Page 52 of Just (Fake) Married
So I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her against my body. Her eyes went wide. Her hands landed against my chest and I felt the press of her fingers there.
Yeah, I thought. That’s right. I’m your husband now.
So I broke the rules and I kissed her on the mouth.
I pressed my lips to hers and felt the exquisite give. She pulled in a surprised breath and I tasted the coffee she’d had earlier. The sugar I’d mixed in it, thinking of her. She sighed against me, her shoulders lowering for just a second. A tiny moment of surrender that was somehow hotter than any kiss I’d ever had before. With any woman.
What, I wondered, would it be like if this woman really surrendered to me? Just let down all her defenses. For me.
Blood pulsed and my mind called up all kinds of things.
But then, like I knew was inevitable, she pushed against me ever so slightly, and I stepped back.
She pressed a hand to her lips and watched me with wide eyes, as if she didn’t like how that felt. Like she’d been expecting one thing and gotten something else.
“If you’ll sign here,” Judge Lee said, and I scrawled my signature where she pointed. Harmony signed too, with a little flourish on the y at the end of her name. Then Mabel’s turn.
“Are we done?” I asked, and Judge Lee grinned at us.
“By the power vested in me, by the state of Wyoming, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
TWELVE
HARMONY
The Lodge,when you got close to it, was huge. A behemoth of a Craftsman built by a man with an ego to match. All the windows glowed with lamplight and firelight. I knew the property had lots of barns and bunkhouses, workshops and garages, but they weren’t close to the lodge. The house was alone in the dark. A castle.
I parked my truck in the shadows next to the house, next to Ethan’s tin can rental car, and gave myself a little pep talk.
Don’t. Be. Yourself.
Don’t try and fix things. Or make things easier. Don’t apologize. Don’t wonder what he’s thinking and do not, do not, think about that kiss in front of the judge.
I pulled my duffle bag filled with my essentials out of the back of the truck, and slung it over my shoulder, and then I got Jenny and Bruce out of the cab, with a minimal amount of fanfare.
I was getting worried about Bruce’s wing. I knew she’d never be able to use it again, but it was dragging so much, I was scared.The vet I’d taken her to had been right. Eventually, she would need it amputated.
Actually, what the vet said, was that she needed to be put down. That’s when I’d covered Bruce’s ears and called him a monster. So, he’d said the second-best thing I could do was amputate the wing. If that was second best, that man and I had very different scales of “best.”
The wind howled through the valley and I rushed my animals to the front door of the castle. Just as I was stepping up to the porch, Tag came out of the house.
I never had any beef with Tag. When I needed some help around Mom’s house with something animal related, I had no problem asking him for help. Apparently, he had hidden talents as an alpaca whisperer, as evidenced last fall, when one of them wouldn’t stand on her legs for any apparent reason, and he’d just talked her into getting up.
“So, you’re really doing this?” he asked me, cutting to the chase in his Tag way. Then, because he was who he was, he took my duffle bag off my shoulder and escorted me back into the house.
“Yep.”
“Okay, just-”
“Don’t get comfortable?” I filled in. “Don’t forget he’s a McGraw and I’m a Calloway? Don’t let my guard down for a minute?”
He blinked his big, brown eyes at me. “I was going to say just go easy on Doc E.”
“You’re tellingmeto go easy onhim?” I asked.
When has Ethan McGraw ever gone easy on me? Never. Not once. Certainly not today. Bringing me coffee and a hangover sandwich and picking out such a beautiful ring, and then breaking the kissing rule.
“Maybe you could give yourself some grace and forgive both your high school selves,” Tag said enigmatically, pushing open the door to let me into the house.
