Page 95 of Yours, Now and Always
And all I can do is laugh.
Her eyes widen. “You’re laughing at me?”
I pull her in and silence her with a quick kiss. “I’m going to be carrying tampons around with me for the rest of my life, aren’t I?”
“Only if you want to keep getting laid, husband.” She pats my chest before deadpanning, “Welcome to marriage, babe. You’re now my emergency contactandmy period caddy.”
“You say that like it’s not the best promotion I’ve ever gotten.” I brush a kiss to her temple. “Are they in the bathroom? Or do I need to go hunting for them?”
She gives me directions and I leave her in the tent to head back to the house. I’m halfway there when I run into Haydenwho’s cutting across the lawn from the direction of the main house.
He eyes me. “Where’s Amelia?”
“In the tent. I’m just grabbing something for her.”
He nods, then comes to a stop and says, “When were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“That you’re already married.”
There’s no heat in it. Just that razor-sharp Hayden tone that means he’s already figured everything out.
I arch a brow. “How’d you know?”
He gives me a dry look. “I ran into Brett last week.”
My lawyer.
“He said something about you refusing to let your attorneys do their job,” he continues. “It wasn’t hard for me to piece it together with everything else I’d observed between you and Amelia.”
I exhale hard through my nose because I know what’s coming and I’m not interested in getting into it with him.
He mutters something under his breath, then adds louder, “You and Bradford. You’re both fucking idiots. But at least he signed a postnup.”
I could explain it to him. The reason I don’t have a prenup. The logic. The trust. The fact that Amelia would never take anything from me that I didn’t offer first. But that’s not the point. Not even fucking close. Instead, I give him the truth.
“She could take everything I have and leave me with nothing but debt and ruin, and I’d still consider it a fair trade for her loving me.”
“You think I don’tgetthat?” His jaw ticks. “I get it. I’ve just seen too many people say exactly that and live to regret it.” He pauses. “Fairytales don’t fucking exist, Gage. You know that. And fuck...I don’t want to see you hurt like that.”
Hayden’s always been like this. The protector. The cleaner. The one who sees disasters coming and tries to stop them before they hit. He’s built walls around all of us to keep us safe from shit. He’s stepped in when we’ve fucked up. I love him for it. But this time, he’s wrong.
“I know you’re trying to protect me. You always do. And I appreciate you looking out for me. But you’re wrong about her.”
“I’m not saying she’s going to screw you over. Hell, I think she’s perfect for you.” He looks frustrated. “I’m saying you’re both human. Things happen. You could fuck it up. She could. Life throws shit at people that tears them apart even when they love each other.” He releases a breath. “Legal safeguards aren’t about trust. They’re about protecting both of you from the shit you don’t see coming.”
“You’re right. About all of it,” I say as I move past him. “And when you fall in love with someone who makes you stop thinking like a lawyer and start thinking like a man who’d burn it all down just to keep her, you’ll understand why I don’t give a fuck.”
CHAPTER 30
AMELIA
Imade it thirty seconds into the first dance before I remembered the song we chose.
I mean, Iknewit. We picked it together. Gage played it one night while we were slow dancing in the kitchen and asked if I felt it in my bones. I did. Of course I did. The man could hum aninfomercialand I’d feel it in my bones. But also, those opening lines? I melted when he whispered them against my ear that night.
But now it’s playing on actual speakers. In front of actual people. While my husband looks at me like he’s about to whisper avow so private it’s going to set off fire alarms.
