Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
None of that happened. Ultimately, we just had to survive each other for six months without imploding. Against all my expectations, we didn’t just survive. We’ve become quite the little team. Jake constantly tells me how much he loves me and how beautiful I am. We can still hardly keep our hands off each other.
And now we’re about to get married.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still have some reservations. As much as I love him, I’m not actually ready to be married. Not for real. We haven’t talked about what comes next in months–not since things changed between us. I honestly don’t know what to expect, and it terrifies me.
But we agreed with our friends in Frosty Harbor that a big, fancy wedding ceremony wasn’t necessary. Once the secret was out, the fun of staging a full-blown wedding lost some of its appeal. We told everybody we’d go do a Vegas wedding, hopped on a plane, and that was that.
Once we arrived, we went for the full Vegas wedding experience by renting last-minute tuxes for Jake and Walker. I got an ordinary white dress from Target, and here we are. “Tomorrow is my birthday,” I say absently.
Jake pats my head reassuringly, giving my forehead a kiss. “I know it is. I already got your present.”
“You got me a present?” I ask.
“Hey, it’s our turn.” He nods to something behind me.
An older woman with an unlit cigarette hanging from her wrinkled lips gestures for us to walk into the room. It’s all painted white with roses and garlands on three rows of two-seater pews on either side of a narrow aisle. The ceiling is low enough that Jake practically has to duck. There’s an altar at the front, and the priest stands and waits for us.
Jake has Walker in one arm as we approach. Cheesy speakers play the wedding music.
The whole ceremony is over in about ten minutes. It goes by in a blur, mostly because my thoughts are moving at a mile a minute as I try to imagine what will come next.
Jake slides the ring on my finger, and we share a kiss.
Like a dream, I can barely even pull up details by the time we walk out of the building and get in our cab to head to the airport.
“Wow,” I say. “I can’t believe we just did that.”
Jake grins. “Yeah.” He finishes sending a text, then sets his phone down and checks on Walker in his car seat. “I just let the legal guys know. They’re going to reach out to Peter and make sure we get in writing that we’re good on the B&B.”
“Has anything happened with your contract?” I ask.
“Nothing surprising,” he says easily.
I let out a breath and lean my head against the car window, watching the Vegas strip roll by. “I thought it would feel like a relief,” I say after a while.
“Yeah,” Jake says. There’s something I can’t read in him–almost like a giddiness.
“What?” I ask.
“It’s nothing. I’ve just got a little surprise planned for you in two days. Nothing big, though. I was imagining your face when you find out.”
“A surprise? What kind?”
“The kind you don’t get to know about. Deal with it.”
33
CAROLINE
Peter stands in a huff. He’s obviously pissed, but it’s not a surprise. He just had to sit there with Jake’s lawyers at my B&B in Frosty Harbor and watch his hopes of inheriting the building go up in flames. With our marriage in the books, he lost his window. The only small victory Peter had was that the contract continued. If I wasn’t around when Walker turned thirty-five, he’d have to be married, or Peter’s children would inherit the building.
That’s a problem for another time.
“Oh,” Jake says, getting up from his chair before Peter can storm out.
“What do you want? To gloat? You can save it. I’m going to find a way to get around this.”
“Oh, no,” Jake says. “I just wanted to invite you to a little town get-together we’re planning tomorrow. He lifts his hand to one side of his mouth, whispering loudly enough that I can hear him. “It’s a surprise party for Caroline, though. She still doesn’t know about it. I was hoping you’d come. I figured we could smooth things over.”
Peter straightens. He’s obviously about to decline, but Jake cuts him off, smooth as butter.
“The guys said you would be too butthurt to show up. But I told them you’re not that kind of guy–that you would show up so it didn’t look like you were running with your tail between your legs or something.”
Peter goes stiff. He lets out a breath through his nose, then nods slightly. “You’re right that I wouldn’t run from something like this. I’ll be there.”
“Great. We’re counting on it!”
Peter leaves, and Jake thanks the legal people, who are all out of the building a few minutes later.