"Why? Don't you have to work tomorrow?"
"Yes, but we can fly home later tonight or even early tomorrow morning."
"You can't fly back to Sunnyville then go to work!"
"Why not? As long as I get six hours of sleep sometime today, I'll be fine. And if I need to, I can nap on shift between calls."
"I don't even know what time it is now…" She didn't wear a watch outside of work and she had no idea where her phone was.
"It's four."
"In the morning?"
Jack glanced up at the dark sky above their heads. "Ah, yeah," he said with a grin. "In the morning."
"Okay, smartass." She looked at Penny who was now standing with her hands on her hips staring at them. "We should probably get going."
"We should. But you've got a couple of decisions to make first. One, we can go to the hotel and check-in, then get some food before we head to the chapel. Or two, we can grab food on the way to the chapel and go to the hotel after the ceremony."
Alyssa thought about the dress Penny talked about. "Do we need to get changed before we…"
Jack shrugged. "Up to you. There is a seriously sexy red dress stashed in the bag your sister packed for you, but I'm not worried about what you're wearing when you say I do."
"You aren't?" She looked down at the three-quarter boyfriend jeans and loose tank top she had on; they barely hit the smart casual level. "Shouldn't we at least dress up a bit?" The dress she'd worn to Davenport's—which she didn't remember getting changed out of—would be a bit classier than what she wore now.
Jack waved at the car. "We've got that."
She studied the cherry-red convertible. "Yeah, there's a lot of flash there."
"Plus, the dress, while I'd love to see you in it, won't cover anything when you sit down."
"Oh God." She knew exactly what dress he was talking about. She'd never worn the thing because it was too small for her by at least two sizes. It had been a joke prize at a bachelorette party she'd attended a few years ago.
Joke was on her now.
"I think we're good in what we've got on. Let's get some food on the way then we can all crash when we get to the hotel," she suggested. She wasn't sure she'd leave the hotel if they went there first. Not with her head still pounding and her nerves making her doubt this whole marrying Jack thing.
"It's a plan. Now get your ass in the car before Penny starts yelling again." Jack urged her around the nose of the plane with a hand at her back. "And stop worrying."
Easy for him to say. She'd done nothing but worry since Penny arrived and Gina started calling. If marrying Jack would take some of that stress away, she'd gladly say ‘I do’ even if it felt as though she was jumping from one problem to another.
They might not have had sex in three months, but she remembered vividly what it was like. She shivered.
How was she going to keep her hands off him when he was her husband and living under the same roof?
3
Jack stood in the bedroom doorway, his gaze on Alyssa. She slept like the dead.
Two hours ago they'd said I do while Elvis serenaded them and in spite of the singing dead man and the drive-thru chapel, the ceremony hadn't been as cheesy as he'd expected.
Regardless of how they ended up in the back of a convertible saying their vows with Elvis singing at them, Jack knew marrying Lys was the best thing for Penny. He just hoped he hadn't ruined everything by lying to make it happen. Hoped the way he had gotten Lys to Vegas and in front of a minister didn't come back to bite him in the ass.
It didn't matter. He'd do it again in a heartbeat. And he hadn't lied when he'd told her if he'd known what her lawyer said last week, he would have suggested they do exactly what they'd done. Aside from making Penny a permanent part of their lives, he had other motives for marrying Lys. Convincing her he saw their marriage as more than a convenience would be number two on his priority list.
First, he would make sure Alyssa got permanent guardianship of her sister.
Penny.
