A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone, I really appreciate it and I hope they keep coming. Enjoy the chapter. :)


"Well you two seemed to be having fun last night."

Stephanie could feel her face burning as she ducked her head down. She and Chris had just come downstairs for breakfast and everyone had greeted them with smirks on their faces. News apparently traveled fast around here and now everyone was surely thinking that she and Chris had had sex (loudly!) last night when they hadn't. Sure, Chris was a very good-looking guy and he was passionate about so many things that she figured he'd be very passionate in bed, but God, why was she even thinking about this? She hated Chris, he was a slime, she didn't want to have sex with him!

"Mom," Chris groaned as he took a seat next to Stephanie, "come on!"

"I'm sorry," Loretta laughed. Stephanie dared to look over at Chris and was relieved to see he was embarrassed as well. He looked almost cute while blushing. She wished she could take a picture so she could use it to mock him later to his peers. "I think it's sweet that you two are so in love. I've been waiting for Chris to settle down for such a long time and seeing him so happy with you is nice for me."

"You two were getting it on," Frankie said, sticking her tongue out at them and this made Chris and Stephanie blush even harder. "I mean, seriously, you guys, could you be any louder last night? I think the whole town heard you!"

"Shut up, Frankie," Chris said, rolling his eyes at her. "What Stephanie and I do behind closed doors is our business, okay? We weren't even doing anything last night so you can all put your perverted minds away."

"Oh yeah right," Frankie needled him. "Chris, I think it's safe to say that we're all adults here and you two are engaged! Whatever you guys do is your own business, but try and keep it down next time because I don't need to hear that kind of stuff coming from my cousin."

"There was nothing coming from…oh just be quiet," Chris cringed, grabbing a piece of toast and buttering it aggressively. "You guys can just go on thinking whatever the hell you want to, I don't give a damn what you think about."

"Chris, calm down," Stephanie said, reaching out and rubbing his shoulder. "We are all adults here and certainly we know what happened and that's between us."

Chris looked over at her and instead of the smirk he expected to find, she looked a lot more sympathetic than he thought she would. Of course, she was kind of being besmirched too. She couldn't be comfortable with people thinking they had sex because that was the last thing on her mind, he was sure. For him, sure, he'd thought of Stephanie a few times before, but he was a guy and he thought about sex all the time so it was just ingrained in his biology. Surely, Stephanie, with her female control, didn't. He looked at her gratefully and actually found solace in her hand rubbing his shoulder.

"Chris and Stephanie sitting in a tree, S-E-X-I-N-G," Frankie teased as she spooned some cereal into her mouth. Chris flipped her off and Frankie just laughed at him as Loretta sat down and glanced at her sister. This didn't go unnoticed by Stephanie, who was studying the two.

"What's with the looks?" she finally asked, wondering what was going on. It felt like something was happening that she wasn't aware of and that always irked Stephanie. She liked to be in the know with everything.

"Okay, so we had an idea," Loretta said and giggled at her sister. "Now, I know you two probably want a beautiful wedding and fancy I'm sure because Stephanie, I know you're quite wealthy, but…I would love it if you two got married right here, this weekend, it would be the best birthday gift I could ever receive."

"What!" Chris and Stephanie exclaimed at the same time.

"Oh, I know that it's short notice, but just seeing the two of you and the sooner you're married, the sooner you can start on those grandchildren you seemed to be working on last night," Loretta said with a wink that made Chris and Stephanie's stomachs drop. A kid between the two of them would be the last thing either of them would ever want.

"Loretta, I'm extremely flattered that you thought of this, but-"

"Stephanie and I really didn't want any of that hoopla," Chris said, "we actually wanted something really quiet and you know, pretty private and small, especially because this is Stephanie's second wedding, since she made such a huge mistake with that first husband of hers, huge, glaring, colossal mistake."

Stephanie looked over at him, "Thank you for that, but Chris is right, you guys. I mean, we really appreciate the sentiment, but we can't take over your weekend like that, it wouldn't feel right and I wouldn't feel right overshadowing your birthday."

"It would make my birthday a thousand times better, believe me, I've been waiting for Chris to settle down for so long and I want to help. Do you think your parents would be able to fly up?" Loretta asked.

"Mom, Stephanie said she doesn't feel right doing this and neither do I, can you please just respect our wishes on this one?" he implored. He didn't want a wedding like that. He knew this was just for business and he and Stephanie were not going to stay married and he would never want to hurt his mother like that. He just wanted something low-key so when he exited this marriage, it had as little strain as necessary.

"I'm not taking no for an answer!" Loretta told him. "I think this would be wonderful for everyone. If your family can't come up…"

Her father would know, he would just know what she was doing, "My family is…out of the country right now, my dad decided to take this very long vacation after he sold the company, I'm not even really sure where they are." She was clearly trying to stall them, but it wasn't going to deter Loretta and Pam.

