Wild Ever After: A Marriage of Convenience Sports Romance (Wildcat Hockey Book 3)

“I thought you weren’t wearing a veil for the reception?” Melody purses her shiny lips as she scrutinizes my look from head to toe.

“I changed my mind.” I smooth a hand over the lace, admiring the soft, intricate material. “What do you think?”

My nerves ramp up as I wait for her answer. Melody is my boss and also sort of my hero. At thirty-five, she’s one of the youngest editors in chief of I Do magazine. She’s known for having her finger on the pulse of the wedding industry and generally being well liked and respected—a tough combination to pull off.

My little monthly column, Cocktail Hour with Jade, went from a few hundred views to a few million in the course of just nine months. Brides and couples planning or just dreaming of their future weddings have been following my wedding planning journey. I’ve covered everything from how to find the perfect wedding planner to current bouquet trends, to wedding cakes, and finally…dresses.

I Do is paying for my wedding, so I can’t really blame them for wanting Melody to sign off on the purchases. And I agreed to it. Is it weird that my wedding involves a contract a mile long? Probably, but since I never planned to get married anyway, I’m okay with it. It’s almost like my childhood not-so-dream wedding come to life. By the time I was ten, I’d seen my mom get divorced three times in those years and I realized that marriage wasn’t some sacred union of two people. Half of the time, or more if you’re my mom, it ends in tears and moving to yet another new home.

“I don’t know.” She tips her head side to side as she walks a circle around me. “Can I see something shorter?”

“Of course.” The shop owner, Patrice, who has been hovering nearby, jumps into action.

While she and Melody look at veils of all lengths and layers, I step off the platform and grab my phone from my purse on a chair nearby.

My brows knit together at the sight of three missed calls from my fiancé. Sam isn’t the kind of guy to randomly call during the day, let alone three times. Before I call him back, I snap a quick selfie for my best friends Scarlett and Piper. They helped me pick out the dress, but they’ll be pumped to know Melody gave it her blessing. I can’t believe I’m actually getting married in less than a week. I thought I’d be traveling to Mars before I walked down the aisle.

As I’m returning Sam’s call, the bell on the front door jingles and my fiancé steps inside. His light brown hair is messy, and his Imagine Dragons T-shirt is wrinkled, but even so, Sam is still handsome. He’s tall and wiry, with a vibe that’s somewhere between rockstar and preppy. He grew up with money and visits to the country club for brunch. His scruffy appearance isn’t fooling anyone. That kind of thing is always visible on a person. Or maybe just to me.

Sam scans the wedding dress boutique until he finds me. I raise a hand in a hesitant wave. The man hasn’t been interested in a single wedding plan, but, of course, he would show up and see me in my dress. At least it isn’t the one I’m wearing for the ceremony. That one is going to knock his socks off.

Instead of waving back, he heads toward me at a pace that means business.

“Hey,” I cross the small sales floor to meet him, “what are you doing here? I wanted both my dresses to be a surprise. Do you like it?”

“I’ve been trying to call you all morning.” His exasperated tone puts me on edge. He doesn’t even offer so much as a glance down at the short, white dress with its cute tie straps at each shoulder and flouncy skirt.

“It’s a Monday morning, Sam. I’m at work.”

“Work?” One brow arches, and he mutters, “Our wedding is work.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, but—”

He cuts me off. “We need to talk.”

“Okay. I should be done here soon. Do you want to grab lunch?” I mentally scroll through my calendar for the rest of the day. “It’ll have to be quick. I have to finish edits on my article for Friday, and triple check a million other details. There’s so much to do before Saturday. Oh, did you pick up your groomsmen gifts from the jewelry store?”

He lets me rattle on without interrupting, but as soon as I’m done, he shakes his head. “This isn’t working for me.”

“I thought you liked the cuff links.” Liked might be too strong of an emotion for the passing nod he gave them. Though to be fair, our opinions were mostly disregarded in favor of what the magazine thought was sellable. Every single detail made an appearance in one of my articles. Weddings are a business, after all.

“Not that. This.” He points between us. “I don’t think I can go through with this.”

I whip my head around to find Melody. She’s still with Patrice, so I pull Sam into one of the little dressing rooms.

