Finding Hayes: A Small Town, Marriage of Convenience Romance (Magnolia Falls Series Book 5)

I dropped back down in my seat because we may as well hear him out. River was a smart fucking dude, and I knew he’d do what he could to help Savannah. Whether or not she believed me, she meant a lot to me.

There were very few people that fell into that category, but she’d always been one of them. Even though her leaving hurt like hell, I’d still walk through fire for her.

“Sit.” I looked over at her, and she huffed back to her seat.

“What’s this grand idea?” she asked.

“If you marry a stranger, it’s going to look suspicious. You aren’t dating anyone at the moment, right? Were there any recent serious relationships?” River asked.

“Nope. I just found out that my last boyfriend, who I broke up with over a year ago, is currently serving time for stealing a car,” she said.

“That’s a dumbshit thing to do.” I leaned back in my chair.

“I haven’t even told you the best part. It was a cop car. And there was a suspect handcuffed in the back seat.”

Savannah had always enjoyed fixing broken things. Nothing about this surprised me. But she was too smart for her own damn good, and once she got people on their feet, she moved on.

That’s what she’d done with me. But I hadn’t been standing on my own two feet at the time. I’d been at my lowest point.

“So, he’s not going to be a possibility,” River said as he barked out a laugh.

“Definitely not. But he wrote to me and told me that he passed the bar exam from prison, so if you need an assistant when he gets out, I’m sure he’d love the opportunity.” She smirked. The beauty of Savannah Abbott was her heart. She wasn’t kidding. She’d probably call River the minute the dude was released and try to help him out.

She’d always been that girl who showed up for everyone.

Until I needed her most.

And I was fine with it, because needing people had never paid off for me. We’d been too close. I preferred keeping most people at a distance.

Life was easier that way.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” River chuckled. “So here’s what I’m suggesting.”

He folded his hands together slowly and leaned back in his chair, as his eyes moved from me to the woman beside me.

Slowly.

What the fuck is he up to?

“I can’t advise you to break the law. I can simply make some suggestions that could help your situation.” His lips turned up in the corners.

“Okay,” she said.

“So you came back to town for a funeral, and you ran into some old friends. One old friend in particular.” River arched a brow, his gaze locking with mine.

Why the fuck is he looking at me like that?

“Sure. It’s been great seeing Ruby and Saylor and Demi.” She smiled.

“I’m not talking about the girls. I’m talking about a certain best friend you haven’t seen in years,” he said.

“This guy?” Savannah flicked her thumb in my direction, and I glared at her. “We can barely stand one another anymore.”

“That’s even better,” River said. “That way, no one gets hurt.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I hissed.

“I’m talking about something that’s easy to believe. Two old friends who everyone in town knew were inseparable back in the day. They haven’t seen one another in years, and now Savvy’s back in town, and they reconnect. They pick up right where they left off. Things progress. A few weeks later, they realize they can’t live without one another, and they tie the knot.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, as a sarcastic laugh left my mouth. “I can barely get her to let me help her out of a snowbank. There’s no reconnecting going on here.”

“Hey!” She whipped around to look at me. “You have shit taste in women. I’d be a freaking score for you. You should be so lucky to marry me, you grumpy bastard.”

River’s head fell back in laughter, and I flipped him the bird.

“This is what I mean. You already seem like an old married couple,” River said, waggling his brows like the dickhead he was.

“You’re the one who rolled into town acting like I’m the enemy. This is an insane idea. You can’t be seriously considering this?”

“I never said I was considering it. I just didn’t appreciate the way you acted like fake marrying me was so appalling.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and I couldn’t stop staring at her full lips. Did she always have those plump lips?

“Right. You get to be appalled by the idea, but I should be honored?” I shook my head in disbelief. “I’ve got news for you, Shortcake. I’m not the marrying type. Maybe you should consider your Uber driver. You seemed awfully cozy with him yesterday.”

“Were you always a jackass, and I just didn’t see it when we were young?” She arched a brow, the corners of her lips turning up the slightest bit.

