for me, hugging me tight around the neck. “Thank you. It’s going to be good for both of us. You’ll see.”
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