Her smile grew and then she rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. We desperately need to clean up this drug problem in the bar, and it would seem you’re more than qualified to do it. The faster we catch the dealer, the sooner we won’t need your services anymore. I’m not kidding when I say we can’t afford a bouncer. Dad likes to pretend everything is peachy around here, but I’m the one who keeps the books. We’re barely in the black.”
Tuck nodded. “I’ll try to solve your problem as quickly as possible.”
Chapter 2
Tuck had been assured he could go on with his life, get a job, do normal things. As long as he met the requirements of his contract with the production company, New Millennia Media, he was golden.
Granted, the confines of his agreement were pretty tight. Most people in their right mind wouldn’t have signed on to do this show. Jodi wasn’t wrong about that. Tuck hadn’t hunted out this job at all. He’d never heard of Cold Feet until one of his good friends from BUD/S training had contacted him a few months ago and begged him to fill a hole in the show.
Tuck had been dragging himself through life for several months when he got that call from Nick Nelson. His final tour with the SEALs had ended a few months prior, and he’d done nothing but mope around since then. Nick had known Tuck was depressed, bored, unemployed, and available. He had also known Tuck needed money.
Tuck hadn’t hesitated, jumping on the opportunity, not giving a shit what the show was or what would be required of him.
That was ten weeks and a lifetime ago. He’d been contracted to finish the last two weeks of Cold Feet as the projected groom when the previous actor was basically voted off the island, so to speak.
Tuck was not an actor. He’d never once considered doing anything remotely like this. He was, however, in need of cash, and people would do lots of crazy things for money when pressed against a wall.
His contract had stipulated that he would get five thousand dollars to finish out the two weeks of the show and a bonus twenty-five grand if he actually married the bride.
Katia. Jesus. What a joke. He’d known from the moment he’d arrived that Katia was only in it for the money. She’d been far more desperate than Tuck to get married. She hadn’t even cared to whom. After the first groom, Carl, had been booted for bringing, of all things, date-rape drugs on the show, Katia had begged Tuck’s friend Nick to take his place. Nick was in a new relationship with Dani, the woman he’d been half in love with for over a decade, so he’d turned down the opportunity and called Tuck.
That was how Tuck had gotten into the mess. Five grand had sounded like a windfall. After a few days when he’d realized Katia intended to play the game however necessary to get the other twenty-five grand, Tuck had decided what the hell. Thirty thousand would go a long way toward easing his financial burden.
And then, at the last second, the stakes had gone up…
“How much longer is this reality show going to go on?” Jodi asked, spinning around behind the bar.
Yanked from his ruminations, Tuck lifted his gaze. “One more month.” When the show had ended, the producer had offered them a new contract. Another fifty grand to stay married for ninety days. They’d had to move into an apartment together that the network provided and allow cameras to run in the kitchen and living room twenty-four seven. This livestreaming was apparently so popular with the show’s followers that New Millennia Media had jumped on the opportunity.
“Are you going to stay married to that woman?” Jodi asked, incredulous.
Not a snowball’s chance in hell. He lifted his brows instead of voicing his thoughts. “I told you I can’t disclose details about the show. Not to anyone.”
Jodi sighed, mumbling, “Who the hell would I tell?”
Oh, just everyone on social media perhaps?
As Jodi continued giving him the grand tour of her father’s bar, Tuck learned that Jodi was thirty years old, an only child, and her mother had died of breast cancer five years ago. She lived above the bar with her father, which might have made Tuck judge her if it weren’t for the fact that until recently, he too had basically lived with his mother. The entire time he’d been with the SEALs he had spent his leave at his childhood home. He’d never thought twice about it. His father had run off when he was two years old, so he didn’t remember a time when it hadn’t been just the two of them.
He swallowed back his nostalgia as he thought about that house. He’d been forced to sell it as soon as he left the SEALs, and he’d been bumming space on a few friends’ couches until moving into the fake apartment setup with Katia.
Jodi was speaking again, and he jerked his attention toward her. She was pointing out where all the exits were. An important detail considering someone was coming and going from the bar with a stash of drugs on them. He hoped to God he was only dealing with black-market diet pills. So far, that was all the police knew about. Coincidentally, he was all too aware of their effects since most of the bridesmaids on Cold Feet seemed to be taking the damn things too. Every one of them had mood swings no one could begin to keep up with. It took him all of two days to figure out why.
He watched Jodi closely as she spoke. Now that she wasn’t mocking him or rolling her eyes at his perceived absurd life choices, she seemed far more friendly and almost normal.
He couldn’t lie to himself. She was gorgeous. Her dimples made him smile every time she did. More and more of
