“Okay. The whole head-over-heels thing might be more believable if we both hyphenated, though.”
He taps the end of the pen on the paper a few times, considering. “Changing my name would be a paperwork nightmare, business-wise.”
“Funny how women are expected to do it, though,” I mutter. “We’ll just keep our own names and if anybody has an opinion, there’s always the family feud to fall back on. Getting married is one thing. Calling myself a Reilly? I think not.”
I meant it as a joke, but the way his jaw tenses tells me he didn’t think it was very funny. With the name issue settled, we fill out the rest of the paperwork and take it back to Debbie.
She gives a guilty start when we step back to the counter, and I catch her sliding her phone under a stack of papers. “All done?”
That didn’t take long, I think as I hand her the clipboard and pen, and she gives me a weak smile as she slides them out. “I’ll just photocopy these documents real quick. Be right back.”
“She was texting somebody the news,” I whisper once the copy machine’s racket will cover my voice. “It’ll be all over town.”
“That’s the plan,” he whispers back, and since he’s right, I shut my mouth and give Penny a little scratch under her chin.
Ten minutes later, we step out into the sunshine with the document we need to become man and wife.
Hayden pauses once the door closes behind us, setting Penny on the sidewalk. She sighs and sits down. “Do you have time for ice cream?”
“Is that a trick question? This is clearly a trap.”
His chuckle is low and makes me smile. “Technically, Debbie isn’t supposed to gossip about any business residents conduct at town hall, but you and I both know she might literally explode if she isn’t the first to tell everybody in her contacts we’re getting married.”
“You said that was the plan.” I think of Debbie hiding her phone and guess at least a half-dozen people knew before we were even done filling out the application. “And that involves ice cream how?”
“If we’re going to sell this reunion love story, we should probably be seen enjoying each other’s company. Ice cream always made you smile, so maybe you’ll stop scowling at me.”
The reference to what was still the best summer of my life, even with the way it all turned out, throws me. And the way he’s looking at me right now—all soft eyes and endearing smile—is the same way he used to look at me.
Back then, we couldn’t be seen together, of course. Hayden would get the ice cream because he had a bike and could get to our secret spot by the river faster than I could. We’d sit on the flat rock by the shore, in the shade of the trees, and eat rapidly melting ice cream while we watched the water run and talked about anything and everything…except our families.
My parents would never have let me date him. His mother would have hated him dating me. And so we were our own little secret—right up until we were going to go public at homecoming and he stood me up instead.
“We can get some ice cream and sit on the bench in the town square,” he says. “People will probably drive laps around it, thinking we look like a happy little family in the making, so of course we should be getting married.”
Why does having an ice cream date in the park feel so much more intimate to me than actually marrying the man? Part of me wants to bolt—to run in the opposite direction of his blue eyes, delicious smell and adorable dog.
But I’ve come this far—Debbie’s made sure everybody knows by now—and backing out would not only be embarrassing, but cost me the chance to be free of the financial and emotional burden of the house.
“Fine,” I snap, wanting him to know I’m not happy about it. “We can go look romantic in public, but you’re paying for the ice cream.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hayden
Because I’m paying but the only place to buy soft-serve ice cream is in the cafe, I leave Penny outside with Cara to wait for me. Usually Penny would be upset by this turn of events, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
I don’t know the young woman running the counter, but I vaguely recognize two of the women sitting at a table as old acquaintances of Gin Gamble. I smile a greeting at them, getting arched eyebrows and tight smiles in return. Word that Hayden Reilly bought ice cream for two will spread before we’re done with our cones.
Cara scowls when I walk out the door. She really needs to stop frowning at me all the time because she doesn’t exactly look like a woman who’s so swept off her feet by love for me, she has to marry me immediately. She looks more like a woman waiting for me to turn my back so she can smack me upside the head with a cast iron skillet.
“Why didn’t you get chocolate?” she asks as I hand her one of the vanilla cones.
A small thing like Cara remembering chocolate ice cream is my favorite shouldn’t make my heart pound like this. “Because dogs can’t have chocolate and Miss Penny here doesn’t follow pesky rules like not giving dogs ice cream. In the city, we try to frequent places that have frozen doggy treats, but when ice cream is the only option, I get vanilla so I can share.”
The scowl fades away as Cara gives Penny a sweet smile. I wish she’d look at me like that. I’m the one eating the vanilla ice cream. “She could have had some of mine.”
“We don’t like to be presumptuous,” I say, and she snorts.
