Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“Coming!” Britt had basically been sitting on the couch in a daze since Linc had left nearly two hours ago. She simply couldn't wrap her head around the fact they’d slept together.
Had she thought about it in the past? Sure, but never in an I-should-totally-make-this-happen way. It was more like a wildest-fantasies-to-think-about-stored-in-Levi’s-spank-bank way.
Does “spank bank” work for a girl?
“Oh, my God, seriously?" she scolded herself as she shuffled to the door. That’s what her brain deemed important right now? She’d slept with Linc, and instead of trying to come to terms with that, she was worried about whether or not “spank bank” was the right term for a female?
She was barely opening the door when?—
Lust library! That made more sense for a girl than “spank bank.” Or maybe “pleasure vault?”
“Ugh, stop!” What was wrong with her brain? Those Long Island iced teas two nights ago must have rotted it away.
“Stop?”
Surprised, Britt finally registered that Linc was standing on her doorstep.
“Do you want me to leave?” he asked, looking like she’d just unstuffed his favorite teddy bear.
“What? No. Come in.” She stepped aside to let him pass. He hesitated briefly before entering... without hugging her. He always hugged her hello.
Dammit. Sleeping with him was already affecting their relationship.
He took a breath, then turned back to face her. “First, don’t freak out.”
“Don’t freak out?” The look on his face had her totally freaking out. “Why am I going to freak out?”
Oh, God. Please don’t say we can’t be friends.
“I said don’t freak out.”
Too late.
“If you don’t want someone to freak out, don’t start the conversation with ‘don’t freak out,’ Linc!”
“Zana…”
“I know we slept together,” she bulldozed over him, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends. We’re adults. We can?—”
“What’re you talking about? Of course, we’re still friends.”
“Then why are you back here? You just left. Did something happen? What’s wrong?” She knew she was rambling, but she couldn’t stop herself. The stress from finding out they’d slept together had finally reached the boiling point and was spilling over.
She held up her hand before he could answer. “Don’t you dare say ‘don’t freak out’ again because this is me freaking out, Linc!”
“Zana, breathe.” He gripped her shoulders and held her gaze, taking deliberate breaths in and out until she mimicked him. He didn’t start speaking again until her breathing had returned to normal.
“We have a slight problem,” he said carefully.
“‘A slight problem’? What constitutes a ‘slight problem’?” Her brain started playing through different scenarios until it settled on the only thing she could think of. “I’m on the pill, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“What? No, that’s not?—”
“I don’t know if we used protection, but I’m clean.”
“Zana…”
“And if you tell me you’re clean, I believe you.” She wasn’t worried about that, but she was disappointed he was.
“Of course, I’m clean. And I wasn’t worried about you.”
“Then what’s wrong? You said there was a slight…”
“We’re married.”
“...problem,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “So, I just assumed… Wait. What?”
Linc slid his hands down her arms and took her hands in his. “You’re my wife.”
Britt burst out laughing. She couldn’t help it. Then she saw his face. His deadly serious face. “That’s what you’re worried about?” He was too sweet. Totally overreacting, but sweet. “Linc, you don’t have to marry me because we slept together.”
“Pretty sure it was before.”
“What?”
He pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of his back pocket. “We’re married.”
Brows pinched, she took the paper from his outstretched hand. “What’re you talking about?” She smoothed out the document and scanned it. “‘The Little Chapel of Blue Suede Shoes’?” That really made her laugh.
“Zana…”
“You’re such a jerk.” She punched his arm. “How did you make this so fast?” She kept reading. “‘They have declared their Burning Love for one another’? That’s so cheesy, I love it!”
“Zan…”
“‘It’s Now Or Never to tie the knot’?” She wiped a few tears from her eyes. She hadn’t laughed this hard in a long time, and she appreciated the stress release. “Wow, you even forged my signature well.”
“Britt, it’s real.”
“Love the name, by the way.” Her giggling resumed, as her brain blew past the fact he’d used her real name again. “Little Chapel of Blue Suede—” When he stuck his phone in front of her face, all of the color drained from hers.
“Shoes,” Linc finished for her. “It’s a real place.”
She took his phone and studied it, trying to figure out how she was seeing what she couldn’t be seeing. Yet there it was in digital color… the website for The Little Chapel of Blue Suede Shoes. Her eyes flew to his. “This is…? How?”
He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but ended up pressing his lips together instead and shrugged.
“They must sell fake marriage certificates, right? Like for souvenirs or gag gifts?”
His expression was pained. “I called them. We were there. They performed the ceremony.”
“For fun, right?” She told him more than asked. “Just something silly to do for fun.”
He handed her another piece of paper.
She was almost afraid to take it. In fact, her knees nearly buckled when she looked at it. “A marriage license?”
Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he steered her to the couch to sit down. “It’s legit.”
“We got a marriage license? How?”
“Apparently, we’re very thorough when we’re drunk.” He offered a half grin. She could tell he was trying to downplay it for her sake. “And the Clark County Marriage License Bureau is open 7 days per week, 8 a.m. - midnight. Open all holidays, no exceptions.”
It sounded like he was quoting their…
“It’s on their website.”
Okay, she was back to freaking out. “But we didn’t have an appointment.”
“Walk-ins only.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yup.”
Britt dropped the paperwork onto the coffee table in front of them. They both stared at it in silence for a good minute or two.
“We’re married,” she finally whispered.
“Yup.” He popped the “p.”
She should be more freaked out about this, shouldn’t she? Here she’d been practically losing it when she’d thought Linc didn’t want to be friends anymore, but the biggest worry on her mind after finding out they tied the knot was…
“Momma’s gonna have a conniption.”
That’s what struck fear into her heart, not the fact she was now Mrs. Lincoln Pierce.
“What?” Linc feigned hurt with a hand over his heart. “You don’t think Lacey would approve? I thought she loved me.”
“Oh, she totally loves you. She’d still ring the neck of anyone who stopped her from planning my wedding, though.”
He barked out a laugh. “That sounds about right.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“Sign me up for the witness protection program?”
“Linc!”
He grinned. “Pick out china patterns?”
“No one uses china anymore,” she commented absently, still trying to wrap her head around everything she’d just learned.
“You do.”
Well, he had her there. She did pull out Grandma Abernathy’s gold-edged china for special occasions.
“You know what I mean.”
“No gift registry, then?”
“No.” She smirked. “No gift registry.”
“Damn.”
“So…” Her words trailed off. She didn’t know what to say. How were you supposed to react when you found out you married your friend when you were three sheets to the wind?
Three drinks by a slot machine?
Linc’s easy grin faded as his expression sobered. “I guess we can get an annulment. That makes the most sense.” He caught and held her gaze. “Right?”
For some reason, she couldn’t look away. It wasn’t until he broke eye contact that she even blinked.
What was that?
Linc didn’t look at her like that. Like maybe he remembered more about their night together than he was letting on. And wanted a repeat. Or was that her projecting?
She straightened the papers on the coffee table, merely to have something to focus on, as a flush warmed her body. What was wrong with her?
“Zana?”
Why was she hesitating? It wasn’t even a question. Of course, they’d get an annulment.
“Right, Zan?”
She snapped out of her confusing thoughts. “Right. That would be the easiest.”
“Okay. Let’s call them and see what we need to do.” He searched for the County’s number on his phone, hit “call,” and put it on speaker.
“We’re married,” she mused softly. “Crazy.”