“That’s not even slightly funny,” I said, glaring at him.
“What are we going to do about your hair?” Kat asked. “It doesn’t look like you’re about to get married.”
I glanced in the mirror. My hair was down, curled a little, but she was right, it wasn’t exactly a wedding look.
“Ooh, I have just the thing.” She ran to her closet and pulled down a box. When she opened it, she pulled out an old fashioned hair comb that would just slide into my hair. She hurried over and pulled my hair back on the right side of my head and slid the comb in. “There, that looks perfect.”
My nerves were fluttering out of control, but we couldn’t delay any longer. It was already way past time for the wedding to start.
“Who’s going to stand up with you?” Kat asked.
“You. I don’t have anyone else.”
Kat nodded and snatched the flowers from Chrissy’s hands. “Alright, mine are downstairs.” She stood back and looked Robert and I over. “I think that’s as good as we can do at the last minute.”
“I got the earrings,” Joe said as he ran in the room.
“What took you so long?” Robert chastised.
“I went as fast as I could. Oh, and I went through her drawers and found some lingerie for your wedding night,” he grinned. “You can thank me later.”
Kat slapped him upside the head. “What is it with you and going through women’s drawers?”
“Hey, I was doing a service for my brother. He should be thanking me, much like you did.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Robert said, grabbing my hand. “Right now, we have to get out there and make this happen.”
“Okay.”
We all rushed down the stairs and I almost ran out the door with him when Kat grabbed my arms. “Hold on, you can’t walk out there with him. You’re supposed to go down the aisle by yourself.”
“Shit! I have no one to walk me down the aisle!”
“I’ll do it,” someone said from behind me. I spun around to see Carter standing there with a grin on his face.
“Are you kidding me? There’s no way you’re walking me down the aisle.”
“Oh, come on. It’s kind of poetic. Me, handing you off to Robert. It’s kind of perfect.”
“Yeah, I don’t really want to start a fight.”
“Do you have someone better in mind?”
I glanced around, trying to find anyone that could walk me down the aisle, but Robert’s brothers had already walked outside to stand beside him or take their seats.
“Fine, but no shenanigans.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “I swear.”
“If you pull anything, I swear to God, I’ll beat you with a bat, and I’m pretty sure Jack will stand by and watch.”
“I’m not afraid of my boss,” he grinned.
“Just keep your hands to yourself and don’t do anything stupid.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Alright, I’m going to give the signal for the music,” Kat said, walking outside to take her place.
I took a deep breath and grabbed the flowers off the table where Kat had set them for me. I could do this. It wasn’t a real wedding. I was walking down the aisle toward the man I always loved, but none of it was real. It would be totally fine.
“I always knew you would end up with Robert,” Carter whispered as he took my arm and wrapped it through his.
“Why’s that?”
He shrugged. “You just fit.”
“Then why did you pull all that shit at Thanksgiving?”
“I was giving him a nudge.”
I stopped walking and looked at him. “You humiliated me.”
“No, only your family was around, and they are your family,” he nodded outside. “I knew it would take something big to get him to make a move. You don’t know how hard it is to stand by and watch the woman you love pine for another man her whole life.”
I felt like all the air was sucked out of the room as I took in his words. “You’re…what?”
“Relax,” he smiled easily. “I’ve always known I would never have you. All those years that you were in town, all by yourself, I knew even though you were lonely that I could never replace Robert. That’s why I never made a move. It’s so clear how much you love him. I’m not one to purposely break my own heart.”
That was sort of sweet, and as he stared at me, I finally saw it in his eyes. It was the way he was looking at me, like he knew he was about to lose something he desperately wanted. Suddenly, I felt like this was the worst idea in the world. I didn’t want to be responsible for breaking anyone’s heart. And I wasn’t cruel enough to make him walk me down the aisle, fake wedding or not.
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
He winked at me and smiled. “You know I wouldn’t offer to walk you down the aisle unless I was sure the guy was good enough for you. Come on, I think we both need this.”
I stepped out onto the porch just as the wedding march began and started down the aisle. I could hear the whispers of confusion, but prayed that everyone went along with our ruse. My hands were clammy and my legs were shaking, but one look at Robert standing under that tree and I knew everything would be fine. Real or not, I was walking toward the only man I would ever love.
Robert
“She looks amazing,” Will said beside me. “Too bad none of this is real.”
“Why the hell is Carter walking her down the aisle,” I said angrily.
“Man, you need to relax your face. You look like you’re about to murder her. That’s not very convincing that you love her.”
I focused on Anna so that I didn’t express my clear hatred for Corduroy. She did look amazing. If only this was real. I would marry her in an instant if I thought she would go for it.
“Look at the size of her tits,” Will muttered. “Damn, I don’t remember them being that big.”
I jabbed him in the side and focused on my bride. No, that wasn’t right. I focused on Anna. We weren’t really getting married. None of this was real. I caught sight of Rebecca in the crowd and prayed she was buying all this. She had stopped me when I was walking out of the house. She seemed skeptical at first, but then congratulated me and took her seat. She was smiling now, so I hoped that meant that she bought all of this.
