“So seriously, where are we going?”
Tyler shook his head. “Ames, I haven’t told you the past three times you’ve asked. What makes you think I’m suddenly going to change my mind?”
She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m your wife. It’s now my job to nag at you until I wear you down and you do what I want.”
He chuckled and slowed the SUV to turn off the main commercial thoroughfare and into a large, sprawling subdivision. “I thought we were trying to date. You’re not supposed to pull those tricks out of the bag until later.”
“Tricks?” she replied in mock outrage. “What about those tricks you pulled on me last night? Those flowers, that restaurant...”
“That kiss,” he added.
Amelia didn’t reply to that. Instead she turned and looked out her window to watch the houses they rolled past. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d made an excellent impression on their first official date. She’d had a better time with him than she had on half the dates she’d been on in the past year. Perhaps the fates knew better than she did. Or maybe they were just having fun messing with her head.
The houses they passed were large. On meticulously groomed lots. And not far from work. That was when everything clicked into place. They were going to look at a house. But here? Despite her attempts to dissuade him, he’d apparently sought out a place in Belle Meade. They were obviously not on the same page when it came to the real estate market.
Finally, Tyler turned into a driveway that was barricaded by a large iron gate. He punched in a code and the gate opened, revealing the incredible estate hidden beyond it. They drove down a narrow lane lined with trees and hedges, then circled around a courtyard fountain, stopping in front of the double-doored entrance of stacked stone stairs.
Thoughts of denial swirled in her mind as she looked up at the house. Correction—mansion. This was no three-bedroom starter home. To buy it would cost several million dollars, easily. The rent was probably high enough to give her heart palpitations. Was this what he’d envisioned when he’d talked about a home where they could raise a family together? She couldn’t even fathom it.
“Tyler...” she said in a warning tone as she looked out the window.
“Just wait until you see the inside,” he said, holding his hands up defensively. “It’s amazing.”
She bet it was. The Biltmore House was nice, too, but she wasn’t moving in there anytime soon, either. “Did you already rent this place? Without asking me? That’s really not the best way to start out. A woman likes to have a say in where she lives.”
“Of course I know that. I did not rent it yet, but I was confident enough that the real estate agent gave me the key to bring you here today. When we’re done, I’ll either return the key or sign the lease.”
Amelia didn’t wait for his assistance to get out of the car. She opened the door and stepped onto the cobblestone driveway. The cream-and-gray-mottled brick of the mansion’s facade seemed to sprawl on forever, broken up by large arched windows and tall square ivory columns. The house was beautiful, but ridiculously large for a family of two and a half.
“Whose house is this? And why on earth would they rent it out to strangers?”
“Apparently some musician had the place built, then ended up going on a world tour and never moved in. The real estate agent seemed pretty confident that if we liked the place, the owner would entertain an offer.”
She sighed and shook her head. It was a rock star’s house. She’d never fathomed she’d step across the threshold, much less ever live in the home of a rock star. “Let’s go inside and see it before you sign your life away, hmm?”
Tyler offered his hand to help her up the stairs, then escorted her through the entrance to the large marble foyer. Amelia was stunned by the size and luxury of the space. There was very little furniture and nothing on the walls, but the details of the house itself were amazing. There was intricate crown molding, carved stonework and sky-high ceilings with shimmering chandeliers dripping crystals from their golden branches. A split staircase of dark, polished wood encircled the room and met at a second-floor landing.
“I don’t think the two of us combined will ever have enough stuff to fill a house this big.” The expansive rooms were so empty, their steps echoed through the space.
“I’m only going to have the movers bring down my personal things from my apartment. It’s a lot more modern, and I don’t think much of the furniture would work here anyway. We’ll need to go shopping for some of the basics to get us through the next month—a bed, a couch, that sort of thing. Then, if we decide to keep the place, we’ll start looking for the rest. I want you to decorate however you want to.”
Amelia fought the frown threatening to pull the corners of her mouth down. They’d agreed to date only two days ago, yet he was moving forward with the intention of them living here forever. Her head was still spinning, but Tyler was a master of rolling with the punches.
