“Actually, we’ve been friends with Karen longer than Michael. Hence the reason we’re huddled together talking about everyone around us.”
“Eliza, Carter, this is Michael’s brother, Zach.”
Zach shook the governor’s hand and offered the same to his wife. It would have been easy to feel out of place, but the group offered explanations to Zach as they talked among themselves.
“I didn’t know Michael had a brother,” Carter managed.
“One brother and three sisters,” Samantha blurted out.
Zach narrowed his eyes and noticed Gwen nudge the petite redhead.
“I think that’s what Michael said.” Samantha glanced at the ground. “Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“Are we still on for the park tomorrow?” Eliza briskly changed the subject. “I haven’t seen Delanie since the christening.”
Samantha removed her cell phone from her purse and the women huddled around it in what Zach recognized as the ceremonial showing off of the baby pictures.
His older sister, Rena, had two of her own, and there was no escaping the latest digital photograph if Zach so much as missed a Sunday dinner with the family.
“Eliza! Carter! You guys made it.” Karen stepped into the growing circle and embraced her friends.
“Of course we made it.”
Karen offered a polite smile to Zach as she glanced between the ladies. “Why are you guys not eating? I slaved over the menu, and most of the women here are worried about gaining an ounce.”
“I’m going to eat, don’t worry,” Eliza said.
A waiter approached the party and offered flutes of champagne. The group took up a glass each and started to sip.
Beside Zach, Neil whisked the glass out of his wife’s hand. “Not for you, Princess.”
Gwen’s face lit up with shock. “Oh, my. I almost forgot.”
The group went quiet.
“Forgot what?”
Gwen bit her lower lip. “Ah, nothing. This is Karen and Michael’s party.”
Then, as if the women were all talking to each other in their heads, Karen let out a squeal. “Oh. My. God. You’re pregnant!”
When there wasn’t a quick denial, the group became overwhelmingly animated with the obviously shocking news.
“We were going to wait to say anything.” Gwen accepted a hug from Karen.
“That’s stupid.”
“But this is your anniversary party.”
Karen rolled her eyes. “Please, Gwen. It’s Michael and me.” Then, as if Karen remembered Zach was there, she abruptly stopped talking and let the others crowd in to offer their congratulations.
Zach, not knowing what to say other than the obvious, offered his congratulations to the father-to-be.
“You’re next.” Samantha pointed a finger at the first lady.
“Gee, thanks. Talk about pressure.”
Because something about this whole group was bothering him, Zach asked, “What about you, Karen? Are you and Mike going to have kids?”
Silence met his ears. For a brief moment, he wondered if maybe there was something terribly wrong with his question. Could she have kids? Could his brother? But there wasn’t pain in Karen’s face when she smiled at him, more of a resolve. “I don’t think anytime soon.”
With that, the group steered the conversation far away from Karen having children and on to other subjects.
The entire introduction to his brother’s wife was laced with more questions than answers.
Chapter Two
“This is going to get very sticky,” Gwen whispered in Karen’s ear as the party started to wind down, and many of the guests had left.
The two of them, along with Samantha and Eliza, were nestled in the far end of the courtyard sipping wine, coffee, or in Gwen’s case, tea, and watching the men as they talked around a fire pit.
“Why do you think he’s here?” Eliza asked.
“I have no idea. If there is one topic Michael and I don’t really discuss, it’s his family,” Karen said to her friends, who knew the situation between her and Michael.
The group of men erupted in laughter, making the women frown.
“They act as if they just saw each other last week.” This came from Samantha.
“You’re the one who did the background check. Did I miss something in the file?” Karen asked.
The file referred to the dossier on every client and prospective spouse that hired Alliance to pick a temporary partner for them. In Michael’s case, he needed an agreeable wife for sixteen to eighteen months in order to throw Hollywood, the fans, and the producers off the scent that the leading man of action flicks, fetching multimillions per movie, wasn’t interested in women.
Sadly, though Hollywood was incredibly flexible with sexuality, the public didn’t pay to see films where it was common knowledge the man on the screen would never be interested in the woman in his arms. Michael Wolfe was the hottest action film star of the millennium and had more films lined up than should be legal. Though no definitive rumors circulated about his sexuality, he sought out Alliance to find a temporary wife to circumvent any that might evolve.
Samantha, who had a list of contacts an arm long, had created Alliance and prescreened every client regardless of their wealth or standing in the community. She and Eliza had worked together in the beginning, yet as each of them married and found other activities, such as being a duchess, the first lady of the state, and parenting, they took on lesser roles with Alliance. Gwen had stepped in to help run Alliance along with Karen, who was the only one who had actually been looking for a temporary husband to begin with, and as it turned out, she acquired exactly what she wanted.