Shotgun Groom

by Kristin Morgan

  With Jack looking at her so intently Beth couldn’t think of anything to say.

  “You know what I think?” he continued. “I think we need to get married as soon as possible. It’s time we get you pregnant so that things can get back to normal between us.”

  Beth was still so shaken from their behavior a moment ago that she wasn’t thinking quite straight. But she had enough sense about her to know that Jack was probably right. They had to do something about what was going on between them. “I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, but I found a Justice of the Peace who can marry us on Saturday.”

  “Good,” he replied. “It’s about time we get this show on the road.”

  For the record, Beth was feeling the same sense of urgency that he obviously did. And, perhaps, Jack knew what he was talking about. They had already come so far, so fast since she’d asked him to help her with her plan that maybe a temporary marriage between them might be the only way to appease this...this whatever it was that was happening between them now. Frankly she was convinced it had more to do with hormones and babies—and Mother Nature playing her mating call—than anything else. They both knew what she wanted from Jack. It was only natural that their sex drives eventually come into play.

  With the tense seconds from a moment ago behind them, Jack walked up to the side of her bed, dropped his pants as though it were nothing, pulled off his shirt and then got between the cool sheets on her bed. Beth stood and watched as he took his own good time fluffing up her pillows.

  “Nighty-night,” he finally said. “I’ll see you when you get back this afternoon.”

  He started to turn his back to her, but then he stopped halfway and glanced back over his shoulder. “Oh, and Beth...” he added. “If you don’t mind, bring home Chinese tonight. I’ve got this sudden craving for fried rice.”

  And then he rolled over and closed his eyes. It wasn’t long, Beth knew, before he was asleep.

  Just like that, she thought to herself.

  It was as though it was no big deal that he was her best friend and was sleeping in her bed. And, truthfully, it really wasn’t.

  But it should have been a big deal that just minutes ago he had brought out such powerful feelings in her that she could have easily lost herself to him forever.

  But that hadn’t seemed to phase him any more than sleeping in her bed did. At least, not as it had her.

  When Beth finally arrived at her office just past eight o’clock, she called Karen first thing to see if she would stand as a witness when she and Jack took their vows. Of course, her friend was delighted at the prospect. Beth knew she would be.

  Then with her early-morning appointment in mind, Beth rose from behind her desk, picked up her purse and went to meet the young couple who were looking to buy a house. The rest of her day was pretty routine as well, and by five o’clock that afternoon what had happened between her and Jack in her bedroom that morning seemed almost like a dream.

  She picked up Chinese on her way home from work.

  Jack’s car was still parked in her garage when she drove in. She entered the house through the back door and flicked on the kitchen light. All was quiet. She went straight to her bedroom and saw that Jack was still sound asleep in her bed. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she got a pair of shorts and a shirt from inside her closet, then went to her bathroom and shut the door so she wouldn’t disturb him while she changed from her work clothes.

  But when she came out of the bathroom, he had rolled over and was lying flat on his back. His eyes were open and he was obviously waiting for her. “Hi,” he said, his voice deep and rich from sleep. “Just got in?”

  “Not long ago,” she answered, keeping her voice steady while she carefully placed her work clothes back on their hangers inside her closet She told herself that she was not going to look at him, regardless of how much she wanted to. Under normal circumstances, having Jack Kincaid lying half-asleep in her bed would have been no big deal. But according to the way her heart was suddenly pounding, no longer was this a normal circumstance for her. Frankly she had come too close to abandoning herself to him in that same bed earlier that morning for her to be completely at ease. No way could she let her guard down like that again. There was too much at stake.

  Jack turned on the lamp next to her bed.

  The sudden splash of light drew Beth’s immediate attention, and she automatically glanced over her shoulder in time to see him sit up in bed. So much for self-control, she thought a second later. The sheet that had been covering him when she came in a few moments ago had now slipped down to his waist, and his bare chest made a delicious picture against the backdrop of her overstuffed headboard. Her stomach bottomed out.

  It was time they moved to her kitchen to have supper, Beth thought.

  Suddenly Jack threw back the covers and swung his feet over the side of the bed. After a big yawn, he stretched his arms over his head and said, “I slept like a baby.”

  Beth followed his actions, not even realizing that some wanton part of herself was absorbing every move he made.

  She was still watching him when he began bouncing on the end of her bed as if he was testing it out. “You know,” he began, “when the time comes, I’m really going to enjoy this mattress,” he said.

  Crisscrossing her arms under her breasts, Beth stood and watched him check out the durability of her bedsprings. She knew what he was getting at, but she wasn’t taking the bait.

  “I brought home Chinese,” she said flatly, determined to keep the subject going in that direction. “I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.”

  One thing she could always be sure of about Jack. The kinds of things that always seemed to rattle her the most never seemed to bother him at all. That was probably what made them perfect friends.

  After putting on his pants, Jack helped her make up her bed, then he went to take a shower in her bathroom. While he was doing that, Beth went into the kitchen and set the table.

  A few minutes later Jack entered the room, fully dressed, and sat down with her to eat. “I had a dream last night,” he said, spooning a heap of fried rice onto his plate. “I dreamed we had a big wedding on Saturday.”

