A/N: Thanks for the reviews, hope you enjoy the chapter, reviews are love so show me some. :)
"This is all your fault."
"My fault?" Chris asked. "If I can recall correctly and this gorgeous brain remembers things like that, this was all your plan in the first place. Chris, pretend to be my fiancé, Chris, let me come up to your family's house to keep up the charade. Stephanie, I don't think you realize that this is all your doing. Because it is. All of it."
Stephanie rolled her eyes, "But you don't have to be so…enthusiastic."
"I'm not, believe me, this is not me being enthusiastic," Chris said, pointing at his face, which sported a dull look of disdain. "Now I'm getting married to you, what, the day after tomorrow? This is unbelievable. I always thought my wedding would be something I had a hand in, not something thrust upon me."
"It still can be, it's not like I'm in love with you and want to stick with that 'til death do us part thing," Stephanie said, stepping into the bathroom to change. "Do you think I'm happy about this? I just wanted to get married in a stupid, little ceremony and now it's this whole production because of your family."
"You wanted to come here," he hissed. "I didn't invite you. You thought it would be a good idea, still think that, Princess?"
"I didn't realize your family was so pushy," Stephanie told him, coming out of the bathroom.
He stalked up to her and got in her face, "Don't you dare say a word about my family."
She realized that she had made a mistake and she sighed, "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I didn't mean it like that. I like your family, I really do, it's just, I'm not ready for this. This loving family thing is not my scene, it's never been my scene, so I'm just a little bit unfamiliar with it."
"It's okay," Chris said, taking a step back. "I've said some not kind things about your family so I guess we're even."
"Thank you," she told him gratefully, then turned around, "would you mind zipping me up?"
Chris stared down at her bare back, the back of her bra clearly visible and he gulped. She had a beautiful back. He remembered once on Raw, Austin had ripped her shirt off and she'd been in just her bra and he wished he wasn't remembering that moment right now. He reached out and was about to grab the zipper when he pulled away at the last moment.
"You know, if you're going out with my mom and Frankie, you might want to dress in something a little more casual. Not that you don't look good, you, well, you look good, that's not the problem, but they're probably going to have you walking and you might not be comfortable in this," he told her.
"Oh yeah, you're right," Stephanie said, turning around. "Thanks for the reminder."
"You're welcome," he said, noting how they could go from arguing to being civil so quickly. He liked when they didn't snipe at each other with any real venom, but then he liked when they could tease each other as well. Being around Stephanie was so confusing sometimes. He figured there was more to her than met the eye and he was right, but there was this strange desire to dig even more and see what he could find there, see if he liked what was there.
After all, he'd be married to this woman for the foreseeable future, until her father came to his senses and took the company back. He didn't know how long that was going to take and he'd rather be with her and not fight all the time than be with her and fight every second of every day. If he was going to be stuck with her, he might as well make the best of it and if making the best of it was being around her and getting along with her, then maybe he should do it for the better good.
"Hey, so do you maybe want to go out to dinner with me tonight?" he asked.
She turned and looked at him incredulously, the clothes she'd been rooting through disappearing from her thoughts, "Excuse me? Are you asking me out on a date? Look, I know I'm a damn good kisser, but I didn't think it would make you fall that hard for me."
"Oh yes, Stephanie, now I'm just crazy about you," he said drolly, "look, we're getting married whether we like it or not. I'm doing this huge favor for you and you know what, we don't know how long it's going to be for. If I'm going to be married to you, I want to know that I can have a meal with you where I don't want to wipe that stupid grin of yours off your face."
"So you want to go on a date."
"I didn't say date, don't put words in my mouth," he groaned. "I want to know that when we're living together that we can sit down and eat a meal in the same room without killing each other or getting pasta sauce on the walls."
"Fine," Stephanie said, "I will allow you to take me out to dinner and then we can see that we are compatible in that business-like way our relationship is going."
"Thank you," Chris said as a knock sounded on the door. "Yeah?"
"Is Stephanie ready?" Frankie asked. "We wanted to take her out and see if we could get her a dress or something!"
"She's coming," Chris said, shoving Stephanie into the bathroom. "Hold on!"
"We'll be waiting downstairs!" Frankie said through the door.
"Don't push me," Stephanie said as she kept the door partially open so she could continue to talk to Chris. "Your mom is making me get a dress. I was probably just going to get a white pantsuit or something, you know, something practical and tasteful."
"No, you're not going to get that, you're getting a dress," Chris said, "sorry to say, but my mom has wanted me to get married for so long so you're going to be kind of stuck, sorry."
"Great," she said, coming back out. "Okay, how do I look?"
He found his eyes gazing over her figure again and she looked as good as she ever did. Stephanie was attractive, he'd never dispute that, but he just didn't want to have to assess it all the time like he was doing now. "You look great, now go!"
"I'm going," she said, leaving the room and finally letting him breathe.
