Page 48 of Smitten with the Single Dad

“Awesome!” His eyes turned serious. “Shit. I guess we need to go to Seattle tomorrow and buy a marriage license.”

“O-okay.”

“Crap. Okay, I need to get some coverage for us then in the kitchen.” He blew out a breath. “Damn, I didn’t think things through.”

Burke came up behind him and slapped him on the shoulder. “I guess congratulations are in order?”

Wyatt blew out another breath, his eyes a little wild. “I need to go to Seattle tomorrow to get the marriage license.”

“Okay.”

“But we’re already short staffed.”

“Naw, not tomorrow.” Burke shook his head and peeled Wyatt away from Vica. “Come look at the schedule. Frankie and Seth are back tomorrow, and Ezzie is on a split. We can see if Hal will come in, and I think he will. He was just in Seattle today visiting his sister since she just had a baby. Olive has said she wants more shifts—she just couldn’t come in today because she was getting some dental work done. We’ll make it work, don’t worry. You go do what you need to do.”

Wyatt glanced over his shoulder at Vica. “Want to go to Seattle tomorrow?”

Vica lifted one shoulder. “Sure?”

Holy crap. Tomorrow was her wedding day.

And even though it wasn’t a real wedding, her next thought immediately went to her father and brother. Neither man would be there to walk her down the aisle. Only, when Wyatt smiled at her, the worry of the kitchen not having enough staff gone from his eyes, her sadness faded. Maybe she didn’t need anybody to walk her down the aisle. Not when she had someone like Wyatt waiting at the end for her.

“Go home,” Wyatt said at ten-thirty that night.

“But you’re not going home.”

“I have about another half hour here, then I’ll go up too. I just have to finalize a few things for my absence tomorrow.”

Thankfully, the remainder of their day and night in the kitchen was a whirlwind. The restaurant was slammed from three in the afternoon until ten atnight, with barely enough of a lull for Vica to use the restroom. It was good though. It kept her mind busy enough on the task that she didn’t have time to think about tomorrow, or the fact that immigration showed up, and Croft Engineering was fabricating false accusations against her to incriminate her.

In fact, the kitchen got so busy that Wyatt moved her up from prep to the cold line, and had her helping Nancy with salads and sandwiches.

She was dead on her feet, stinky, and in desperate need of a shower by the time the kitchen closed. But she was also happy. She was being useful.

And …

She was engaged.

That stupid smile was back on her face.

It was the smile that glued itself to her lips whenever she had half a second to think about the fact that Wyatt McEvoy asked her to marry him.

To save her ass from getting deported and arrested, of course. But he asked, nonetheless.

Dom came into the kitchen just as Vica was removing her apron. “I’m heading home. Ginny is going to close the bar for me tonight. Nadine and Renée are both still here too.”

“You mind walking with Vica?” Wyatt asked, sitting in his office with a pad of paper on his lap. “I’m gonna be another half an hour.”

Dom nodded. “Sure thing.”

Vica smiled at the handsome man with the man bun and headed outside via the back staff door. “Thanks,” she said as they emerged into the fresh, warm, salty evening air. It was dark out now, the sky a blanket of stars on an inky backdrop. “I doubt there’s a gunman in the bush waiting to take me out. But I do appreciate the company.”

Dom shoved his hands in his pockets and grunted. “No worries.”

They fell into a bit of an awkward silence for a minute or two. Was he mad at her for bringing chaos to his family’s doorstep?

“You know I did not put Wyatt up to this, right? I had no idea he wasplanning to ask me to marry him. I wasn’t even thinking that was an option. It never entered my brain.”

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