When Anna got to the end, Carter stood stoically beside her. “Robert.”
“Carter,” I said warily, wondering if he was about to start a fight. Instead, he held out his hand for me to shake.
“I can’t think of a better man for Anna.”
I took his hand and shook it. “Thank you.”
“Make sure you earn her love every day,” he said seriously.
“I will.”
He leaned in and kissed Anna on the cheek. “You look beautiful. Congratulations.”
It was in that moment that I understood that Carter really did have feelings for her, very deep feelings. And I was the luckiest man alive because she was choosing me. Fake wedding or not, she was walking toward me. And then I was immediately disappointed as we turned to the minister and he winked at me. I would give my right arm for this to be my wedding day.
The minister walked us through the entire ceremony. Neither of us had any idea what was coming because we had missed the rehearsal. So when the minister smiled and said that we had asked to recite our own vows, I was a little taken off guard.
I laughed lightly and looked at Anna in panic, the same look she gave me. “Wow, talk about being caught off guard.”
Will leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “You shouldn’t be caught off guard, seeing as this is your wedding.”
I chuckled nervously and wiped the sweat from my forehead. I wasn’t used to not being prepared for something. I always had everything worked out to a T. Now, I had to come up with something on the spot.
I cleared my throat and looked down at our interlocked hands. “Anna, when I asked you to marry me, I never thought you would say yes. I mean,
let’s face it, with our history, there was every chance you would throw a donut at me. This has all moved so fast and it’s been amazing. The sex is great-“
The minister gasped and I winced, but the crowd laughed at my faux pas. I cleared my throat again, feeling my face turn bright red, and tried to focus on continuing. Even if this wasn’t real, I wanted Anna to know how I really felt.
“You’re my best friend, and you always have been. Even all those years apart, I wished you were the one by my side to share in my great news and my failures. There will never be another woman like you, and I’m so damn lucky that I got you to marry me. I know that what we have is forever. I promise to continue to earn the love you’ve given me, and never forget what brought us together to begin with. I’m yours for the rest of my life.”
“Anna,” the minister nodded.
She blew out a breath and laughed. “Tough act to follow.”
“Except the whole sex thing,” I said quietly.
She laughed and nodded. “Except for that.” She took a deep breath and looked up at me, and I could swear this was real for her too. “Robert, when we were kids, you were the one thing that I looked forward to. You were my best friend and my savior. You were the one I waited for every night, to pull me out of the hell I was in. And when everything fell apart, as much as I tried, I could never hate you. I wanted to, but there was always a part of me that hoped our story wasn’t over. And then you were there one day, just as I remembered you, only slightly more refined. You stepped back into my life and made me remember all the reasons I fell in love with you. Only this time, we’re older and wiser. I know what I want now, and it’s you. It’ll always be you.”
God, I hoped she meant that. The rest of the ceremony was a fog as I kept replaying her words in my head. I slid the ring on her finger, wishing it was one I was giving her and not another fake ring. When the minister pronounced us man and wife, I pulled her in and kissed her like it was our wedding day.
“I meant every word,” I whispered in her ear. “Every damn word.”
I stepped back and looked into her tear-filled eyes and smiled. It may not really be our wedding day, but I would never forget the way she looked right now. But she was wrong about one thing, I wasn’t the one saving her. She saved me from a meaningless existence. Without her, I would still be miserable and alone. I prayed that I would never have to feel that way again.
I glanced down and almost started laughing when I noticed a tissue peeking out the top of her dress. She glanced down with wide eyes and pulled it up, discreetly, like she had hidden it there in case she needed a tissue. She dabbed at her eyes and laughed.
“Nice save.”
“Thank God I hadn’t put pads in there. How would I have explained that to everyone?”
When we finally turned to the crowd, I smiled, squeezing her hand tight in mine. We took our first steps as fake husband and wife, shaking hands of everyone that came to celebrate Kat and Eric’s wedding. It was weird, but no one gave us up.
“Anna!” Rebecca smiled, stepping slightly into the aisle to give her a hug. “You should have told me your dress didn’t fit. I would have found a designer for you.”
“Oh,” Anna laughed. “I actually had a different dress, but it had spots all over when I opened the dress bag this morning. This is my soon to be sister-in-law’s dress. She lent it to me since I didn’t have anything at the last minute.”
Rebecca quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. She just smiled and nodded. I held Anna’s hand tighter, hoping that Rebecca just went along with all this. We just had to make it through the rest of the day.
When we reached the porch steps, Anna was practically sweating despite the cold. “Do you think we pulled it off?”
“I think so, but I have no idea how long she’s planning to stay.”
“I need to change out of this dress. The tissues are starting to come out.”
I wrapped her up in my arms, smiling down at her. “Thank you for doing this.”
“You know I would do anything for you.”
My face grew serious as I stared at her. “But I wanted this day to mean something. I wanted it to be real.”