"Well, they've already seen you married once," Pam shrugged, "they won't miss you seeing it again."

Stephanie looked to Chris, who shook his head and then Stephanie thought of something, "Actually, we probably can't because we wanted to have a prenuptial agreement written up and we haven't even gotten to do that."

"Oh, you don't need one of those, you're both adults and if you were ever to break up, you'd handle it accordingly, but I can tell you two are going to last," Loretta said.

"We don't have a license," Chris added.

"We'll get one, I know someone down at the town hall and they'll expedite it to us," Pam told them. "This is going to be wonderful."

"Mom, what about…Dad?" Chris asked and that question actually made his mother take pause for a moment.

"If your father doesn't like it, tough," she finally said. "Now come on, Stephanie, we don't have anything for you and we're going to need a dress for sure and a veil and shoes, oh, I've always wanted a daughter to do this with. Chris, you better get on getting some wedding bands, that'll be your task, let us take care of everything else."

"Mom, please don't do this," Chris tried one last time to stop his mom from going completely overboard. He and Stephanie were just going to elope and now they were getting an actual wedding? This was getting out of control and it was all happening so fast. First, he'd been accused of sleeping with Stephanie and now he was tasked with getting wedding rings? How had things spiraled so quickly? He wasn't even sure what was happening.

"Stephanie, can I come with you guys?" Frankie asked. "I'm not engaged just yet, though for all intents and purposes I am and I would love to help you find your dress, everyone says I've got really great style and I can help you look so hot that Chris will want to rip the dress off you right there at the altar."

Stephanie bit her lip and looked away, "Um, yeah, sure."

"Stephanie, a word, please," Chris said, grabbing her arm and hauling her out of her chair and into the other room. He took them out of earshot of everyone in the kitchen and nearly shoved her into the wall, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Chris, your mother is insisting on this, you saw her, we can't stop her, she's going to go through with it whether we like it or not!" she hissed.

"I don't want to hurt my mom," Chris said, taking a look back at the kitchen. "You heard her, she's been waiting for me to get married for a long time now and if we get married and then just divorce and then she'll find out we're only doing this to save your ass…she'll be devastated. Do you even get that? This is my mother's feelings we're toying with here!"

"I know that!" Stephanie told him. "You don't think I know what we're doing! Of course I know, but you tell me how to get out of this and we'll do that, but as of right now, you're not exactly having the best ideas, now are you?"

"You never even gave me time to think!" he told her.

"Time to think, think of what, you were floundering in there just as much as I was," she argued with him. "The moment you actually can think on your feet will be the first moment you've actually thought on your feet."

"Shut up," he snarled. "We've got to think of something."

"What about your dad? Your mom seemed to hesitate a little when you brought up how your dad wouldn't like this arrangement. Maybe we can go to your dad or maybe when your dad finds out, he'll stop this whole thing and we can go through with the actual plan," Stephanie said. She wasn't ready to be married to Chris this weekend. Sure, she'd thought of doing the wedding thing to appease Chris's mom, but she didn't think it would be this weekend! There was a huge difference from down the line and tomorrow.

"My mom can talk my dad into anything," Chris shook his head, "besides, my dad thinks it's a sham anyways, so if I didn't, he'd just have one more piece of ammo against me."

"Seriously, what is going on there?"

"None of your business," he told her, "we've got to think of another way."

"So help me out here!" Stephanie said, "I tried the pre-nup, we tried the marriage license, nothing short of me saying that I have to leave is going to stop them."

"That's in an emergency with the company! You can say you have an emergency," Chris exclaimed.

"Yeah, then your mom takes us down to city hall and marries us right now," Stephanie said and Chris groaned because that was exactly what his mother would do. "Got any more great ideas hotshot? You are worthless in situations like this, you know that, right, worthless!"

"You're even more worthless because you came up with this ridiculous plan!" Chris told her.

"You agreed to it!" she countered.

Suddenly and without warning, Stephanie's hand darted to the back of his neck and pulled him closer to her, her lips crashing into his with force. She tilted her head to access his mouth and pushed her tongue against his lips. So startled was he that his mouth allowed her tongue entrance and suddenly the kiss was getting a lot sloppier. Instinct and human nature addled his brain and he was returning the kiss, his hands groping for her waist and pulling her flush against him. Her hand became her arm snaking across his neck and his mind became hazy and it felt like the world was spinning off its axis. As suddenly as it began it ended and his eyes were wide and boring into Stephanie's, wondering what the hell that was for. Stephanie looked over his shoulder and he turned to see his mother and Frankie spying on them.

"Sorry," Stephanie said, "I guess the thought of marrying Chris made me need to kiss him immediately."

"Uh yeah," Chris said, still dumbfounded by Stephanie's kiss. It had been…he shook his head. Loretta grinned and linked arms with Frankie.

"Oh yes, this wedding is on."