As it was, they’d put the cart before the horse and were scrambling to build a relationship to go with their marriage and their baby. Thirty days was really not enough time to fall in love, but she’d known she had to pick a deadline to put an end to this madness. This would either work or it wouldn’t, and now they would know in a month. She couldn’t take the uncertainty any longer than that. Tyler didn’t seem to acknowledge that failure was even an option. It rarely was in his eyes. It didn’t matter if it was a jewel auction or a game of cards with friends—he had to win. This time, she’d made her future the prize he was out to claim.
“I don’t know, Tyler... This place is intimidating. As much as I enjoy decorating, I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“I know,” he admitted. “I had an interior designer do my place in New York. You’re welcome to pick stuff for the house, but we can hire a decorator if you need help.” He reached down and took her hand in his. “Come on,” he said with a gentle tug. “I’ll show you the upstairs first.”
They went up the stairs to the second floor, where he led her through a labyrinth of bedrooms and bathrooms. There was another family room and a large open bonus room that was bigger than her whole apartment.
“I was thinking we could turn this into a game room. Maybe get a pool table and a couple of pinball machines. What do you think?”
She thought this house was way too much space for them. It was too big for five or six, even, but she kept that to herself. “That would be fun.”
“And through here,” he continued, “is the movie theater.”
Amelia stopped. “You’re kidding, right? Why on earth would we need our own movie theater?”
Tyler grinned wide. “Nope, I’m not kidding. I think the real estate agent officially called it a media room, but it’s all the same to me. This is one of the reasons I really love this house.”
Amelia walked ahead of him into the windowless room with dark burgundy–painted walls. There was a large screen on the far wall with a projector mounted in the ceiling overhead. The floor was a staggered incline with two rows of leather media chairs that could seat eight people. One row was a step down from the first so everyone had a prime view. It was the craziest thing she’d ever seen.
“When I started looking for a place to rent, I wanted more than just luxury. I wanted functionality. With this, it made me think about how much we both love movies. You and I have wasted hours of our youth watching films together. I think we were at every Saturday matinee for four years. Having a place to screen our own movies in comfort seemed like a good investment for the future.”
“It’s amazing,” she said, nodding blankly. “If you can afford it, why not? I’m sure we’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of it.”
Tyler continued on with the tour, heading downstairs to show her the luxurious master suite with a bathtub she could swim in. Amelia followed, only half listening to what he had to say about the house. Her mind was being pulled in ten directions, her chest tight with anxiety over this whole situation.
Things seemed to get more complicated minute by minute. Eloping with Tyler had been a mistake, but a correctable one. Getting pregnant was a curveball, but women had children every day with less suitable fathers. She could handle it. Tyler would be a great father, even if they didn’t have a romantic relationship. Moving in together, temporarily or otherwise, was a big leap for her. But this place... It was like moving to an alien planet.
She’d known her best friend was a strategist. He always looked at every angle before making a decision, routinely kicking her rear in chess and rarely making a wrong move on the game board or in life. He didn’t just win, he won intelligently. Still, it was hard to believe Tyler had pulled all this together in a day’s time. He’d bought a car, found an amazing house he knew she’d love... She had no doubt he had movers on standby both here and in New York, just waiting for the call that he’d signed the lease on the house.
What did she expect? She’d laid down a challenge—thirty days to fall in love. Tyler was taking it seriously and would tackle it with the same drive and commitment that had gotten him from an old, overcrowded apartment to a multimillion-dollar mansion in ten years’ time. She would be hard-pressed to fight him off, especially when his opening volley included a mansion with a movie room. He was playing to win. What would he do next?
“I saved this room for last because I think it’s going to be your favorite.” He led her through what would probably be the living room to the kitchen. That was where her heart stopped and her worries vanished in an instant.
It was a chef’s dream. Gorgeous cherry-stained cabinets, gold-flecked granite countertops, ornate tile work on the backsplash, professional stainless-steel appliances... It was gorgeous. She couldn’t help rushing past him into the space to look more closely. The kitchen in her apartment was average. Nice, but nothing special. The one at the chapel was large, sterile and industrial, for cooking for hundreds of people at once. Neither of those places had anything on this.
