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“Which is exactly why you’re so hell-bent on pushing me away.”
He was wrong, and there was only one way she could make him understand that and end this forever. She’d have to go through with it. Gut it out until it was blindingly clear to him . . . and to her . . . what an impossible couple they were. She shot up her chin and glared at him. “Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll move in with you. We’ll give it a few weeks and then you’ll see.”
He drew her to his chest. “Oh, babe . . .”
She closed her eyes. Rested her cheek against his chest. Surrendered.
He clasped her face in his palms and pressed his forehead to hers. Their noses touched. He brushed the tip of his nose gently against hers. “The thing is . . .” he said. “That invitation’s off the table.”
“What?” She reared back. He’d thrown a fake. A classic quarterback fake.
“I’d trust Piper Dove with my life.” The tenderness in his eyes cut through her. “But I’m not ready to trust Duke Dove’s daughter with my heart.”
“Then what do you want?” It was nearly a wail.
“I want a legal document.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Marriage.”
She pushed herself away from him. “You can’t be serious!”
“I didn’t plan to bring it up yet. I intended to give you some time to calm down and get used to being loved. But now I see what a mistake that would be. You’re so jittery that all you’ll be doing is looking for reasons to break us up.”
“That’s not true!” It was exactly true. The plaza blurred around her, and her ears started to ring.
“You’re as stubborn as I am.” He brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “The way I see it, as soon as we’re legally married, we’ll both settle down enough to figure out how to make it work.”
“That’s crazy! Nobody does that.”
“Clearly. But these are extraordinary circumstances, and this is the only scenario I can see working for us.”
“It’s insane!”
“Probably to most people. But we’re different. So I guess you have a decision to make.”
“Isn’t it enough to say I love you?” Her words were nearly a sob. “You’re the best man I’ve ever known. Just hearing your voice turns me into mush. But that doesn’t mean marriage. I already said I’d live with you, and now you’re bullying me!”
“Kind of.” He touched her hair with his fingers. “But put yourself in my place. If you were me, what would you do about you?”
“I’d—I’d— That’s an impossible question.”
“Only because you don’t like the answer.” He tilted his head toward the building behind them. “I seem to remember there’s a marriage license office inside.”
Right then she knew. “You planned this, didn’t you? That’s why you wanted to meet me here. This wasn’t some accidentally convenient location.”
“I’ll admit it occurred to me, but only as an emergency backup plan, and it seems as though that’s where we are now.” He grasped her elbow and began steering her across the plaza toward the building’s glass front. “Don’t worry about a thing. It’s only a piece of paper. Nothing to be afraid of.”
“I’m not . . .”
“Take some deep breaths. That’s all you have to do. I’ll handle everything else.”
That’s when she l
ost her mind. Instead of digging in her heels and pulling away, she went with him. She went right along, as if she had no will of her own. She didn’t look at him, didn’t talk to him, but she didn’t run away, either. She simply gave in to his bullheaded determination.
The marriage license bureau was on the first floor, a spacious glass-fronted area with a long counter holding rows of computers. A barrel-chested clerk standing behind one of those computers spotted Coop seconds after they walked in and rushed them to a private office.