“Robert-“
“Someday, Anna, this will be real. I’ll get down on one knee and ask you to marry me. And when we say our vows, it’ll be forever.”
She cupped my cheek in her hand, blinking back the tears from her eyes, then kissed me and turned to go inside to change. I hoped she felt the same way, because I wouldn’t wait too much longer to make her mine officially.
Anna
Everyone was finally gone. My feet were killing me and my face hurt from all the smiling. I was super aware the whole time of where Rebecca was. She talked with all the town’s people, and Robert and I kept exchanging looks, wondering if someone was going to give us up. It was exhausting. Robert even put Joe and Andrew on her tail, watching her every move to make sure no one spilled the beans around her. By the time she left, Andrew was practically in love with her.
“I can’t believe you guys pulled it off,” Eric laughed.
“Yeah, I’m not sure Rebecca believed us,” Robert said. “She just had that look, like she knew something wasn’t right.”
“Well, nobody said anything,” Joe confirmed. “I was with her the whole time and I stopped anyone that was about to say something wrong. Even Corduroy stepped in a few times. How did you manage to pull that one off?”
I had my suspicions about that, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to share them with Robert. He and Carter were already enemies at this point.
“I didn’t do anything,” Robert said, looking over at me. “He loves Anna, and he would do anything for her.”
“Including walk her down the aisle at her fake wedding,” Derek laughed. “So, when’s the real wedding?”
“Uh…” I looked at Robert in panic. Did people actually expect us to get married now? “You know, it’s still early.”
“Yeah,” Robert laughed, but I detected a hint of hurt in his voice. “It’s…way too early to start thinking about getting married.” He looked away, like he didn’t want me to see his face and the whole room got quiet. Awkwardly quiet.
“So,” Andrew chuckled. “How does this work now? Are you two going to live together?”
“Rebecca will be leaving in a week,” Robert confirmed. “Whatever happens, we can figure that out.”
Again, the room grew silent. It had been a long day, and I just wanted to get out of there. I needed some time to think about everything that had happened, and where we went from here. I stood and smiled at everyone.
“Thank you for helping us pull this off, and Kat, thank you for the dress. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to wear it today.”
She waved me off. “Please, none of this was my idea. I think when Eric and I get married, we should do it our way.”
“We’re not base jumping,” Eric insisted.
“As long as it doesn’t include the whole town being there, I’m all for it.”
“You guys should just get married in Mary Anne’s bakery,” Joe grinned. “It would be poetic, going back to where it all began.”
“If we were going back to where it all began, we would get married in a bar,” Eric reminded him.
“Yeah, but the bakery is where your relationship hit Facebook status.”
“And if you post one more thing about our relationship on the town page, you won’t be invited to our next wedding,” Eric threatened.
“Geez, you don’t have to be so salty,” Joe retorted. “Alright, I’m gonna bounce. I have to work tonight.”
“We should get going too,” Robert said, standing and holding out his hand to me. I didn’t know where we were going, but I hoped it was just back to my place. I wasn’t in the mood for much else. I smiled and stood, thanking Kat and Eric again.
When we got out to his car, I sank into the seat and waited for the seat warmers to kick in. It was cold out, but right now I was grateful for how numb I fel
t. There was just way too much going on. I just wanted the day to end. Robert drove to my house and killed the engine when he put the car in park. He turned to me with a grin.
“So, should I carry you over the threshold?”
“Robert, that wasn’t real.”
“I know,” he said almost sadly. We both got out and walked up to my house, kicking off our shoes when we stepped inside. This was so weird. I didn’t know how to behave. We had just been fake married. I felt different, but I wasn’t sure it was the way I should have felt. If anything I was more unsure of our future than I was before. It was so clear the whole day that Robert wanted all this to be real, but the more he hinted at what he wanted, the more I questioned whether or not this could really work between us.
“Anna?”
“Huh?”
He smiled slightly, shoving his hands into his pockets. “What are you thinking?”
“Oh,” I laughed lightly, “you know, just about everything that happened today. We got really lucky that Rebecca didn’t already have your brother’s address or there’s no way we would have pulled that off.”
“Yeah,” he nodded, staring down at his shoes. “Anna, I know this is all really fast, but I meant every word I said up there today. I want this to work between us. I want this marriage to be real.”
I huffed out a laugh, flopping down on my couch. “Robert, we’re not really married. We’ve only been back together for a month. Nothing about this is real.”
“Except the way I feel about you. Tell me you don’t feel the same.”
“Robert,” I sighed. “It’s not enough to feel something for you. We’re still getting to know each other. We can’t just pretend that what happened today was real and go with it.”
“Why not?”
“Why not?” I asked incredulously.
“Anna, it’s simple, I love you. I never stopped. I know you love me too, so instead of wasting time trying to see if this works, let’s just do it.”
I stood and paced the room, pressing my hand against my forehead. This was all too much. “Just do it? Robert, you’re insane. I’m not ready for that. You’re not ready for that.”
Collateral Damage: A Small Town Romance Page 30