Page 47 of Crazy Love

“Married,” he echoes. “As in vows, rings, signing legal documents.” He makes a face.

“Yes.” I scratch the back of my neck. “We wouldn’t need to do the whole big wedding thing since it’s just for Sam.” I grin and hold out a hand. “You can pick out a cake though. I mean, we don’t even have to get cake. But we do want to make it look real in every way possible.”

“I want cake,” he says, turning to face me. “Do you mean it, Addy? You’d really do this for us?”

“Absolutely.”

“This is crazy.” He laughs.

“I know. But is it agoodcrazy?”

He takes a deep breath and shakes his head. “Why would you do this? Do you realize what it would mean? What you’d be giving up? At least for a little while?”

“It’d be for the best reason.”

“It feels like a huge sacrifice on your part,” he says.

“One I’m offering to make.” I lean in. “At least think about it.”

He laughs again. “That’s the craziest part. I am thinking about it.” He reaches out and brushes the hair out of my eyes. “I can’t believe you’d be willing to do this for us.” He shifts. “I’ve never considered myself good marriage material, but there’s no one else I could imagine doing this with but you. What aboutyour dad? The team? I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your relationship with your family or your job.”

“I think we make sure my dad gets to know Sam. We won’t tell anyone what we’re doing, but if the truth ever came out, they’d understand why.”

“What if you can’t stand living with me? There’s plenty of room here, but…I really can take care of Sam on my own. We don’t have to do it for long, right? A year, maybe two…until everything is finalized.”

“I’d love to be part of Sam’s life, so count me in on that. As far as everything else, it can just be a marriage on paper.” Even as I say the words, my heart is galloping ahead of me, too excited for a marriage on paper. Which is a problem, but one I will deal with later.

“I mean…yeah, a marriage on paper.” He scoffs, but his lips are twitching. “Marry you? I hardly know you.”

My mouth falls open and I laugh. “Oh, Preacher Man. I think it’s safe to say we’re not strangers. Your lips know me well anyway.”

“You’re just so forward.” He tries to keep a straight face, but when I smack his arm, he starts laughing. “So when do you…propose we do this wedding?”

“This weekend? Or…tomorrow night?”

I can tell he wants to keep teasing me, but he just nods instead. “No one will believe you fell for me this fast,” he finally says.

If he only knew.

I lift my shoulder in a shrug. “So we tell everyone we met in the Bahamas. It was love at first sight, but we went our separate ways…until I showed up here and we just couldn’t fight our feelings any longer.”

His eyes burn into mine and I have to physically hold onto the couch so I don’t jump into his lap instead.

That would not send the right message.

“That could work,” he breathes. “Do we tell anyone we’re getting married or just go do it?”

“What’s that saying about asking for forgiveness later?” I say, laughing. “Not that we need anyone’s permission, but I think it’d be easier to just go for it. We could invite friends, but I feel like there’s more opportunity for things to go wrong that way. I think we’d have to keep it completely between us and not tell a soul, especially not Sam, what we’re doing.”

He winces. “I’d feel so bad lying to him though. And my friends.”

“Me too. But we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have to. The system has made this an impossible situation.”

He sighs. “You’re right. And it would be worth it, knowing we didn’t have to worry about losing him ever again.” He reaches out and takes my hand, squeezing it. “Thank you, Addy. You should think about it for a few days. Really think it over. Decide if this is something you can do. I’ll completely understand if you change your mind.”

“I won’t change my mind.”

“Okay, but promise me you will think about it. And if you still feel this way on Friday, we can move forward.”

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