“I’ve always been this way. It just took you a while to catch on, I guess,” I said. “But you sure caught on, didn’t you?”

“I’m disengaging from this conversation. It’s a ridiculous idea anyway.” She clapped her hands back and forth twice, letting us know she was washing her hands of the idea.

“Is it? Obviously, as an attorney, I can’t recommend anything that doesn’t fall within the constraints of the law. But I’m just pointing out, as a friend, this arrangement does benefit both of you.”

Of course, that comment got her attention, and she slowly turned toward me, curiosity dancing in her honey-brown eyes. “How does it benefit you?”

“It doesn’t,” I said, zero emotion in my voice.

“Hayes,” the jackass on the other side of the desk said.

“River.” I mimicked his self-righteous tone.

“Hayes. River.” Savannah tried to cover her laugh. “Please tell me what I’m missing.”

“It’s nothing,” I said.

“Oh, so you invited yourself here, and you get to hear my whole messed-up story, but I get—nothing. Typical, Woody. You give nothing.”

She may as well have slapped me across the face. I’d never shared half the shit that I’d shared with her with anyone else. It was our shtick. Sharing and confiding in the other. I’d trusted her.

I ground my teeth hard before I responded. “That’s an asshole thing to say, and you know it.”

“Takes one to know one.” She smirked.

Such a fucking smartass.

“Fine. I’m an asshole. You hate me. I get it.” I shook my head. “I don’t know why the fuck I’m even here trying to help you.”

That had her eyes softening. “I don’t hate you. And for what it’s worth, if I were going to fake marry anyone, I would choose you.”

“There we go. But let’s not use the word fake marry in this office.” River chuckled. “So why would you choose him?”

I am definitely going to beat his ass later.

“He’d be the safe bet. It would never go anywhere because we aren’t friends anymore. So there would be no risk of anyone catching feelings.”

“Unlike Scotty, the Uber driver who invited you to karaoke night with his band?” I said, feeling good about reminding her what a douchebag that guy was.

“Well, yes. Scotty tends to fall easily. It would be messy to enter a—er,” she paused to look at River, trying to choose her words carefully. “Arrangement with someone who might not understand the situation.”

“So, let me get this straight… I’m a safe bet because I’m an asshole, and I don’t have feelings?”

“Exactly. There would be no confusion.” Her lips turned up in the corners.

“This is good progress. We know all the reasons why it would work.” River took a sip of his coffee. “You both get something out of it, and then you go your separate ways. It’s a regular marriage; you just go in knowing that there is an end game.”

I barked out a laugh. This was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever come up with, and he’d come up with plenty of batshit crazy ideas over the years.

“I know how this benefits me. Clearly, we all know. And helping my father is the only reason I’m going to ask this.” She cleared her throat. “How does it benefit Hayes?” She directed her question at River, knowing I wasn’t going to answer her.

“Well, Hayes won’t admit that it would help him, but it wouldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. He’s up for a promotion at the firehouse. John Cook is retiring in a few months. He and Lenny are both candidates in the running. Lenny is playing the game a little better than our boy, Hayes. He’s got his wife throwing events and presenting this family atmosphere, which looks good on paper.”

“Lenny Davis? The guy who banged your evil fiancée?”

I let out a long breath with half a nod. “I think Cap sees through it. But I’ve never been good at the social side of the business. The politics and the bullshit.”

Her gaze filled with empathy as she took me in. “You just want to save lives and put out fires.”

There were little moments where she put her guard down and let me see her. Vulnerable moments that she didn’t want me to see. But when she did, it was so familiar that all I wanted to do was pull her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her and keep her here with me.

My father had left me and my sister when we were young. My mother had failed us time and time again, as well. My fiancée had faked a pregnancy and fucked my coworker.

And none of those losses compared to the loss of Savannah Abbott in my life.

“If I don’t get the job, then I don’t get the job.”

“But then you’d be working for Lenny, which we both know won’t work. So what you’re not saying, that we all know to be true, is that you’ll leave. You won’t stay here and work for a man that you despise. I know it, and you know it. So play the fucking game,” River hissed.

