Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
I t was our wedding day. I’d set my alarm to wake early to make Julianna breakfast. My feet hit the cold hardwood floor, and I threw on the black sweatpants I’d worn the night before.
When I emerged from my room, the lights in the house were still off, and the main bedroom door was only cracked, which had become our new routine.
Neither of us fully closed our bedroom doors.
It felt like an unspoken dare. I’d almost gone to her more than once in the night, but held back, thinking about how infinitely more complicated things could get if she rejected me.
I wouldn’t survive it. Watching her go on a casual outing with that physician’s assistant had been fucking torture enough.
Being casually around each other the last few days had been so easy. We were old friends who reminisced and laughed at the silliest memories. Flirting was minimal, but a continuous undercurrent of electricity flowed between us. I knew she felt it too.
She was as much of a part of me as anyone could ever be.
You don’t deserve her.
I shook the thought away. It popped up more than I cared to admit. But I couldn’t dwell on it. I needed to focus on the task at hand.
I was cracking eggs into a hot iron skillet when Julianna shuffled into the kitchen, wearing only a worn t-shirt that was two sizes too big for her.
Her bare legs thoroughly stirred my blood, and I tried not to let my gaze linger on her for too long, but I was failing.
Her dark hair flowed around her seductively, and even though her face wore the vestiges of a night’s sleep, she had a slight smile.
“Sleep well?” I asked her.
She bit her lip but didn’t take her eyes off me. I leaned against the white stone countertop and gripped the edge behind me while the eggs sizzled.
“I woke up a few times, but my back feels good today,” she replied. “I can’t tell you how glad I am you’re letting me sleep in your bed. It’s just the right firmness for me. So a million times, thank you.”
“My bed is your bed until the end, sweets. Case closed.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but I didn’t give her a chance to argue. I turned around from her and grabbed the coffee pot. “Ready to get married today?” I tried not to sound too eager, but I failed.
“I think so. I don’t have anything nice to wear. Is that okay?”
“Is it an option for you to go unclothed? Because that’s what I’m rooting for.” I turned around with full mugs of coffee and winked at her. She tilted her head, and she watched my face—and my naked chest—as I handed her the coffee I’d doctored up with cream .
“I’m serious.” But she was smiling, and a blush rosied her cheeks. It was everything for me to watch her melt under my truths.
“I’m serious, too,” I replied with a chuckle. “But southerners don’t take well to public nudity, so I think anything you’ve got will be fine unless you want to dress up fancy. If that’s the case, I’ll take you wherever you want to go and buy you whatever you want.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t want to do that. I have never considered what I’d wear to a fake marriage. Feels anticlimactic to go in my regular clothing, but I guess anticlimactic is kind of the point.” She looked at the floor.
She was trying to separate the intensity between us and what was happening today.
Keeping those thoughts separate was wise. But for me, I was marrying Julianna East, and whether it lasted one month or the rest of my life, I would greedily take what I could get, no matter how fake it was.
She was worth every piece of my heart that I would lose and never regain.
“Let’s color coordinate,” I suggested, flipping the eggs with a spatula. “Your favorite color is olive green, right? Let’s wear that.”
She looked up quickly, her eyes sparkling and bright.
I’d do everything I could to keep that look right at that moment on her face.
“That’s perfect,” she beamed and sipped her coffee.
We were married in our jeans and matching olive shirts.
Mine was a plaid flannel, hers a soft knit sweater that hugged her curves perfectly.
We hadn’t spoken much on the way to the courthouse.
During the two-minute ceremony, I’d done what I could to soothe her, caressing her hands with my thumbs as I held them during our vows.
She didn’t look at me much while we recited sacred words, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
The only time they did was when I saw my sister, Melanie, dressed in her green ranger uniform, slide into the back seat of the courthouse.
Julianna noticed as well. Her eyes went wide.
“The girl from the picture,” she whispered forcefully.
“What picture?” I frowned. “That’s my sister, Melanie.”
“Sister?” She’d exclaimed, and the judge stopped speaking whatever nonsense he was reading out of a small book.
“Sorry,” Julianna said to him when he looked bothered. Then he continued. She didn’t say anything else, but I caressed her hands more thoroughly and whispered, “You’ll meet her. I’ll explain everything.”
Sliding a thin, hammered gold band on her finger near the end was my favorite part.
