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He didn’t move, arm still around me, fingers branding my hip, his steady gaze locked on mine.
“Why the hell would we do that?” I asked once I finally found my voice.
“We might meet Elvis.” He shrugged, even as one corner of his mouth lifted.
I smacked him in the chest. “Shut up.”
“I’m serious.”
Something in those blue eyes looked a whole hell of a lot like a challenge. It was just a wedding chapel. Couldn’t be any worse than a haunted house.
“I can’t wait to tell my brothers about this.”
Easton spoketo the driver of the limo once we got outside while I slid into the back. Then he was beside me, our thighs touching, his arm outstretched behind me. Because several generations of our families were friends, we’d been hanging around since we were kids. In college, we’d run in similar circles, though our relationship had been strictly social. Sure I’d noticed he was the best-looking thing on either side of the Mississippi, but he was a few years older and busy with baseball, while I had my own life. It wasn’t until we started working together at Carter Energy that I considered him a close friend. Easton knew me about as well as anyone, the same as I knew him.
“For the record, I’d rather go to a strip club.” I straightened. We were comfortable around one another, but this felt different. I didn’t know what to do with that. “Can you believe people just get married on a whim? That’s pretty ballsy, if you ask me.”
“Bet you wouldn’t ever do it.” His eyes sparked with challenge, and suddenly I was a teenager again, my brothers daring me to do something, knowing I wouldn’t back down.
“Not in a drive-thru. If I’m gettin’ married, I’m doing it in a chapel and standing up for it.”
I held his watchful gaze. Shit. He had me exactly where he wanted me.
“Nah, you wouldn’t do it,” he taunted. “Drive-thru, chapel, Elvis—wouldn’t matter. No way would you get married.”
“I’m not crazy.” I peered out the window. “Who the hell would marry me anyway?”
He stroked my shoulder until I looked back at him. The softness in his eyes caught me off guard. Then he winked. “Somebody as crazy as you.”
He had me on the defensive. “Are you asking?”
“What’s the point? You wouldn’t do it.” His brow lifted a fraction. It might as well have been a double-dog dare.
“And if I did? What would I get out of it?”
Everything went still as we stared at one another. The stakes of this dare were higher than any I’d ever taken.
“Me.”
A shiver rolled through me at the idea of having Easton all for myself. I tried to kick the thought out of my head, but it wouldn’t go. This was crazy. Complete and utter madness. But he’d said I wouldn’t marry him, and I’d never walked away from proving someone wrong in my life.
“I’m in.”
For a fraction of a second, his chest stopped its rise and fall. He searched my face and whatever he found there made a slow grin spread across his face. “We’re here.”
The chapel remindedme of the Baptist church in Burdett. The one where,ifI ever got married, I assumed I’d do so there. He took my hand as we walked to it together, and I let him. I wanted to blame it on the whiskey, but couldn’t. I’d definitely had too much to drink, but I knew exactly what was going on.
The place was empty when we stepped inside. Quiet too. I’d been expecting a three-ring circus, an ostentatious show at the very least. But it wasn’t Elvis who greeted us. A remarkably tame-looking grandma-type did. Her silver hair was coiffed in a perfect style that fell to her shoulders, and she wore a pale green pantsuit. Her smile was warm as she took in Easton and me. The only thing missing was milk and cookies.
“I’ve been waiting all week for a couple like you to come in,” she said.Wonder if she uses that line on everyone?“I’m Martha.”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” I said. She wasn’t too good at reading people, because Easton and I definitely weren’t a couple.
Martha smiled. “One who figured out you were destined to be together.”
Was this a one-stop shop for weddings and fortune telling?I glanced at Easton, but he surprisingly appeared to be in agreement with the woman.
Martha motioned toward an office. “Let’s not waste any more time.”
