Jordan’s hands shook in mine.

“The movie is . . . well, it’s my job. But baby, you and Otis, you’re my life!”

“Who’s Otis?” Mikey asked.

I waved him off. “Say yes.”

Dead silence.

“Yes,” Jordan said, voice hoarse. “Yes!”

I jumped to my feet and twirled her around while Mikey scratched his head and then said into the microphone, “Well, folks, I guess our doubts have all been settled. Reid Emory has taken The Taming of the Shrew from the silver screen and actually lived it! Thanks for being on the show, guys, and congrats.”

Jordan was silent as we made our way down the elevator. And when we got into the waiting sedan, she was still quiet.

It wasn’t until we pulled out onto the street that she smacked me in the head with her purse. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that people weren’t buying it!” I yelled. “And I fixed it!”

“By proposing marriage?” she wailed. “Marriage is forever! You can’t just propose marriage on a national platform, then two days later say it won’t work out! It will RUIN you. It ruins any credibility you have.”

I opened my mouth, then shut it. “It’s good publicity. You’re just mad you didn’t think of it.”

“Right.” She smacked me twice more. What the hell did she have in there? Bricks? A Taser? Probably both. “Because that’s what I want after a crappy day where my very first client all but verbally assaults me, then accuses me of wanting to sleep with him. A husband!”

“Wait, what?” I held up my hands as she kept smacking me. “He hit on you?”

“No. Yes.” She stopped swinging the purse. “Does it matter?”

“Hell, yes, it does! I’m your husband!”

“Um, no, no you’re not. As of right now you’re barely my friend, and I’m even rethinking that little lapse in judgment. You’ve managed to make a mess of our entire PR plan all within three days! I can’t fix this type of crazy!”

“Well, you can’t quit!”

“I know that!”

“Stop yelling.” I crossed my arms. “You’re being unreasonable and I hate your hair.”

“What?” She tugged at her tight low ponytail. “It’s tamed!”

“I prefer it wild.” Like you. But I didn’t say that. I felt stupid, stupid that I’d panicked and proposed, and stupid that I was offended she wasn’t elated at the idea. But then again, what the hell type of woman would be?

An insane one.

“Crab Shack,” she muttered. “Let’s eat and then I’ll try to fix this mess.”

“I already did.” I reached behind her head and tugged the rubber band away, letting her brown hair bounce loose around her shoulders. “Let’s think about this logically.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, now you want to be logical.”

I pressed my finger to her lips. “Logically, does it work? Movie star falls in love and marries his pet project while filming in New York. Most interesting couple allows media to view parts of their relationship while he finishes up filming. Oh, look, a picture of the couple by the lake. Oh, what? There they are kissing by the hot dog stand.”

“Nobody kisses by the hot dog stand.”

“Wasn’t finished.” I shushed her. “Riding bikes down the trail! A picnic at sunset!”

“We aren’t in Anne of Green Gables. There will be no picnics.”

“Just . . .” I braced her shoulders. “Does the marriage angle work?”

Her eyes fluttered closed and then opened. A sliver of hope raced through me at her defeated look. “It can work.”

“Yes!”

“But—” She held up her hand. “But the story won’t be about taming anymore. You’ve made it bigger than that—”

“So what’s it going to be about?”

“Love and seduction,” she whispered. “Seduce me, and you seduce them.”

“Them?”

“The audience.” Jordan frowned. “You’ll be seducing me and making me believe you want something permanent, but they’ll be experiencing it with me, living it with me, which means that in the end . . .”

“What?” What end? Things were ending? A choking panic seized my lungs as I tried to digest what she’d just said.

“In the end,” she repeated, “I’ll have to be the bad guy. It will have to be me that ends things with you. So I guess we come full circle. You’ll seduce the shrew, and the shrew will decide in the end that she doesn’t want to change. That’s how the story ends. That’s how this ends.”

“You’re depressing the shit out of me, Jordan, you know that, right?” Talking about ending things when it seemed like something was just starting between us was making my mood worse.

She shrugged.

“Hell, he must have done a number on you.”

“What?” She flinched and tucked her wild hair behind her ear. “What are you talking about?”

“Casey. You guys date?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

“You wouldn’t.” The car pulled to a stop in front of the restaurant. She reached for the handle, but I put my hand over hers and stopped her.