Page 22 of Worth the Vow

“Why are we getting on the interstate?” Kate asks softly.

We haven’t spoken a word to each other since I stopped her in her tracks by reminding her she’d be my wife. Honestly, saying it out loud shocked me as well. I’d told her we’d get married, but actually saying she’d be my wife really surprised me.

I’d long ago decided never to get married again. The few years I was unhappily married to Savannah were enough to convince me that civil unions weren’t for me. Her devious actions solidified my thoughts on marriage, relationships, and the opposite sex.

I didn’t set out to be a single dad, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved when Savannah decided she didn’t want to stay here and be a mom. Yeah, life is challenging. I have a stressful job and I’m the sole provider for three kids. But I’d rather be single than tied to someone I despise.

Which is why even I was surprised when I suggested — no, told — Kate that we’d be getting married so she could have access to my health insurance. Honestly, it pisses me off that my parents didn’t demand she accept insurance from the hotel when she worked there. But Kate is too fucking proud to accept anything from anyone, and that’s why I didn’t give her the option to say no.

Considering it’s probably the first time she didn’t fight me on something, I know she really needs medical help. I already have an appointment scheduled for her for next week with an OBGYN that came highly recommended online, but I haven’t told Kate yet. One challenging conversation at a time. I thought about asking Hannah, but I didn’t feel comfortable explaining Kate’s medical needs. That’s her story to tell, not mine.

“Dominic,” Kate says again.

Clearing my throat, I focus on her question. “I couldn’t find a judge with availability for a Saturday appointment in Jefferson County, so we’re headed into Denver.”

“You need an appointment to have a five minute wedding ceremony?”

“Evidently.”

Kate is quiet as we speed down the interstate toward the capital of Colorado. We discussed bringing the kids, but didn’t want to chance any of them blabbing to the judge that this wasn’t a love marriage. Plus, I’m certainly not ready to have that conversation with them, and try to explain why I offered to marry Kate.

I glance over at her to see her hands are gripped tightly in her lap as she stares wistfully out the window. Her expression is pensive as she chews on her bottom lip, and I fight the urge to reach over and pull her lip out from between her teeth.

I can still taste that lip.

I can still taste her.

Thinking it would be best to give her a chaste kiss so she didn’t look shocked in front of a judicial officer, I don’t know who was more surprised at how quickly it unraveled. She tasted like cherries, and she felt like home.

She felt like mine.

Needing to clear my mind of that kiss, I blurt out, “did you live on this side of Denver? Growing up, I mean.”

“No, I lived on the east side.”

“Where?”

“Aurora.”

I grimace, thinking about the area where she had grown up. Aurora isn’t known to be the best area of Denver. It’s improved over the past decade as the area has expanded, but thinking about Kate and her mom, surviving there alone, makes me justifiably angry.

“I never even came this far west until Matt made me come to meet you guys,” Kate says quietly. My mom is always ready to welcome an injured bird into our mix, and she was all too willing to help Kate out in any way, even though Kate isn’t related to us. From everything I’ve learned about Kate and Matt’s dad over the past few years, he is an absolute dick, and deserves whatever he gets in prison.

“You’ve been up further since then, right?” I ask.

“No,” she whispers.

“Seriously? I figured Arianna would have dragged you up to Aspen, or Vail, just for shopping,” I say, getting a very small smile out of Kate. My baby sister, Arianna, is the fashionista of the family. But she’s also a force to be reckoned with.

“She asked once or twice, but she knew I couldn’t afford anything up there. So she stopped asking, I think,” Kate confesses.

I’m quiet as I let her words sink in. I want to ask how much money she has. I know how much I pay her, but it’s not full-time. She bartends in town on the weekends, but I have no idea what kind of income that provides. She thinks I don’t know about the cleaning jobs she’s taken on over the past couple of months, but I do. I also know about the every-now-and-again babysitting jobs she accepts.

I’ve thought about offering Kate a lump sum, but I figure she’ll tell me no, and then probably punch me in the gut. It wouldn’t be that much money, because I’m not that well off. I don’t take a huge salary from the hotel, and I’m raising three kids on my own. Shit is expensive. It seems like every time I turn around, one of my kids needs money for something. Carter’s therapy co-pays add up pretty fast, too.

“Well, we’ll have to go up to the Continental Divide at least. You need to see the mountains from that perspective at least once in your life,” I tell her.

“It’s okay, Dominic. You don’t have to feel obligated to do that.”

---