Adelie breathed with relief. “Thank you.”
“I’m happy for you,” Ella added. “You deserve so much happiness. He’d better sprinkle it on you every chance he gets.”
“I’m happy for you too,” Adelie said, ending the call.
She wasn’t sure why she’d gone to Ella in the first place. Looking back, considering how hush-hush they wanted to keep this, she probably shouldn’t have said anything at all, but for some reason, she wanted someone else’s input apart from Suzie’s. Ella’s enthusiastic support, Suzie’s confidence in her decision, made every other argument Adelie pitched at herself fizzle.
She was really doing this.
Anticipation surged within her as she reached for her phone.
Here comes the bride, Adelie texted Maddox. As you said, I’m in.
Great. I’ll feel more comfortable with that. I’ll send Kirk to pick you up first thing tomorrow morning.
It was so anticlimactic. So formal. So devoid of oomph and fanfare. She’d wanted to be swept off her feet, to be dazzled by a ring and a down-on-one knee approach, with e. e. cummings recited for good measure.
Who was she kidding? Men weren’t exactly lined up for her, not unless she counted those of the psychotic, stalking, poor personal hygiene variety.
Maddox was decent. Decent and gorgeous. And rich. She would be safe with him, and right now, that mattered more than anything. Love could come later.
If it ever came at all.
***
“Please tell me you’re joking.” Duncan had been lying on Maddox’s couch, tossing a tennis ball into the air and catching it repeatedly. Hearing Maddox’s news, however, made him drop the ball and sit straight up in three seconds flat.
“Should I be?” Maddox said.
Duncan shook his head, resting a hand on the cushions on either side of him. “The girl is stunning, but marrying her? You’d better have some serious paperwork drawn up for this. And have you even talked to Ruby?”
The sound of her name jolted Maddox. He hadn’t thought of her since the park had opened. Realizing he hadn’t thought of her in so long a stretch was a triumph indeed.
“Do I need to?”
Duncan’s eyes narrowed. “You know Ruby better than anyone else. She wore your ring the last time you were idiot enough to propose. She may not handle this news well.”
Maddox fought away the warning in his ribs and attempted to sound as unperturbed as he wanted to feel. “So?”
Duncan stood from the couch. “So, if you’re trying to protect this girl, feeding her to Ruby may be more dangerous than anyone she could encounter on a random trip to the market.”
“Ruby ended our engagement,” Maddox argued. “Why would she even care that I’m getting married to someone else? It’s not like she’s going to lop off Adelie’s head for this.”
Duncan bent for the tennis ball, which had rolled several feet away. “Are you so sure about that? I can just see her calling for a beheading now.”
Maddox didn’t like this turn of the conversation. “I’m done with Ruby,” he insisted. “I have been for years now.”
Except he’d never managed to get the engagement ring from her. Ruby had said she wanted to keep it as a memento.
“Of all the good times,” Ruby had added before tiptoeing up to give him a kiss that hadn’t seemed like an ending at all. That kiss had done it. It had made him realize what a fool, what a puppet on her strings, he’d been. She’d played him even as she’d been breaking up with him.
Sure, she’d known he wasn’t hard-up for cash, but any decent person would have returned the ring so he could at least get his money back. But no. She’d kept it, so it could sit in a drawer or in her jewelry box, gathering dust. Maddox vowed then and there that he was done with her, done with a woman who cared more about her own interests than anyone else’s.
He was still done with her now. “Are you coming to the wedding or not?” Maddox asked. “I need a best man.”
“Not at City Hall, you don’t,” Duncan argued, tossing the tennis ball once more and catching it. “But sure, man. If you want me there, I’ll be there.”
Relief stole over Maddox. He didn’t really need a best man, but he did want his friend to be there. He’d be meeting Adelie in a few hours. Martha, his maid, had worked hard to prepare Adelie’s room and what would become her private accommodations in his house. Maddox had gotten security codes and keys updated for her so she could come and go as she wanted as soon as she was ready to.
This would work out, he told himself, trying not to be thrown by the fact that in less than twenty-four hours he’d have a wife who was practically a stranger to him. A beautiful, adorable stranger.
This was for her. He’d meant it when he’d said as much. But he couldn’t deny the pull she’d had on him from day one.
“It’s nothing,” he told himself once Duncan left. She’d be there under his protection, that was all. She was so shy, so insecure. He couldn’t do anything that might push her too far or hurt her feelings. Not to mention his own failed engagement with Ruby. Keeping as much distance as possible would be the best option, for both of their sakes.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Fletcher pulled up outside Westville’s City Center building. Though Maddox had offered to have Kirk pick her up, she’d asked Suzie and Fletcher to take her instead. It made things seem a little less daunting that way.
A sign on a low barrier announced the building’s name. The opening was dotted with flags, flowers, and squat bushes. Statues of men and women in suits added a finishing touch to the building’s archway just before its entrance. The last time Adelie had been here was to vote. Now she was here to sign a certificate and marry Maddox Hatter.
It all seemed so extreme,
