Page 11 of The Marriage Sham
Her jaw drops. “What? I thought this was just a fake marriage for Granddaddy’s sake?”
Another step closer. “It is. But I won’t lie to your granddaddy or the whole town. We need to be married for real. That’s the only way I can do this.” She looks ready to argue with me, so I rush to finish. “We can sign prenups to protect ourselves and state this is only for the duration of Earl’s life. But it needs to be real.”
She simply stares at me, her eyes darting back and forth on my face. I can’t tell what’s going on in that head of hers, but I’ve said my piece. I just hope she still takes me up on the offer.
My answer comes a long minute later when she presses her lips into a thin line and stands up straighter. “Okay.”
“Okay?” A final step and I’m close enough to reach out and touch her. She nods, and I could swear I see her lips tipping up into a smile before she ducks her head. I grab her hand and bring it up for a gentle kiss, delighting in having her skin on my lips. She gasps and raises her head again, that deep blush thrilling me more than it should.
“We gotta work on that.” I wink at her, and she looks speechless. “When we go down to the courthouse, we’ll have to kiss at the end of the ceremony. Maybe we should practice?”
“Fenwick Whittington!”
I guess she isn’t speechless after all.
Rubbing my thumb along the back of her hand, I tease her a little longer. “No, no. You’re right. Better to wait until the ceremony when it can be our first kiss.”
She snatches her hand back. “You better watch yourself. This marriage isn’t real, and you need to remember that.”
I dip my head in apology. “My apologies, Mrs. Whittington.”
“Fen!”
I double over and let the laughter out. When I straighten up, she’s struggling to keep the smile off her face, and I take that as a win. “Okay, fine. I’ll stop. Being married will be fun, just you wait and see.”
“You say that now, but you haven’t seen Earl on a bad day or me without my makeup, in my jammies.”
“It would be an honor to witness all of that. How’s tomorrow looking?”
“For what?”
“To get married.” I look at her like she needs to keep up.
“Tomorrow? Um, well, I guess that would be okay. I’d have to see if someone could stay with Granddaddy.” She’s back to wringing her hands.
I lay my palm over her hands, stopping her movement. “Leave it to me. Just have a dress you want to get married in, and I’ll call you with the time we need to be at the courthouse. Wait, what’s your number?”
She chuckles a little nervously. “Seems kind of weird to be making arrangements for our wedding, yet we don’t have each other’s cell phone numbers.” Still, she pulls her phone out and calls me when I give her my number. Then she programs my number in her phone.
“Call you later, Francie.” I walk back to the front door, ready to get on with my day and get to the courthouse sooner rather than later.
I hear a strangled noise behind me. When I glance over my shoulder she doesn’t look too happy.
“It’s Frances. Not Francie.”
“We gotta have nicknames for each other. I’ll call you Francie and you can call me anything you’d like.”
“You can call me anything but Francie.” She looks firm on the subject.
“Okay, Francie.” I walk out the door, hearing the screen door slam after me, but not before I hear her aggravated scream.
I smile to myself as I walk back to my place. This is going to be fun. I can already tell.
And just like that, I’m engaged to be married.
