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  “It was definitely a wedding. There was a French minister, and we were in a church and it was all quite romantic,” Remi said, her voice strong and true. True because it was true—the church, the flowers, the ceremony. “Sorry you missed it.”

  Her mother looked at Remi, then Julien, then back at Remi, and sat back down in her chair. But she didn’t faint, so that was good.

  “Are you telling us the truth?” her father demanded. He stared her straight in the eyes.

  Remi calmly faced her father. “Church. Minister. Wedding ceremony. Me. Julien. Vows. Document signed, sealed and...” She grabbed the document from Merrick’s hand. “And delivered.”

  She gave the marriage certificate to her father.

  “You’re not lying,” her mother said, looking wild-eyed at the document.

  “Mom, you’ve been telling me for two years to find a nice guy and settle down. I found the nice guy. We’re settling down. And yes, it is sudden and shocking, but it is also the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “Can’t wait for the honeymoon,” Julien said.

  “Will you marry me?” Merrick said to Salena.

  “Absolutely not,” Salena said.

  “Is it because I’m Jewish and you’re Hindu?”

  “It’s because you’re bizarre, arrogant and insufferable.”

  Merrick didn’t seem at all surprised or disappointed. “We can keep banging, though, right?”

  “That goes without saying.”

  “You too, Salena?” Mrs. Brite demanded. “You’re in on this too?”

  “I am,” Salena said. “Also, I quit.”

  “And I quit,” Remi said.

  “I do too,” Merrick said.

  “I don’t have a job,” Julien said. “But if I did have a job on the farm, I’d also quit it.”

  Remi’s mother had her hand on her forehead. Her father looked like he might throw up. Julien’s father and mother were arguing with each other. No one was having a heart attack.

  She’d call it a win.

  “Mom and Dad,” Remi said after a deep breath, “I love you both. But what you did is almost unforgivable. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.” She stared down every parent in the room. That none of them could meet her eyes was the final proof of their guilt. “Be as angry at us as you want right now. But we did this for your own good, and you’ll see that eventually. Now if you’ll excuse me, my husband and I are going on our honeymoon. Shall we, Mr. Brite?”

  “I’ve made a miraculous recovery overnight, Mrs. Brite,” Julien said. “You mentioned a honeymoon?”

  “Any suggestions?” Remi asked.

  Julien shoved his feet into his shoes and grabbed his jacket.

  “I have an idea,” Merrick said.

  By the next morning, all four of them were on their way back to Paris.

  Epilogue

  Shenanigans

  Remi and Julien’s parents didn’t speak to them for nearly three months. It wasn’t so much that Remi and Julien had extorted million of dollars from them. The families admitted they’d been greedy and in the wrong. But Remi and Julien had waited until the day after the press conference to tell their parents the truth—their wedding in Paris hadn’t been legally binding.

  Remi was never quite sure what Merrick had said to the French minister or how much he’d bribed him to perform the wedding and sign off on a semi-official-looking document. She didn’t know and she didn’t want to know. The ruse of the wedding had been for her sake anyway. Merrick knew Remi would never be able to lie to her parents with a straight face and say she’d gotten married if she hadn’t actually gotten married. She knew they weren’t legally married, but it was enough that she could look her mother in the eyes and say she and Julien had had a wedding. It was a dirty trick to convince their parents that they had no choice but to give up the rivalry now that the only Montgomery daughter had married the only Brite son. If the two families had merged, the two businesses were merged whether they liked it or not. Remi and Julien considered this little hoax of theirs nothing more than justice served for the high-priced and dangerous fraud their parents had been perpetuating.

  With their parents still not speaking to them, Remi and Julien spent Christmas Day alone together. But the privacy suited them just fine as Julien asked her to marry him on Christmas Eve. They celebrated her “yes, yes, absolutely yes” by making love under the tree. Twice.

  By New Year’s, their families jointly forgave them at a dinner party Remi hosted to announce the engagement. Remi wanted to believe this forgiveness was born of their parents seeing the error of their ways, repenting and turning over a new leaf. In truth, she knew it was the reams of good press that Capital Hills and Arden Farms had gotten all over the world that had changed their minds. The “moving, touching, awe-inspiring” decision to bury the hatchet and create a charity that would let sick, disabled and needy teens and tweens spend time riding and caring for horses would cement the Brites’ and the Montgomerys’ legacy of giving and service to Kentucky and the horse-racing world. Every racing family in the tristate area had stepped up and pledged money to the cause. The Raileys had already written them a check for five million that their parents accepted in an embarrassingly staged photo op at Verona Downs.

  Remi didn’t take it too personally that her parents and Julien’s parents were taking all the credit for the idea of the charity and acting as if this merger had been their plan all along. All Remi cared about was Julien, her horses, Merrick and Salena, and their plans for the future.

  And getting her fiancé into bed.

  In November, they’d moved into their new place—the farm her parents had, against their will, given them for the nonprofit. By January it already felt like home. Julien had started school again at the University of Kentucky and was working toward a degree in psychology so he could better help the kids who would be served by their charity. At age twenty-six, she was officially engaged to a college freshman and no one could stand in the way of her love for Julien anymore. Remi had set up an office for him in the rambling Colonial farmhouse that had come with the acreage. He looked so cute sitting at his desk, hunched over his textbook and laptop, that all she could do was stroll in and stand there waiting for him to notice her.

  The wait lasted about one second.

  “Oh damn,” Julien said, sitting back in his chair. He stared at her wide-eyed.

  “I told you I still had the outfit.” She’d put on her old dressage clothes for him—tan jodhpurs, leather gloves, velvet coat, white shirt with tie and, of course, the riding boots.

  “I can’t breathe,” Julien said.

  “Should I call Dr. Salena?” Remi batted her eyelashes. “Or should I just take the outfit off?”

  “Option B, please.” Julien got out of his chair and came to her. He cupped the back of her neck and kissed her with bruising force.

  She pulled away and grabbed him by the hand. They’d had office sex shortly after moving in. Some things were better left to a big, comfortable bed.

  Once in their bedroom, Remi shut and locked the door behind her. Merrick had been hanging out at the house earlier, and she didn’t want him wandering into their bedroom by accident. Knowing him, it wouldn’t be an accident. She pushed Julien down onto his back and straddled his hips.

  He put up no fight whatsoever.

  “I love the braid.” Julien said, tugging on the end of her French braid.

  “Easiest hairstyle to fit under a helmet,” she said as she unbuttoned his shirt. She ran her gloved hands all over his bare chest.

  “Plus I can do this,” he said, gently tugging on her braid to pull her head back. He rose up and kissed the exposed flesh of her neck.

  “Even better.” She purred the words as she kissed him again, long and deep and with all the love and passion she felt for him. And she did love him and knew she would love him forever. The stars would burn out long before her love for him did.

  Once more she pushed him onto his back. She unzip