  “Well, at least you got the Saturday part right,” Beth said, dunking her egg roll into a mixture of sweet-and-sour sauce.

  “I think we should have a big wedding—invite all our friends,” he said, setting his fork down. “You’ve always wanted one, haven’t you?”

  “Get real, Jack,” she said. “Saturday is only five days away. There isn’t time to plan that kind of wedding. Besides, who needs it? We’ll be divorced before we know it.”

  Jack leaned forward. “Which, in a way, is exactly why we should have one. It’s all going to be over and done with so fast, I think we ought to have some fun with it. Besides, how much trouble can it be to plan a wedding that will include our friends.”

  Beth could only gape at him. Obviously he had no idea.

  “Look,” he said, “we can set up everything in your backyard. Matt’s cousin can do the catering. And doesn’t June play the organ and sing at her church? She can do the wedding march, or whatever that song is called. We’ll have champagne, too. It’ll be a blast.”

  “I don’t know...” Beth said hesitantly.

  “Come on. Be a sport. Let’s make it into a party.”

  “What about our parents?” Beth asked, after giving his idea some consideration and deciding it might be kind of fun, after all. “If we invite our friends, shouldn’t we invite them, too?”

  Jack frowned. “We’d have to do all kinds of explaining to them. That alone could take five days.”

  “You’re right,” Beth replied. “Maybe it isn’t such a good idea to invite them after all.”

  “Let’s keep the guest list limited to just our closest friends,” Jack said. “Those whom we know will understand our reasons for doing what we’re doing.”

  Beth smiled knowingly. “I agree.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll take care
of the catering, the champagne and the music.”

  “And I’ll take care of ordering a larger cake—I’d already ordered a small one for us,” Beth said. “And I’ll get all the decorations, too. And I’ll ask Karen to be my maid of honor, instead of just our witness.”

  “I can get Chuck to stand as my best man.”

  “Wow,” Beth said, “looks like we’ve already got it all covered.”

  “See,” Jack said. “I told you all those details would be nothing to get done.”

  Beth smiled. “It’s so good to know that when life gets a little crazy, I can always depend on you to settle things down for me, Jack.”

  “Hey,” he said playfully, “what’s a good friend for?”

  What, indeed? Beth thought, gazing at him with a deep-down pride that came from knowing that he was her best friend.

  She and Jack had something really special, all right, and she was going to do all she could to see to it that it never changed.

  Chapter Eight

  Beth found it difficult to believe that today was her wedding day and that within the next hour she and Jack were going to be married.

  The past five days leading up to this moment had been hectic. When she and Jack had decided to have a bigger wedding, they naively thought they had all the details covered and that everything would automatically fall into place for them, but they had been mistaken. Nothing had gone according to their plans. The caterer, the baker, the photographer—all had gone wrong. So wrong, in fact, that by mid-Thursday morning they had come close to canceling their plans and instead have a simple ceremony, after all.

  But their friends had stepped forward to offer their assistance and somehow, in just three short days, they had been able to organize everything for the big occasion. Now it seemed that their wedding day was going to be something to remember. She’d even managed to find herself a white lace, floor-length bridal gown, and a head veil that she adored. At their friends’ insistence, both she and Jack had taken off a couple of days from their jobs for a brief honeymoon in New Orleans. Hopefully—and she had her fingers crossed, to be sure—she would be pregnant by the time they got back. Only she couldn’t let herself worry about that right now. One step at a time, she kept saying to herself.

  In fact, as far as she currently knew, Jack was still out shopping for the wedding bands they had almost forgotten in all the mad rush until he’d thought of them just a couple of hours ago. But according to Karen, who was taking her role as Beth’s maid of honor quite seriously, everything was on schedule. In fact, she had just slipped into Beth’s bedroom for the hundredth time to assure her that Jack was already dressed in his black tux and would be ready to begin the ceremony the moment he arrived at her house. Karen informed Beth that he had just called from a jeweler’s across town to say that he’d found what he was looking for and was on his way. Beth breathed a sigh of relief.

  Not that she thought it was necessary for her and Jack to have matching wedding rings. It was Jack who had insisted on it. And these days, it seemed, when Jack put his mind to something, heaven help them all, but there was no use trying to talk him out of it.

  She hadn’t seen Jack since yesterday. And she’d talked to him only once. Their friends had made sure that the two of them followed the age-old custom where the groom doesn’t get to see the bride on their wedding day until the start of the ceremony. In fact, Karen and some of the others were making a big hoopla over the whole thing, keeping Beth hidden away in her bedroom, claiming it was tradition and all. They were acting as though they thought her and Jack’s marriage was going to be forever, when, of course, they all knew better. Nonetheless, they seemed to be having a good time helping her with her wedding plans and, in truth, so was Beth. Jack seemed to be pleased with the way things were going, too. The day was turning out to be far more than she had ever dreamed at such short notice. In fact, she and Jack had changed their minds at the last minute and invited their parents to come, too. According to Karen, they were all presently seated in her backyard, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

  Suddenly Beth’s bedroom door swung open and a moment later Karen stuck her head inside. “He’s here,” she said.

