Page 11 of Falling for You Again

I chewed on my lip, contemplating how gutsy I wanted to be, and his eyes met mine. They were a cool, solid steel in the twilight, an anchor amid our nerves.

“Tell you what, we’ll do exactly what you dared us to do: get married for twenty-four hours. We’ll stay up all night. I’ll buy you dinner, we’ll take in a show, do whatever you want. We can walk the Strip, drink giant slushies, gamble, go clubbing. We’ll even eat those greasy hot dogs they sell on the street corners. Come morning, we’ll enjoy a big buffet breakfast, then fly home, file for an annulment, and go our separate ways. We never have to see each other again.”

It would be as if it had never happened.

It was wild and crazy, and I had never been so impulsive ... except for earlier that morning when I’d ditched my wedding.

Why stop now?

I latched on to the cool confidence reflected in his gaze. “All right. Let’s do this.”

Aaron pumped a fist. “We’re getting married, Meli Hynes.” His hand found mine and my heart did a funky little tumble at the contact.We returned to Calvin’s car, and Aaron kept hold of my hand for the drive to the chapel.

We’d ordered the drive-thru wedding package online while the plane taxied to the gate. Our ceremony would be short, and we’d remain in the car. My bouquet was included. I chose yellow roses, and our officiant, a blond woman with Botoxed lips and false eyelashes, passed the flowers through the window after Aaron gave her our marriage license and IDs. I felt a demented urge to ask for a side of fries to go with my flowers.

“Are you ready?” the woman leaning out the window asked. I didn’t catch her name, and if I were to ask her what it was, I doubted I could speak if I wanted to. I just smiled tightly, my body trembling as I gripped the bouquet, rustling the flowers, and squeezed Aaron’s hand just as hard.

He looked at me for confirmation. “Ready?”

Wide-eyed, I nodded.

“We’re ready,” Aaron told the woman, not taking his stare off me.

Holy crap, we were really doing this.

“Good, good. Keep looking at each other just like that,” the officiant cooed as if she didn’t perform forty ceremonies exactly like this every day. Then she began ours. “We are here tonight to celebrate two hearts bonding in the commitment of marriage.”

Calvin gleefully clapped, then froze. “Omigosh. We need video.”

“Shit, shit, shit,” Aaron said through gritted teeth, and I squealed. We were sweating.

Calvin scrambled for his phone and aimed the lens at us. “Now we’re ready.”

The officiant began again. “We are here tonight to celebrate two hearts bonding in the commitment of marriage. Aaron, you may say your vows.”

“What am I supposed to say?” he asked.

“Whatever comes to mind, as long as it’s from the heart,” she answered.

“Ah, okay.” Aaron locked eyes with me. I knew he was trying to think of something impressive. Then he took a measured breath. “Meli, I promise to sing your favorite songs with you, read books with you, andonly say ‘I love you’ when I mean it. I’ll support your passions, whatever they are. Whittling, finger painting, clamming.”

“Clamming?”

“I don’t know. It just came to me. I promise to stand behind you, stand up for you, and stand uptoyou. I’ll always have faith in you.”

My heart stumbled.

He was reciting our list.

This marriage was fake. It had an expiration date. But it didn’t stop me from thinking,What if Uncle Bear is wrong? What if it’s possible to balance the love of my craft with the love of my life? What if I can have a partner in business and in life?Maybe I was different from my uncle and parents and could manage a delicate balance between the two. Because if there was a partner out there for me who had the qualities I suspected Aaron possessed, maybe, just maybe, there was hope for a life more fulfilling and enriching than I’d let myself imagine.

I could also be getting ahead of myself.

I remembered something else my uncle had taught me. Another Bearism. “A cluttered heart, like a cluttered workshop, leaves no room for creativity to flourish.”

I shouldn’t be greedy.

But a solitary tear slipped unchecked over my cheek and clung to my jaw. The lonely little girl in me desired connection more than anything else. Dare I say, more than owning Artisant Designs?

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