She opened the deep drawers for pots and pans, sliding out built-in spice racks. The massive gas stove had two ovens, six burners and a grill in the center. There were two farm sinks on opposite sides of the kitchen, one beside a full-size dishwasher and the other with a small drawer dishwasher for quick washes of glasses. The French doors of the refrigerator opened wide, revealing enough space for countless platters and large serving dishes. There was even a warming drawer built in beside the stove.
It wasn’t just a beautiful kitchen, it was a well laid-out one with all the latest amenities. She knew better than anyone how important it was to have the space designed properly to get work done with the fewest steps possible.
Amelia could cook up a storm here. She could throw some of the most amazing dinner parties ever thrown. Maybe an engagement party for Bree and Ian. They’d gotten engaged right before her reunion and had yet to have a party. Thoughts of gatherings with champagne and canapés started spinning through her head, but a glance at Tyler’s smug grin brought everything to a stop.
She’d fallen for it, she realized with a silent curse. What was better than a movie room? The kitchen of her dreams. He knew exactly what he was doing, bringing her to this house and seducing her with stainless-steel appliances. He knew better than anyone that the route to her heart went through the kitchen. She’d underestimated how easily she could be had by someone who knew her every weakness.
Amelia wasn’t ready to lose herself to the fantasy quite yet, though. Even if they did rent this place and move in, she couldn’t get attached to any of it. In four weeks, everything could be different.
Tyler was confident they could build a successful relationship, but they had a steep hill to climb. She’d take a great love in a camper over a so-so romance with a mansion.
“Well, what do you think of the place?” he asked.
“You’ve done well, Tyler,” she said with a polite smile. She ran her hand over the cool granite countertop. “I can’t believe you turned up a place like this in a day. This kitchen is amazing. It’s a shame you’re the worst cook I’ve ever met.”
He smiled and ran his hand through the messy strands of his dark blond hair. “Well, honestly, I have no intention of ever doing anything more complicated than making a bowl of cereal in here. But when I saw it, I knew how much you’d love it. This is all for you, really.”
His pale blue eyes were focused on her with unmatched intensity as he spoke. She could feel the truth of his words and the depth of what they really meant. He could’ve rented a lesser house with average amenities, but he’d wanted to find the one that would make her eyes light up and her heart flutter with excitement. The kitchen had done that, easily. And he knew it.
Looking around her, it was obvious that her life had taken a very surreal turn. Tyler would rent this house, she was certain of it, and they would be living here by the weekend.
The flowers, the dinners, the granite countertops... She’d demanded Tyler woo her, and he was doing a damn fine job. She could already feel her resolve weakening, and it was day two. What would happen over the next twenty-eight days?
The mere thought scared the hell out of her.
* * *
“I didn’t say anything because it’s a temporary arrangement.” Tyler rolled his eyes as his brother Jeremy needled him. He shouldn’t have answered the phone when he saw his brother wasn’t accepting his text at face value.
“Moving to Nashville doesn’t seem temporary.”
“I never said I was moving, just that I would be here for a while. I kept my apartment in New York,” Tyler argued. “And I’m not moving my business. I’m only telling you so someone knows where I am.” He’d chosen to text his younger brother Jeremy so someone in the family knew where he was if something happened. He had his cell phone, of course, but at least one person needed to be able to find him in an emergency. He regretted the decision now. Jeremy wouldn’t accept the fact without the justification.
“What’s going on that would make you drop everything and run to Nashville? Wait...” Jeremy hesitated. “Amelia lives in Nashville, doesn’t she?”
“Yes,” Tyler confirmed, feeling anxiety pool in his stomach. The conversation was unraveling faster than he’d like.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. She just...needs me for a little while.”
A long silence followed. “Needs you? Cut the crap, man. What’s going on? I’ll tell everyone you’ve moved to Nashville if you don’t tell me why. Your life will be hell.”
Tyler sighed. Better Jeremy know than the whole family. “Okay, but you can’t breathe a word to anyone. I mean it.”
“Of course. I’m not the blabbermouth in the family. I never even told anyone about that trip to Tijuana where you got arrested.”
Tyler frowned at the phone. “I’ve never been to Mexico, Jeremy.”
