Chapter 9
TESSA
Once again, Tessa and Hayes were at the courthouse. They stood at the old oak door. Hayes reached out and grasped Tessa’s hand. “Are you ready?” he asked.
Tessa thought it was sweet how Hayes kept checking on her. He always thought of others.
“Are you ready?” Tessa countered.
Hayes squeezed her hand, “Yes.”
Together, they walked through the door to the judge’s chambers.
“I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride,” the judge said.
Tessa and Hayes faced each other awkwardly. They hadn’t thought about this part of the ceremony. After a moment, Hayes leaned toward Tessa and placed a sweet kiss on her lips. Tessa felt electricity as their lips met. They parted and smiled at each other.
“Congratulations!” the judge exclaimed. “I wish you both the best!”
Tessa and Hayes smiled shyly at each other.
They clasped hands and left the judge’s chambers.
Tessa thoughtfully touched her fingers to her lips.
She couldn’t say she had never wondered what it would be like to kiss Hayes.
They had been close friends in school, and Hayes had been invaluable at the resort since they both returned to town.
In fact, they had kissed once before, but never talked about it again.
Tessa smoothed down the pink-and-white flowered sundress she had donned for the occasion. Even though it was a fake marriage, she had wanted to feel the part. It may be the only time she got married after all.
Hayes gallantly opened the door of his truck and bowed slightly, “Here you go, Mrs. Adams.”
Tessa smiled, “Wow, that’s a little weird.”
“Wow, thanks!”
Tessa laughed, “You know what I mean!”
As Hayes climbed into his side of the truck, Tessa’s phone rang.
“It’s Willow,” Tessa whispered.
“Answer it,” Hayes advised.
“What do I tell her?” Tessa was starting to realize this spur-of-the-moment decision was going to complicate many things.
“Tell her the truth,” Hayes said.
“What? That we ran off to get married so I wouldn’t lose my family’s resort?” Tessa asked.
“Well, maybe not that part. I guess we should decide what we are going to tell everyone,” Hayes said facing Tessa.
“I guess we really didn’t think this through,” Tessa said, then turned to him with wide eyes. “Oh my gosh! What are we going to tell our families? Our friends?”
“Okay, okay. Let’s think for a minute,” Hayes rubbed his jaw. “We could say we were secretly seeing each other, and then had a crazy idea to get married, so we ran off and eloped?”
“Maybe,” Tessa murmured. “But Landry just left a couple of months ago. That doesn’t paint me in a very good light.”
“It’s not horrible. We have known each other practically our whole lives. It’s not like we are random strangers.”
“Good point.”
“Did you tell anyone you thought Landry was going to propose?”
“No.”
“Not even Willow?”
“No,” Tessa sighed. “She wasn’t exactly thrilled about Landry and me getting back together, so we didn’t talk about him very much.”
“Why wasn’t she thrilled?”
“She didn’t think it was a good idea,” Tessa explained. “Looks like she was right.”
“Hmmm, then I think you could act like you and Landry weren’t serious. Pretend like you knew he would be leaving, and you were just kind of reminiscing about old times.”
“That might work,” Tessa said. “I still think it makes me look bad, but better than jumping from a serious boyfriend to getting married to someone else within a couple of months, I guess.”
“Okay, so let’s call Willow back, tell her, and tell her to tell others, so we don’t have to tell everyone when we get back. Then we can call our families and, hopefully, they won’t kill us.” Hayes laughed. “Although you are not a very good liar. Are you going to be able to do this?”
“Well, it’s a little late to worry about that,” Tessa sighed. “I can do it. I have no choice.”
Tessa grabbed her phone, took a deep breath, and dialed Willow’s number.
“Tessa!” Willow exclaimed. “Where are you? I went by to bring you some samples of my new pastry menu, and no one has seen you in ages. Didn’t you get my texts?
“Yes, I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I’m actually in South Carolina.”
“Okay,” Willow said slowly. “Why?”
“Well, Hayes and I were talking yesterday, and we decided to come down to South Carolina to—” Tessa rushed out the next part “get married.”
There was dead silence on the other end.
“Willow? Are you there? Did you hear what I said?” Tessa asked.
“Oh, I heard,” Willow answered. “Now tell me what is really going on.”
“Hayes and I got married.”
“And why did y’all do that?”
“Uh, because we have been seeing each other for the past month and just decided to take the plunge.” Tessa laughed.
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is—”
“No, it is not,” Willow cut Tessa off. “You would have told me.”
Tessa sighed deeply, “Okay, Hayes and I got married because Nana left me a letter stating I had to be married by the time I turned 30 or I would lose the resort.”
“What?” Willow asked.
“Tessa!” Hayes groaned.
“Look, Hayes and I would like everyone to think we actually fell in love and just got married because we wanted to. Will you please help me with that?” Tessa implored her best friend.
Willow sighed, “You know I will, but we are going to have a long talk when you get back.”
“We will, I promise,” Tessa said. “We will be back later today. I will call you then.”
“Okay, drive safe,” Willow answered, and they hung up.
HAYES Hayes watched as Tessa slumped back against the truck seat.
“Well, that wasn’t exactly like we planned,” Hayes said.
“No, I’m sorry, Hayes,” Tessa said. “I just couldn’t lie to Willow.”
“What about your family? You know you are going to have to lie to them, too, right?”
“Yes, but I will have some time to prepare for that,” Tessa answered. “I will call them today, but I won’t have to face them in person for a while. Willow will be waiting when we get back. At least this way, we will have someone to help us.” She smiled at him.
“Okay, but I think we should really limit who knows the truth. We are already walking a fine line. We don’t want this to blow up in our faces and for you to lose the resort anyway.”
“I know, I know,” Tessa said. “I’m beginning to think we should have thought about this a little more, hubby.”
Hayes tried to ignore the little jump of his heart when Tessa referred to him as hubby. Even though it was a little unconventional way to get there, he was Tessa’s husband, and he would do his best to make sure she was protected.
“Maybe,” Hayes said thoughtfully. “But we are married now, wifey, so I guess we should do our best to make this plan succeed.”
Tessa smiled at him, then settled in for the journey home. “Okay, let’s go home.”
As Hayes grabbed his phone to put it away while he drove, it buzzed with an incoming text.
Willow: You and I are going to talk when you get back.
Hayes gulped. He knew Willow would be upset. He was not looking forward to that conversation.