“What are you talking about? The wedding is in five days.” My voice is a panicked whisper.

“It’s too much,” he says. “We’ve only been dating for…” He trails off, clearly clueless on the actual amount of time.

“Twelve months,” I fill in for him. An entire year I’ve been with one guy. It’s my longest relationship, by far. “What does that have to do with anything? You love me, I love you. What’s the big deal?”

“You’re talking about marriage, Jade. Marriage. I don’t want to be one of those guys who gets divorced.”

“O-kay. Me neither.”

“I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously. You let the magazine set our wedding date for Christ’s sake.”

“Is everything okay in there?” Melody asks.

I suck in a breath and slap a hand over Sam’s mouth. Too little, too late.

Melody’s Louboutin shoes are visible under the black curtain. I spend a few seconds considering that maybe she didn’t hear us arguing, but I know I’m not that lucky.

Crap, crap, crap.

“Yeah. I’ll be right out.” I try for calm and upbeat, but even I hear the slight edge of panic in my voice. I remove my hand from Sam’s mouth and whisper, “Can we talk about this later? That is my boss out there.”

“I don’t think there’s anything else to say, Jade. I’m heading out of town for a few days. It’ll give you time to clear your stuff out of the apartment.”

“Wait. You’re breaking up with me?” I forget to keep my voice low and then take a deep breath and speak in a soft, but firm tone. “Don’t do this. We’ll figure out a way to make this work. I know it’s been a lot lately, but it’s almost over. After the honeymoon in St. Lucia, I’ll take a few extra days off and we can relax, kick-back, and do whatever you want.”

We have fun together—maybe not recently, but that’s because wedding planning is my literal job right now. It’s going to be back to normal soon.

“God. Why am I even surprised you’re trying to bargain your way to having this wedding?” The disappointment in his eyes has my hackles rising. He agreed to this. Besides, it’s too late to back out now.

“It’s called compromise.”

His voice booms now as he speaks, “Nothing about this is a compromise. The whole wedding is a sham. I never even proposed.”

He’s right. I proposed to him. We were already living together and talking about our future. Sure, I didn’t imagine marriage in that future, but he did. Sam has been talking about marriage with two kids and a golden retriever since I met him. I assumed he hadn’t asked me to marry him yet because he knew how hesitant I was after watching my mom do it unsuccessfully three times.

Then I saw an amazing opportunity at work. We got engaged, and I got a promotion. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a fairy tale, but it’s everything I wanted. Except the ring. I glance down at the beautiful round-cut diamond on my left ring finger. It’s elegant and totally on trend this year, but I always pictured an oval or emerald cut. It’s the first thing that Melody vetoed, but it’s still the thing that hurts the most.

The wedding was supposed to be years off. I thought maybe then I’d be ready. A month ago, Melody set the date to cash in on all the interest my articles were getting. Maybe I should have fought harder to give us more time, but I have big dreams and I’m willing to sacrifice for them.

Something Sam doesn’t understand. He isn’t the most ambitious guy. He’s perfectly content to let life pass him by. I always kind of liked that about him. Always in the moment, enjoying life. He’s had everything he’s ever wanted given to him. And I’ve had to claw every step of the way. It’s a fundamental difference between us, but I’ve never resented him for it. Not until right this second, when he’s trying to destroy months of me working my ass off for my dreams. My dream job and my dream wedding.

“You said the engagement was just for the magazine articles and we could continue our relationship on our terms. You said we would decide if and when we got married and the rest was just for show. It wasn’t supposed to go this far.” His voice keeps getting louder until I take a step back.

Sam hardly ever raises his voice, but he’s reached a breaking point. I don’t feel good about what this wedding has done to him, but he’s freaking out with my boss right outside. Blood pounds in my ears and my breakfast threatens to make another appearance.

“Well?” He’s staring at me, waiting for me to say something to defend myself, I guess.

Instead, I flee. I push out of the tiny dressing room. Melody and Patrice are watching wide-eyed, but neither says a word. Instead of trying to explain the completely unexplainable situation, I grab my purse from the chair and then I do the only thing I can think to do: I run.