  “Jack?” Beth asked, her heart pounding.

  “Yes. Oh—and Beth, your rings are really beautiful.”

  “Are they?” Beth asked, feeling almost heady with excitement.

  For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, Karen rushed into the room and hugged her. “I’m so happy for you, I could cry,” she said, sniffing up several loose tears.

  “How does Jack look?” Beth asked, taking a deep, steadying breath, although she had little doubt that his white-and-black tuxedo combination made him an exciting groom for any bride to be.

  “Handsome—but nervous,” Karen said, wiping at her tears.

  “Is he?”

  “Just a little. How are you?”

  “I’ve got butterflies in my stomach, but I’m okay,” Beth replied.

  “Well, they sent me in here to see if you were ready to begin. Are you?”

  “I think so,” Beth said. Then, suddenly feeling the need to make her cause known one last time before proceeding with the final step, she grabbed hold of Karen’s arm. “All of this is just temporary, you know.”

  “Yeah, sure, I know,” Karen replied absently, the whole time inspecting Beth to make sure that the bride’s dress and veil were perfectly aligned for her walk down the aisle.

  Beth licked her lips. “Karen, listen to me. Before you know it, Jack and I will be divorced and everything will be back to normal again. I want you to remember that, okay?”

  “Okay,” Karen replied apathetically. Finally finishing her task of inspecting Beth’s appearance, she glanced up and smiled in a way that told Beth she hadn’t heard a single word. “Ready for your big moment?” Karen asked.

  Beth’s breath locked in her throat. Was she?

  Of course, she was.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Then I’ll go tell them we’re ready to start,” Karen said, hurrying out of the room. A few moments later Beth’s father knocked on her bedroom door and then stepped inside. After telling her what a beautiful bride she made, he offered her his arm and said, “Everyone’s waiting for you.” Beth heard the organist begin playing the song that signalled it was time for the bride to make her appearance.

  Inhaling a deep breath, she took her father’s arm. He led her to her backyard where her family and friends—and her groom—were all anxiously waiting for her.

  Before she knew it, she was walking toward Jack, with row after row of their family and friends watching her from portable folding chairs set up for the occasion. At the head of it all was a tall trellis, decorated in English ivy and white satin ribbons. And, of course, the Justice of the Peace was standing dead center. To her left near the front, she saw that her mother was crying. To her right she saw Jack’s parents and then noticed that his mother was dabbing at the corners of her eyes, too. Then she saw Karen. Thank goodness, she was smiling—well, sort of.

  And then she saw Jack.

  Thank goodness for Jack.

  He was looking at her with an infectious, heartfelt grin. He didn’t even have to say the words, because somehow, just by gazing into his eyes, Beth knew that he thought she was the most beautiful bride he’d ever seen. And for the first time in what had seemed like endless moments of walking through a haze, Beth actually felt like...well, like maybe she was going to make it through this day after all.

  A smile to match the one on his face sprang to her lips, and then suddenly it was as though the whole world was smiling at her. At them. She felt happy... contented... at peace with herself. As though she knew she was doing the right thing. After all, Jack was the perfect choice to be the father of her child.

  When Beth and her father reached the end of the aisle, he kissed her on the cheek and then gave her away to Jack. Suddenly the moment was so intense, so all-consuming, that tears sprang to her eyes.

>   “I have you now,” Jack whispered to her teasingly. “And you look so beautiful, I just might not ever let you go.”

  “You don’t have any choice,” Beth replied, gazing up at him, her heart pounding in her throat. “It’s already in the rules that you have to.”

  “But I don’t always follow the rules,” he said, his eyes twinkling with merriment.

  “Oh, but I do,” Beth replied.

  He just laughed at that.

  Joining hands, they turned toward the Justice of the Peace so that the ceremony could begin. As it turned out, Karen was right about Jack’s choice of wedding rings. They had an antique gold finish and were quite lovely. He obviously had known what she liked.

  Before long, they had said their vows and were pronounced husband and wife. Jack took her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly, passionately, until everyone in attendance burst into a loud, joyous applause. When he finally ended the kiss, the intensity of his gaze told her that he had known exactly what he was doing. He had wanted to prove a point to her and, by golly, he had. He released her and grinned.

  “Wow, that was some kiss,” Karen stated. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Beth said in a shaky voice. She composed herself enough to greet their families and friends who were coming up to them now, slapping Jack on the back and congratulating them.

  Lifting her eyebrows in question, Karen leaned in close to Beth’s ear. “Are you sure you aren’t pregnant already? That was some kiss you just got.”

  Heaven help her, but Beth knew there was no way she could deny that. Jack’s kiss had been so thorough, so earth-shattering in its quest that she’d felt it all the way down to the tips of her toes. In fact, her wobbly knees were testimony to the fact that her whole body had been affected. Not to mention, her head was still reeling.

  What in the world had gotten into Jack lately anyway? Sometimes he acted...well, he acted as if what was happening to them was for real. As if their marriage was going to last forever.