I’d picked it up over the weekend, and it was a little snug, but the gamble had been worth it when her face transformed from apprehension to delight.
At the end, when a kiss was expected, I looked at Julianna’s hesitant face, leaned over, and quickly pressed my lips to her warm cheek.
She exhaled and whispered a faint, “thank you” under her breath for only me to hear.
The judge who married us looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Regardless, I shook his hand and said thank you. Mel ran up to us the second we were done, her ponytail swishing with every hurried step.
“Eeek! I am so happy!” She hugged me first, her slight arms tightly wrapping around me, before moving onto a shaken, wide-eyed Julianna.
“Julianna, this is my half-sister, Melanie Richardson,” I said. “Mel, this is Julianna.”
“Ma’am, we need you to sign this,” the clerk interrupted, holding out a pen and the marriage certificate to Melanie. She signed on the adjacent desk and gave it back to the awaiting clerk before swinging back to us.
“We share a father, unfortunately,” Melanie announced without preamble. “Bram will have to tell you all about it because I have to get back to work.” Her eyes swung to meet mine. “Do you know how lucky you are, Bram? She’s beautiful.”
“The most beautiful woman in the world,” I replied without hesitation.
“Thank you,” Julianna said with a slight smile, wary. I should have told her that Mel was coming, but I wasn’t sure if Mel would be able to get away from the office, and I didn’t want to make Julianna extra nervous. It was unclear whether I’d made the right call.
As quickly as Mel had come, she was gone.
"Sorry, I didn’t tell you,” I blurted.
Julianna shook her head. “It’s okay. I, um…I saw a picture in your room, and I thought she might have been an old flame. I never thought about her being your sister.”
“It’s quite a story. I can tell you about it over lunch,” I said, ignoring the old flame comment, ushering her toward the door. The next couple waiting on the officiant was coming in as we walked out.
“Congratulations!” the woman cooed jovially.
“Thank you.” A blush had spread across Julianna’s face. It took so little to make her shy. It was something I loved about her.
“I can’t believe we did that,” Julianna said when we emerged into the sunlight. She twisted the small ring I’d given her on her finger. I picked up her hand as we walked out of the justice building and intertwined our fingers. It was a risk, but she didn’t pull away.
I brought her hand to my lips for a quick kiss. I heard her breath catch, but I pretended I was doing the most natural, normal thing in the world.
“Julianna Winchester has the best sound to it.”
She reared back. “Not sure I want your Dad’s name. Umm…what about Bram East? I like it much better.”
I laughed. “Me too, honestly. Nothing would be better than if I had the same last name as Grams and not Vince Winchester.”
Her face scrunched. “I understand the sentiment, but it sounds gross. Please don’t repeat it. You’ll get Whit fired up a million miles away, and he won’t even know why.”
I laughed. “I don’t know why he’s not answering our phone calls or texts yet. It’s been two days.” I opened the Jeep door for her. “If I hadn’t seen the fucker on TV yesterday, I’d request proof of life.”
She sat in the bucket seat, adjusted her clothes, and then reached for the seatbelt. “I don’t know, either, but he hasn’t even checked my messages about the surgery from Monday. Hopefully, he’ll respond to one of us soon. What are we going to tell him?”
I shut the door and leaned into the window area. The top was off, and the windows were down, leaving hardly any barrier between us. The light breeze blew through her hair as the sun kissed her skin. Would I ever stop being mesmerized by her?
“Not sure, to be honest. He’ll have his opinions, but you’re getting insurance, and Mill Creek Aid will be $1.1 million richer. That’s what matters.”
“I guess so,” she replied.
“What do you think about lunch? And I’ll tell you all about Melanie.”
We drove into Roanoke for food, away from the prying eyes and questions in Mill Creek.
“I want today to be comfortable,” she’d said, looking down at her ring. I knew that she would take it off once we were back in Mill Creek. I obliged her location request, as hard as it was. I wanted her to wear that ring in Mill Creek. I wanted everyone to know she was my wife.
The only people I did not want to know were my parents. I was going to have the entirety of my trust fund—a sum my father no doubt coveted—but I had used the one woman he told me not to touch to do it. He would be livid. I wasn’t sure how my Mom would react exactly, but she always sided with him.
Retaliation against my father wasn’t why I’d married Julianna at all, but it was a perk.