He was right. Working for Lenny would never be an option for me. One of us would be leaving that station, and that meant leaving Magnolia Falls.

I was at peace with it.

Saylor was with Kingston now, and she’d be fine if I left. I wouldn’t go far, and I could come home often to visit. Everyone would get over it.

“I remember Kimber from high school. She was nice enough, but the girl had zero style,” Savannah said, interrupting my thoughts.

“And that matters because?” I didn’t hide my irritation. I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I’d come here to sit in on the meeting and make sure she’d be okay. I didn’t need anyone dissecting my life.

“Because I could put her to shame with my wifely skills. Hell, I could throw a party for my man that would be the talk of the town.”

River’s head fell back in laughter before he sat forward and rubbed his hands together. “I like the sound of that.”

“Throw a party for your man?” I quipped. “The same one you can’t stand most of the time?”

“It’s a short-term”—she glanced at River—“arrangement. I know my role. You know your role. It’s a couple of weeks, and we both get what we want before our marriage starts to crumble, and I need my space.”

“You’re serious right now?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief.

“I want to help my dad, Woody.” Her voice was soft, another glimpse of my old best friend being exposed. “And honor Abe’s wishes for the house. I could restore it and sell it to a nice family. I could help you get your promotion, and I think you should get a settlement from the inheritance for agreeing to marry me.”

That had my blood boiling. “You think I want your money?”

“Why not? It would only be right that you should get something when this all falls apart,” she said, glancing at River and then looking at me mischievously. “I mean, if things don’t work out for us the way we hope they do, then you shouldn’t walk away empty-handed.”

“If I did this, which I’m far from convinced is a good idea, it would only be to help you. If it meant I got the promotion and didn’t have to see that kiss-ass piece of shit get promoted, that would sweeten the pot. But the only way I will consider this is if we have it in writing that I don’t leave this—arrangement or marriage or whatever the fuck this is, with any financial gain.”

I’d had a father who had a shit ton of money, and he never took care of me or my sister. I’d worked hard to provide for both of us. I did not want or need handouts from anyone.

It was a hard line for me.

“We could write up a prenup. That looks honorable,” River said.

“I don’t care how it looks. I’m not doing this for the money. That’s my point.”

“So you’re considering it,” Savannah said, her teeth sinking into her juicy bottom lip.

“I want you to be able to help your dad.”

“That’s very generous of you,” she said, but I could see she was struggling with this, too. She directed her question to River. “How would this work? Would we have to live together?”

“Yeah. If you two were to suddenly reconnect and fall in love, you’d get married within the next month and live together for three months.”

“We cannot live together for three months,” Savannah gasped.

This marriage is already off to a great start.

“You could live in different parts of the house. I don’t think anyone will be paying attention, so if you realize it was a mistake in a couple of weeks…” River smirked, as he tapped his pen against the desk. “You separate, but you’re still working on the marriage, right? And then in three months, you just call it quits. Everyone wins. Put on a united front starting now, and then things can fall apart a few weeks after you’re married.”

This had all the makings of a disaster.

“We can be a married couple living separate lives. No one will be the wiser.” She shrugged. “Where would we live?”

“My house. That farmhouse is a fucking disaster right now, and it needs to be renovated. You can work on that while we’re living at my place. My house is large, and I’m gone three nights a week at the firehouse anyway. You’ll barely have to see me.”

“I like the sound of that.” She smirked.

“I don’t think it will be that complicated. Who’s going to be paying attention?” River asked. “But you just can’t tell anyone what we’ve discussed here. It would have to stay between the three of us.”

“I can live with that.” Savannah turned to look at me. “So, are you in? Do you want me to be your ball and chain for the next few months? I promise to be the best girlfriend and then fiancée and then wife before I leave you high and dry and file for divorce.” She extended her hand in offering to seal the deal.

“Sounds like a match made in heaven.” I oozed sarcasm and wrapped my large hand around hers.

It was probably the worst idea I’d ever agreed to.

But for whatever reason, I couldn’t say no. “I’m in.”