“Oh, that must’ve been Dylan,” Jeremy said. “Crap, I just told a secret. It’s normally not a problem, though. I’ve kept that secret for five years.”
That didn’t make him feel better, but he didn’t have a choice. “Okay...I’m going to stay in Nashville for a few weeks because Amelia and I got together at the reunion and we’re trying to make it work.”
“You hooked up with Amelia?” Jeremy asked with an edge of incredulity in his voice. “Finally! I thought you guys would never—”
“We’re married,” he interrupted. “And she’s pregnant.”
“Holy crap!”
“I’m telling you, Jeremy, no one can know.” That was Amelia’s first and most important rule. It couldn’t get out.
“Okay,” Jeremy said. “It’s safe with me, but when Mom finds out, she’s going to kill you.”
Tyler hung up the phone and shook his head. That hadn’t been how he’d wanted that conversation to go, but it actually felt good to get that news off his chest. At least he had one semireliable person to talk to about all this. If all went well, when the rest of his family found out, it would be good news and no blood would be shed.
His phone rang again, and this time it was the moving company. There was no time to dwell on this. The clock was ticking.
* * *
The next few days were a blur of activity that made Amelia dizzy just thinking about it. Tyler signed a short-term lease on the house, and his moving companies went to work packing up both their apartments. The real estate agent referred them to an agency that provided domestic contract work, and they hired a part-time housekeeper named Janet, much to Amelia’s relief.
After they left the agency, Tyler took Amelia to brunch, and they went furniture shopping to pick out the few things they needed in the interim, including a king-size bed and a desk where Tyler could work.
It was a good thing Tyler had the money to make all this happen, because Amelia certainly didn’t have time to do it all. She’d spent all day Thursday baking, filling and crumb-coating a five-tiered wedding cake. Although chefs tended to specialize in culinary arts or in pastry arts, Amelia had studied both. That came in handy when she and her partners had decided to open From This Moment and did pretty much everything themselves.
By Friday afternoon, the cakes were iced, covered in her famous marshmallow fondant and stacked high on the cart she would use to move the cake into the reception hall. Today’s cake was a simple design, despite being large in size. All she needed to do was load a pastry bag with buttercream and pipe alternating tiers of Swiss dots and cornelli lace. The florist was bringing fresh flowers for the cake Saturday afternoon.
Leaning back against the stainless-steel countertop to eye her accomplishment of the day, she came to the sad realization that soon she would have to let the cakes go. Cakes took hours. There were some days when Amelia was in the kitchen working on a cake until two in the morning. On more than one occasion, she’d just stayed over and slept on the chaise in the bridal suite.
Those days were coming to an end. They’d need to bring in help anyway to assist her late in the pregnancy when she couldn’t power through a sixteen-hour day on her feet in the kitchen, and to bridge the gap of her maternity leave. That would be much easier if they started contracting out the wedding cakes.
Reaching for her tablet, she brushed away a dusting of powdered sugar from the screen and made a note to talk to Natalie about that. When that was done, she loaded her piping bag and started working on the final cake decorations.
“That’s a big cake.”
Amelia looked up from her work to see Tyler standing in the doorway of the kitchen. She was surprised to see he’d shed his suit today and was wearing a snug-fitting green T-shirt and a pair of worn jeans. It was a good look for him, reminding her of the boy she knew in school. “That’s an understatement. It weighs over a hundred pounds.”
He whistled, strolling into the kitchen to stand beside her and admire her handiwork. “Pretty impressive. Does it taste good?”
She frowned at him. “Of course it does. It’s my special lemon–sour cream cake with a fresh raspberry-and-white-chocolate buttercream filling.”
“No real chocolate?”
“This is the South,” she said. “Chocolate is for the groom’s cake, which, fortunately, I do not have to make. The groom’s aunt is making him one that looks like Neyland Stadium at the University of Tennessee.”
Tyler nodded thoughtfully and eyeballed the bowl with leftover raspberry filling. “What are you going to do with that?” he asked.
Amelia sighed and went to the other side of the kitchen to retrieve a plastic spoon. “Knock yourself out,” she said, holding it out to him. She waited until he’d inhaled a few spoonfuls of icing. “What brings you by today, Tyler? I really need to get this finished. I’ve got several hours of prep work ahead of me for tomorrow when I’m done with this.”
