I manage to get out and around my car in time to help her climb out of the backseat thanks to her fumbling with the seatbelt release. I make sure she navigates the curb and the sidewalk okay, but I can’t bring myself to step onto the property. I wait until she’s on the porch and going through the front door before I turn back, hoping Mel isn’t stealing my car or rummaging through my glove box for doggy snacks.
She’s snoring, which is best case scenario as far as I’m concerned. I drive back into town and pull into her driveway. I see a man I vaguely remember looking out the window and wave him out. After a brief re-introduction and an explanation of the night’s events, I leave it to Lucas to shake his wife awake and get her into the house.
As I’m looping the handle of her tote over his free arm, I see the little bag of doggy snacks tucked in between the wrapped wine glasses.
I just wave and get in the car. As I back out onto the street, I imagine her finding them in the morning and smile. A little payback for the crack about the waste bags in my pocket.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cara
I hesitate at the entrance of town hall, the remains of my hangover making me miserable, and look at Hayden. He’s holding the door open for me, Penny cradled in his other arm, but suddenly crossing the threshold seems like a very big deal. Once we sign our names to the official paperwork, there’s no turning back.
Do whatever you have to do.
With my sister’s voice echoing through my mind—and dammit, I still haven’t updated her—I take a deep breath and step into the gloomy town hall. It’s all brick on the outside and dark wood on the inside, and it smells like a box of old books stored too long in a basement.
Debbie Fitzwilliam has served as the town clerk in Sumac Falls for almost five years, having taken over from her mother when she retired. Debbie’s also a distant cousin of mine, I guess, since we share a great-great grandmother. Not a Gamble grandmother, thankfully, but on a maternal side, so they have nothing to do with the feud. That’s a good thing, because it’s all ridiculous enough without dragging the town administration into it.
I stare at the notices on the bulletin board and Hayden keeps busy reading emails on his phone, turned away from the counter with Penny tucked in one arm, while a man tries to register a vehicle he doesn’t have a title for. Despite a prominent sign detailing the cutoff years for vehicles requiring titles, he’s refusing to take no for an answer. When hostility creeps into the guy’s tone, Hayden stiffens and lowers his phone, but Debbie sends the upset man on his way with a smile and a promise to research the issue and get in touch with him before the end of the business day.
When it’s finally our turn, Debbie’s welcoming smile freezes when she realizes the man standing at my side is not only Hayden Reilly, but he’s with me. The frozen, overly toothy smile and wide eyes are a little scary, and I’m afraid of what words might come out of her mouth.
“Hi Debbie,” I say, trying to snap her out of her shock and also head her off at the conversational pass. “We’d like to apply for a marriage license, please.”
She laughs, and I can’t say that I blame her. The entire thing is laughable, and yet here I am, asking for the document that will allow me to become Hayden’s wife.
His wife.
A distressed sound escapes before I can stop it, and I press my fingers to my mouth. I couldn’t speak right now if I had to, so I glance at Hayden, hoping he’ll take over. But he only waits, one eyebrow arched, while our town clerk gets her amusement under control.
It takes a minute.
“Wait.” Debbie’s face rearranges into a frown, her gaze bouncing from me to Hayden and back as if watching a very close-quarters tennis match, before it finally lands on me. “You’re serious.”
“Very serious,” Hayden says, smiling, and the arm that’s not cradling Penny slides around my waist. “We’ll also need an application for a permit to use the town gazebo on June twenty-ninth.”
“Oh, that soon?” Her gaze flicks down to my abdomen.
Hayden clears his throat, reclaiming her attention. “I can’t wait any longer than that to be her husband.
If Debbie was looking at me right now, she might have noticed the way my smile freezes and my skin flushes hot all over, but her attention’s focused fully on Hayden’s romantic declaration. “Oh. I’ll just get the…okay.”
When she walks to the ancient wooden filing cabinet to get the forms we need, I take a step sideways and Hayden lets his arm fall away. I know it’s important that we sell this couple thing, but a little warning would have been nice.
Even though my body is still tingling from the contact and Hayden smells incredibly good, I’m able to get myself under control by the time Debbie returns with the form. She snaps it under the clip of a battered wooden clipboard, along with a pen, and hands it to me.
“You can use that little table over there to fill it out, and I’ll need your birth certificates and a government-issued ID, and if either of you—well, Hayden—has a name change or divorce, you’ll need the documentation for that.”
I follow Hayden and Penny to the table that has two wooden chairs tucked under it, and take the clipboard as he settles the dog on his lap. I skim the fields we have to fill out, and then glance over my shoulder to see if Debbie’s staring at us. Luckily, the phone rings and there’s nobody but her to answer it.
“We have to indicate what name we’ll use after,” I whisper to Hayden.
“I hate to say it, but it might be easier for Gin if you choose to keep your name.”
“Why do you hate to say it?” I blurt the question out without thought.
He looks at me for a few seconds, some kind of ferocity in his eyes, and I can’t tell what he’s thinking. Then he blinks and it’s gone. “Just a saying. I don’t know.”
