This won’t last, she told herself, gripping the bouquet of daisies Suzie had gotten for her—from Coleman’s of all places. She’d been repeating the phrase in her mind since she’d left home with Suzie and Fletcher. Odd, that the man who’d enabled her to save her family home was also the reason she had to leave it.
Suzie rotated from her place in the front seat. “Ready to get hitched?”
Adelie gripped the daisies’ stems tighter. “You say that like it’s easy.”
“Because it is,” said Suzie. “You don’t love the guy. You don’t owe him anything. You’re doing this because he owes you.”
Adelie couldn’t completely agree. She’d meant what she’d told him in the car the day before. She didn’t want to seem like she was taking advantage of Maddox. He’d already given her outrageous amounts of money.
“You’ll be fine,” Suzie said.
Adelie was tired of hearing that. Sure, she would be fine. She would have courage. This was her decision, and she was taking this chance.
She’d talked it over with Maddox, and while they could have both worn sweats if they wanted (yoga pants, in Adelie’s case), they agreed to wear their Sunday best.
She’d sorted through her closet before throwing in the towel, however. This was her wedding. Brief in duration or not, it might be the only wedding she ever had, and she wasn’t about to wear any ordinary dress.
She wanted a wedding dress.
Yesterday afternoon, she’d dragged Suzie with her to Darnell’s, the best—and only—wedding store in town and found the perfect thing. It was A-line with three-quarter sleeves, a floor-length, tulle skirt, and a delicate spray of embroidered flowers on the bodice, as though she’d romped through a meadow, plucked a sprig of wildflowers, and tucked them into the belt of white ribbon at her waist.
Suzie had helped her twine her blonde hair into knots at the base of her neck. If nothing else, she felt beautiful, and that was all she could ask for, under the circumstances.
“Ready?” Suzie said again, stepping out of the car and opening Adelie’s door for her.
Adelie joined her outside. The sky could swallow her, it was so wide and blue and completely cloudless. Where her nerves had been frazzled during the photo shoot—and during every split second afterward—the most peculiar sense of calm settled over her.
She looked into Suzie’s blue eyes. “Yes.”
The single syllable word held so much more than its usual capacity. She was ready. She wanted this. Even stranger, it felt right in a way she couldn’t explain. Impulsive, rushed, necessary, obligatory. But right.
Fletcher met the sisters and offered Adelie his arm. Grateful, she took it, sliding her other arm through Suzie’s. Together, they entered City Hall to find Maddox waiting with their marriage license in hand.
Duncan Hawthorne stood at his side, looking dashing in a suit of his own, but she only had eyes for Maddox. He wore a navy suit the color of dark seas and midnight stargazing, set off by a dark shirt and black tie. Her heart skipped a beat. She cradled the daisies to her chest and chewed her lip, completely entranced by him.
His lips parted, and the most delicious gleam ignited in his eyes, which never left hers.
“You look like a bohemian goddess,” he said.
Adelie dipped her chin. “You look pretty good yourself.”
Maddox visibly swallowed before holding the marriage certificate toward her. “Just need your signature,” he said. “And then we can—”
“Get married?” Adelie finished.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
“Steady now,” Duncan muttered under his breath.
As a matter of fact, Adelie’s hand was steady as she took the certificate to the nearby counter, borrowed a pen from the adjacent cup, and signed her name. She paused only at the sight of Maddox’s messy signature on its own line above hers.
Just how far would they take this marriage? Would she change her name? Adelie Hatter had a ring of dizziness to it.
A man approached and introduced himself as the deputy marriage commissioner. He shook Adelie’s hand first and then Maddox’s.
“You two ready to tie the knot?” he asked.
“We are,” Maddox said.
The commissioner inclined his head. “Okay then. Our private ceremony room is just down here.”
Adelie moved in a daze. She stood on one side of the polished desk within the small room, with Suzie and Fletcher behind her. Maddox stood across from her, with Duncan at his elbow. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ella and Hawk slip in, settling themselves in the seats behind Suzie and Fletcher.
Vows were spoken. Promises were made. Before she knew it, the final, token words pronounced them man and wife.
“A kiss is customary,” the commissioner said, “though not necessary.”
A kiss. Her entire body seized. She’d imagined this moment so many times. Wondering how it all worked, how a man’s lips managed to find just the right spot on her own.
She’d read of thousands of kisses, of stymying moments perfectly crafted to make the readers’ hearts flutter. She’d witnessed kisses in movies, thrilling over the moment when the two romantic interests finally gave in to their budding attraction and defied whatever odds were against them, declaring their devotion with a single, mouth-meeting gesture.
Now it was her turn. It was finally time for her to experience the same thing, to feel her own flutter, to be utterly and completely taken by Maddox’s lips pressing to hers.
Her heart raced. Her gaze was plastered to his. She could hardly breathe after all that had just happened. All that was about to happen.
Keeping his eyes on hers, Maddox lifted her hand to his lips. The touch of his mouth on her skin was a monument, a shrine, worthy of wonder and reverence. Her entire body tingled. If a kiss on her hand held that much effect over her, she could only imagine what it would be like when their
