Page 33 of An Endless Memory

Alarm flooded my veins. Was I…horny?

The smile didn’t leave his eyes. “Ready?”

That shocked me out of my stupor. No. I was not ready. “I have to change.”

“You look fine.”

I put the back of my hand against my forehead. “Swoon.”

He stilled and considered me. “Lily, I’m starting to think no man has shown you how attractive you are.”

My hair was pinned off my face, the curls weren’t frizzed yet, and I’d even shaved my legs sometime in the last week. That was the extent of my beauty regimen. “Men have been an overall letdown, present company excluded, of course. I’m going to change, then I’ll be ready.”

I scooted around him, praying I didn’t touch that hard body of his and find out how ready I was to have sex again. Bad idea.

When I peeked at him, his gaze had dropped to my chest. Heat wicked up my neck and stopped. He was probably checking to see if I leaked again. Would I ever get over the mortification of that?

In my bedroom, I stared at the meager amount of clothing I’d brought with me from Kansas. Did eloping call for slacks? My first wedding hadn’t been much more than a small gathering in a church, but I’d at least worn a dress.

I changed into my only one, a light-purple dress with daisies scattered all over. Not the same dress from my first wedding.

Time to get married. Again.

All too soon, we were at the courthouse, filling out the paperwork for the marriage license. My stomach was going to toss up the pancakes and eggs Eliot had made for breakfast this morning. Kellan had slept through much of the night, and Eliot had been awake before all of us.

The clerk chattered away. “It’s so nice North Dakota doesn’t have a waiting period. I mean, people can fly to Vegas in less than three hours and get married, so why not do it in the comfort of your own hometown? At least in the same county. Sometimes, when you know, you know. You know?”

“Absolutely,” Eliot answered easily, and she smiled. She was young, but she wasn’t taken by Eliot. Her eyes had flared when she’d seen him, but she wore her own giant diamond, and from the way she gushed about the ease of getting wed, she had probably utilized the lack of a waiting period.

She tapped on her computer. “All right. Johanna is ready whenever you are. Are your witnesses here?”

“We are,” Cody said from behind us.

Aggie was with him, beaming in a maternity dress that wasn’t much different than mine and wearing cowboy boots. Cody looked like he was ready to go to a board meeting for the day. We looked like we were going to a nice place to eat.

A shiver ghosted over my skin. We were getting closer and closer to saying “I do.”

“’Bout time you showed up,” Eliot joked.

Cody checked his watch. “We’re ten minutes early.”

“Just so happens, you’re right on time.” When Eliot smiled, I caught the lines of strain around his eyes.

Guilt gnawed into my stomach lining. He had to be stressed. The guy had a lot on his shoulders. He didn’t need my problems piling it all higher.

The girl grinned. “Come with me.”

Eliot ushered Cody and Aggie to go ahead of us.

I tripped over my feet taking a step. The butterflies swelled in my stomach, pushing out and growing uncomfortable. If my nerves were this bad, what was it like for Eliot? I’d been through this before. He hadn’t.

He put his hand on my back. His heat seeped through my dress, dulling my anxiety but increasing the thrum he’d ignited when he’d ironed without a shirt.

The girl disappeared into an office.

“How are you doing?” I murmured to him.

He only thought a moment. Then he ran one of my stray curls that had escaped through his fingers. “I’m doing just fine, Lily pad.”

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