Page 44 of Delayed Penalty

“Yeah, well, apparently that stupid fan recognized you. Or at least one of his buddies did after he videotaped the whole thing. Just so happens they recognized you because they remembered you with Peter. The fucker sent it to him, which based on the text from my coach this morning, he passed it along to him as well.”

“Excuse me? Are you telling me that Peter is intentionally trying to get you in trouble now? How old is he? He’s acting like some spoiled, petulant child and frankly, I’m over his bullshit.”

“You’re the one who agreed to marry him,” he says, earning him a glare.

“Don’t fucking remind me.”

“So, what do you say? Marry me so I can tell my coach I was fighting for my wife and unborn baby’s honor?” he jokes, but I can see the seriousness of the situation. He’s worried, which tells me whatever happened in the past must’ve been bad if it has happy-go-lucky Harris worried.

He does have a point. If I was willing to marry Peter, why the hell would I say no to Harris? Especially when it sounds like it’ll benefit us both.

“I mean, at this point, I don’t exactly have anything to lose, so… yeah, I guess I’m saying yes.”

He beams, tugging my hand over and pulling me into a side hug which just excites Luna. Popping up on the bench behind us, she wiggles her way into Harris’s lap, ensuring she’s at the very center of the hug, soaking up all the love.

“When should we do it?”

“Honestly? I have a meeting with Coach next week, so I was thinking sort of as soon as possible.”

“Oh…” My heart starts racing, but it feels like… excitement instead of the fear I’d expect.

The entire time I was engaged to Peter, he always balked anytime we tried to come up with a date. Well, up until this last year. Recently, he said it was happening next summer whether I liked it or not. Guess I showed him.

“Yeah… I looked it up last night. We could go in, get the marriage certificate, then as long as it doesn’t happen that same day, we can get married. I was thinking I could have Trevor do it… he’s ordained and everything. We basically just need to go get the marriage certificate, do the ceremony with witnesses then file the paperwork.”

“You’ve done your research,” I say with a smile, and he blushes.

“You fell asleep right away when you were snuggling Luna, I stayed up on my phone for a bit before I fell asleep as well. I looked it up so I knew what our options were if you ended up agreeing.”

“I want to say yes. I want to say let’s just go do it right now, but how do we ensure we aren’t going to get hurt. I can’t get into something right now. My life’s already a big enough cluster fuck, I can’t add that I’m trying to make things work with my ex-boyfriend turned fake husband and baby daddy. It’s too much of a mouthful.”

“Whatever you say. We’ll put up boundaries. We’ll act how we need to when my coach or your ex is around, and outside of that we’ll just be friends.”

“Are you sure?”

“If it means I get to make sure you’re happy and safe, absolutely.”

My heart swells, his thoughtfulness so evident that I wonder why I’m so worried about having all of these rules. These protections in place to safeguard my heart. Then I remember the way I felt when he left, and I know exactly why I need to guard myself.

“So… are we doing this?” I ask once and for all.

“You tell me. I’ll drive us to pick up the marriage certificate right now if you tell me yes.”

“I guess you’d better grab your keys. Luna, we’re going on a drive.”

Chapter Seventeen

Harris

Hudson’s tomorrow? Can everyone make it?

Trevor

Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem.

Cassie

Are you buying?

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