He swallowed and set the bowl aside. “By all means, continue working. Primarily, I came by because I haven’t seen you yet today.”
Amelia smiled and climbed up onto her stepladder to pipe the top tier. “Once we’re living in the same place, that won’t be a problem any longer.”
“Speaking of which, I also needed to let you know that you have a new address.” He reached into his pocket and dangled a set of keys. “These are yours. I also have a gate opener for your car.”
“Wow, your people move quickly. Is everything really out of my apartment?”
“Yep. I even had Janet go by and clean once everything was gone.”
Amelia nodded thoughtfully and went back to piping the cake. She was keeping her apartment for another month, but the odds were that she wouldn’t move back. As they’d discussed, she would either stay with Tyler, or she would get a new place big enough for her and the baby. He’d been right—her apartment was too small. It was easier to just get everything out now instead of having to go back and get the rest later.
“Janet also went to the store with the list you put together and stocked the pantry and refrigerator with food. And she got all the necessary cleaning supplies to keep the house shipshape.”
Amelia was going to like this Janet. While she loved to cook, cleaning was at the bottom of her list. The industrial washing machine in the kitchen made it easier to clean up here, but keeping up with cleaning her apartment had always been a burden. She’d developed a process of immediately cleaning up anything she did as she did it to avoid having to deal with it later. She’d never lived with anyone else, but she assumed that would make it exponentially harder to manage.
“Sounds great. Hopefully I’ll get to see what the house looks like before I collapse facedown in the mattress tonight.” She had a long list of things that had to be done before she went home today.
“Don’t you have anyone to help you in the kitchen?”
At that, Amelia chuckled. She added the last flourish to the top tier and climbed down the steps. “Not really. We bring in a crew of servers the day of the wedding, but I’m pretty much on my own until then.”
“What about the other girls? They don’t help you?”
Amelia pushed the cart with the cake over to the walk-in refrigerator. Tyler rushed ahead of her to pull the door open and she slid it inside. “It’s Friday afternoon,” she said, stepping out and shutting the door behind her. “Natalie is in headset-and-clipboard mode, counting down to the wedding. She’s probably meeting with the officiant and the musicians right now to go over the schedule. She will be coordinating the rehearsal, then the rehearsal dinner. Bree will be with her, taking pictures. Gretchen is currently in the reception hall setting up tables, laying out linens and doing all the decorating she can do in advance. When the rehearsal is over, she’ll start decorating the chapel and lobby. They would help me if they could, but we all have things to do.”
“What a circus,” Tyler observed with a shake of his head. “I don’t recall our wedding being this complicated.”
“Yeah, I know,” she replied, her tone flat. “Unfortunately, the circus is necessary for a beautiful, smoothly run wedding day. We’ve got it down to a science.”
Amelia picked up her tablet and pulled up her task list for the afternoon. At the top of the list was prepping a hundred servings each of filet mignon, chicken breast and salmon to marinate overnight. She pulled out a large plastic tote and started mixing up the steak marinade.
She kept expecting Tyler to make noises about leaving, but he continued to hover a few feet away. Whereas she normally didn’t mind company, he was a distraction. A glance at his smile, a whiff of his cologne, and she’d likely slice off her thumb. Dumping in the last ingredient in the marinade, she turned to him. “Tyler, honey, you don’t need to stand around and look at me. I’m sure you have something more important to do today.”
Tyler leaned against the counter beside her and shook his head. “No, I don’t. I’m here to help you. I’m no chef, but I’m another set of hands. Tell me what you need done.”
That was the sexiest thing she’d ever heard. She resisted the urge to throw her arms around his neck and let him take her against the industrial refrigerator. Fridays were a day for work, not play. Instead she took a deep breath and decided where they should start first.
“If you insist.” She pointed to a sink on the opposite side of the kitchen. “Scrub up in the sink and grab an apron off the shelf. When you’re ready, glove up and grab the beef tenderloins from the refrigerator so we can get them broken down into portions.”
If he was going to be a sexy distraction, he could at least be a useful one.