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This time his voice was firm but sharp as he broke into whatever ruminating Payton was still doing. “You need to calm down and think about this rationally.” She stopped and turned to him, suddenly hearing him for the first time. “This mistake…we can fix it. I’ll call my assistant and have her track down an attorney who specializes in foreign marriages and divorces. We can get this taken care of, quietly. No one but us will ever have to know.”
She blinked a few times and nodded. “A mistake. Right. That’s what this is, and I’m sure once we explain everything to whoever we need to, a judge, a city clerk, we can get this annulled or dissolved or whatever. My mother doesn’t have to find out.” At that last bit, she exhaled loudly and plopped herself down on the bed next to him. “Can I have that coffee now?”
He handed the other cup to her and dug into his pockets for the condiments that he tossed on the covers. “I didn’t know how you took it so I brought everything.”
She glanced down at the stuff and sorted through it, grabbing a sweetener. “Your own wife and you’re not sure how I take my coffee,” she muttered.
He smiled. Sounded like she’d started to regain her sense of humor. “Yeah, well there are a few other things I’ve learned that you like over the past few hours. Let’s just call it even.”
More silence followed and he hazarded a glance in her direction, finding her cheeks were pink as she likely was remembering a thing or two about what took place on this very bed. Something he fortunately was able to remember in detail. It would have been a shame for those memories to be hazy.
His back pocket began buzzing, and he pulled his cell phone out and stared at it for a minute. “It’s Kate.”
Payton’s stare fixated on the screen too. “I can’t talk. Not just yet.”
Well someone was going to need to speak with them. Assure everyone they were still safe and on their way. He took in a breath. “Hello, Kate? And how is the blushing bride-to-be?”
He looked up and met Payton’s gaze. His bride’s gaze, technically, as Payton was that.
His bride.
She seemed to pick up on it, too, as her eyes bulged even wider. Her hands went to her mouth and he barely heard her whisper, “What am I going to tell Kate?”
“I’m managing,” Kate was saying, unaware of her best friend’s new dilemma, “but your brother is getting a little anxious. I told him that there’s nothing on this earth that could keep either of you from being here and that you’re probably on the road now.”
“Yeah.” Shit. What time was it? The clock said eight-thirty. “We got kind of a late start but we’re checking out of the hotel soon and then we’ll get the car. Payton’s in the shower but I can have her call you later.”
There was a considerable pause as Kate took that in. “No. No, no rush,” she said finally but he could hear puzzlement in her voice. And here he’d thought he sounded completely relaxed but apparently she’d read something into what he’d said. “The ceremony isn’t until five. If you’re here in time for lunch, great, but it’s not the end of the world.”
“We’ll be there. Who else is going to hold my brother up when he sees the vision of you walking down that aisle toward him? We’re only three and half hours, four tops, away from you, and I already have assurances from the guy at the garage the car is ready to go.”
She sighed in relief. “Good to hear. Okay, I’ll talk to you both soon. Drive safely.”
Cruz hung up and looked over at his wife. My freaking wife. It was a surreal thought.
“I guess I’d better get dressed if we’re going to get out of here,” she said and stood, revealing the delectable creaminess of an inner thigh. A few more memories from the previous night hit him and he caught his breath.
The weight of this woman in his arms. The taste of her skin as his tongue trailed down her lovely body. The sigh she gave later, after they’d both spent all their energy and lay in each other’s arms.
He cleared his throat, relieved she wasn’t looking at him. “Good idea. I’ll call my assistant and get the ball rolling on our little…legal fiasco.”
Only, when she looked like that, with the memories of last night stirring in his mind, it didn’t sound like such a fiasco anymore. It sounded like a dream. A fantasy come true.
He really should get his head examined.
Their departure wasn’t as quick or as unremarkable as they’d hoped. Apparently notified by the front desk of their imminent departure, the whole busload of square dancers headed them off in the lobby and Bev just about tackled her to the ground in a hug.
“You didn’t think you two were going to take off without giving us a chance to say good-bye.” She reached over and gave Cruz a similar hug and then beamed at them both. “Come on. Follow me. I know you’re in a hurry but we have a little surprise for you two.”
They followed Bev outside and into the blinding morning sunlight. Payton shielded her eyes with her hand and tried to process what she was seeing. A garishly decorated car, covered in art and cans dangling from the… She blinked her eyes a few times, certain that the little car looked more than familiar.
She was almost certain it was theirs. This time she read the words smeared along most of the tiny car’s windows. Just Married, with swirly cues and hearts in pinks and purples adding unnecessary pizzazz.
A glance over at Cruz told her he was as surprised, his expression near shock before setting into something akin to a smile. She couldn’t help it; she laughed and leaned forward to grab her belly. Especially as it roiled the tiniest bit from the motion.
Collected again, she turned around to the well-meaning group surrounding them and threw her hands out, going around and hugging them and accepting their wishes for a long and happy future together. Even if their engagement had been fabricated from the beginning, the joke was on Payton. There wasn’t anything pretend about it now.
She was, in fact, married to the guy.