Stephanie walked downstairs and was almost immediately engulfed by Frankie and Chris's mother. They ushered her out to the car and before she could really get a word in, they were driving towards town, Loretta going on and on about this custom dressmaker who had these beautiful window displays. Stephanie recalled her first wedding with Paul and how she'd felt like a princess that day with the beautiful wedding dress and the quaint church and feeling like all the love in the world was swirling around their heads and hands and hearts.
"You're thinking awfully hard there," Frankie said as she leaned in closer to Stephanie. Loretta and Chris's aunt were talking to themselves now, giving Frankie and her a moment to really talk. "You thinking about my cousin?"
"Actually I was thinking about my first marriage."
"Oh, the first marriage, I've heard those are brutal," Frankie joked, "that's why it's always the first one though. You get like…a mulligan. It didn't work out, but you learn from your mistakes and now your second one will be even better."
"You'd hope so," Stephanie said, but she knew that this marriage wasn't going to be better; it wasn't even going to be a real marriage. It was an agreement that was getting blown out of proportion.
"Why did you get divorced?"
"Just wasn't the guy I thought he was," Stephanie answered with a shrug. "I guess…I guess you just think for a while that someone is right for you and then turns out they aren't. Unluckily for some people, they're already married by the time they figure this out. I was in that boat."
"So why Chris?" Frankie asked and Stephanie had to think on her feet (or her ass since she was sitting right now). "Not to say that my cousin isn't awesome, but why Chris?"
Because he was there, she wanted to say, but that would hardly be appropriate so she just tried to muster up whatever she could about her fiancé and say whatever came to mind. "He teases me, all the time and it's annoying. But I guess I saw underneath that. I guess I saw what kind of man he really was and he's funny and intensely loyal and-"
"And you sound like you're describing a pet," Frankie said, "what made you fall in love with my cousin? The juicy story."
Now she was really on the spot, "He's a good man. He's loving and kind and caring. He does things so unexpectedly, yet so wonderfully that you have to smile. In fact, all you really want to do around him is smile."
Wow, that even sounded good to her own ears and Frankie beamed and pretended to swoon as they arrived at this apparently amazing dressmaker. Stephanie had to admit, though, as they passed the window that some of the dresses were, in fact, beautiful. She stared at one for a minute, just picturing herself in that and damn it, she was still somewhat girly under all this business and fierce competitiveness and pretty dresses were pretty dresses. They walked inside and Loretta was already talking to a woman who looked to be in her late 40's or early 50's. The place had dresses about, not too many, but considering it was a small shop, there was really no need for so many.
"And this is the bride-to-be," Loretta said, pulling Stephanie to the forefront. "Do you think you could whip something up for her for Sunday?"
"Why don't we try on some things we have and I should be able to get it fit in that time, let me just get her measurements," the dressmaker, Ms. Easton, told them. Stephanie ended up standing on a stool while getting her measurements taken. Once she was done, Mrs. Easton told her to wait and she would have her assistant get her some dresses to try on.
"This is so exciting," Loretta said. "I always regret the fact that I never had any daughters and now I know I was really missing out on something here."
Stephanie laughed and tried to remain involved in all of this, but it was difficult knowing what she knew, knowing that she wasn't really going to be a part of this family forever. Usually when you go into a marriage, you think forever, but not here. It made trying on that first dress slightly difficult and as she turned to look at herself in the mirror, she barely recognized the person looking back at her. She knew Chris would go through with this wedding, reluctant or not, but she knew it wasn't really fair to him.
What was she doing? She loved a job so much that she was willing to go through this? She did love the dress though, if that counted for anything. It had a vintage feel to it with lace edging and an open back. She loved it and she loved the way she looked in it. "Oh honey," Loretta said, looking over her shoulder. "Never before have I seen anyone try on one dress and have it be the one, but I think this is the one."
"I agree," Frankie said as did Chris's Aunt Pam. "You have to wear this one, Steph, Chris will die when he sees you in this. Oh my God, he's going to want to take you upstairs to the bedroom the moment he sees you."
Doubtful that Chris would want to do that, but she had to keep up appearances, "Yeah, I'm sure I'll be thinking the same thing when I see him."
The three ladies cooed at her behavior and it was unanimously (well, Stephanie didn't exactly agree, but she didn't exactly argue) that this would be the dress. Mrs. Easton pinned the dress where she would need to take it in and/or let it out and then they were out on the street again, walking through town. Stephanie was trying not to think of what was happening when Frankie called out to someone and Stephanie looked up to see Chris's ex-girlfriend.
"Hey guys," Charlotte said, "Stephanie, right?"
"Yeah, Stephanie," she told the pretty woman.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.
"We were getting Stephanie a wedding dress, she and Chris are getting married on Sunday. It's kind of like a birthday thing with Aunt Loretta," Frankie explained. It didn't take Stephanie more than two seconds to notice the slight look of disappointment on Charlotte's face. This girl had loved Chris and if that small look was any indication, she might still have feelings for Chris. Maybe she'd only come this weekend in the hopes that Chris would be here and they could rekindle what they had and here Stephanie was, ruining whatever chance there was for the two of them.
She needed to talk to Chris again.