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“Excuse me for a moment,” I say to Ruthie and the others, because I see Josie the Great standing at the exit as if she’s a one-woman roadblock.
“Actually, we need to clear this courtroom,” Dena says, glancing up from the papers after Charlie hesitates, messes with his hat, and then signs his name with a sigh. “Why don’t you all go celebrate somewhere?”
Otherwise known as get the hell out.
“I know just the place,” Eden says pointedly. She gives me an appraising look of someone who doesn’t think much of what she’s seeing. Fantastic, another woman who’d like to wear my balls as earrings. Usually, I’m known for my ability to charm women, but I have a feeling I won’t be charming anyone today.
“Will there be cake?” Josie pipes up for the first time since I entered this room.
Chapter Fourteen
Ruthie
Ijust got married.
I just got fucking married.
Shane Royce is my husband, and he kissed me.
And now, I’m sitting in the diner with Shane, Eden, and Josie, as if it’s any other day. The diner is empty, of course, but that’s not so different from usual. Charlie’s not with us because he insisted on heading into the back to get some food for us—although I suspect he’s also ready for some alone time after the trip to the courthouse.
I am too, truthfully.
That kiss…
My lips are still tingling from it, even though I made a show of wiping it off to signal to Shane that he couldn’t rattle me if he tried.
To pretend that I won’t be thinking of it late at night, when I’m alone and it’s harder to remember why that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.
I take a big sip of sweet tea, watching across the table while Shane pushes the straw around in his drink with an expression bordering on disgust. This isn’t the sort of place he’d go. He may have grown up in Asheville, same as me, but he’s part of the gentrification problem. He probably has power lunches at the kind of restaurants that serve multiple tiny courses that are pushed around on their plates and ignored. I scowl at him. So does Eden.
Shane mixes thing up and scowls at Josie. “You still haven’t explained why you were there.”
She cocks her head, studying him. “You told me you’d never get married. You don’t like being wrong, do you?”
Laughter escapes me. Shane shifts his stink-eye to me, and I laugh harder. “No, he can’t handle it.”
“I’m never wrong,” he blusters, which makes me laugh harder. His jaw flexes. “I didn’t mean it like that. But I’m not wrong about this. You weren’t there because you sensed we’d be getting married at the courthouse on that day and time. Who told you?”
Josie gives him a look that’s as transparent as plaster, then says, “No one told me. I was at the courthouse for another matter, and I saw you come in. But the universe intended for it to happen. I can see that very clearly.”
“So you didn’t intentionally wear white to another woman’s wedding?” Eden asks, as if this was a stumbling block for her. Maybe I would have minded if it had been a real wedding, but truthfully, I’d barely noticed. My attention had been on Shane.
“Why would that be a problem?” Josie asks. “You’re not one of those women who tells other women what to wear, are you?”
Eden gives her an incredulous look, but Josie continues, “As I was saying, the universe arranged all of this to help me.”
Shane’s focus swivels to me, and I feel a twitch in my fingers, the errant need to reach out and touch his tie. “And you say I’m self-involved,” he says.
“You are self-involved,” I retort, then point at Josie. “So is she. More than one person can be self-involved.”
“I’m going to go see about that cake,” Eden adds, apparently tiring of our conversational hoops.
“Chocolate cake wreaks havoc on my chakras,” Josie calls after her.
I wonder if she even knows what a chakra is. Maybe she’s just one of those rare, unfortunate souls who doesn’t like chocolate.
