Chapter 8
Jude
This is bad. Like really bad. So bad I can’t believe it’s real.
“I’m so sorry,” Pete says, sounding just as horrified as he looked when he turned up ten minutes ago. “I didn’t know.”
“Dad, it’s OK,” Birdie says, wrapping her arm around her father’s shoulders. “It was an accident.”
He shakes his head. “It should never have happened. I’d been tidyin’ up my desk and it must’ve been in the wrong pile. You told me it didn’t need to be registered.” He lifts his eyes to meet mine. “I should’ve double-checked.”
“It’s… OK…” I say, though I’m feeling anything but.
“Surely we can do somethin’,” Will says. “Like cancel it or somethin’?”
I may not be a lawyer, but even I know that unless you go for an annulment—and there are only very specific reasons you can apply for that—then my fake marriage to Em is anything but fake now. “The only way now would be…divorce.”
Isla crosses the room and sits down beside me. “She’ll understand,” she says, rubbing my back. “It’s not like you set out to trick her.”
“I know. And she probably will.” Hopefully. “The thing is…”
“You want it to be real,” Sutton replies. “It makes sense. You know she’s your One, so you want to be tied to her.”
I nod. “Not like this, though. This was goin’ to be a cute story we could tell our kids and grandkids about. You know, ‘remember when your mom and I pretended to get married for your granddaddy, but then we fell in love just like the mountain intended and then did it for real?’.”
“This doesn’t change that, Jude,” Isla replies, putting her hand on my arm. “It just means your marital status has legally changed a lot sooner than planned.”
I shake my head. “They’ll all think we tricked them and did it on purpose.
” It would kill me if Em thought that I’d been anythin’ but honest with her.
That goes for her brothers too. “She doesn’t even know she’s my One and that the mountain wants us to be together.
” It’s that thought that starts my spiral, my brain jumping from fast forward to hyperdrive, except now I’m spiraling and imagining all the bad things that could happen.
“We’ve got the prenup. You both signed that, right? As long as you gave it to Micah to lodge through the proper channels, then there’s no way Dare and his brothers can question it. That agreement protected everyone.”
My gut sinks and I slowly lift my gaze to Will’s. “So… about that…”
My big brother’s eyes bug out, his head falling forward with a groan. “Dammit, Jude.”
“We can definitely submit a post-nup instead,“ Pete replies. “You’d just need to draw up a new document. As long as you both sign it, then Micah can lodge it straight away and it would still give y’all the same protection and provisions. That’s actually a lot easier to do than dissolvin’ the marriage, to be honest.”
I go quiet, slumping down in my chair and staring at the wall in front of me. I didn’t want any of this. I wanted to get to know Em and let her get to know me. I wanted to woo her, date her, fall in love with her at the same time she hopefully fell in love with me too.
I wanted my own epic Call journey like Will, Case, and Sutton had with their Ones. I wanted… I wanted…
“Hey,” Case says, taking the seat next to me. “Talk to me. What’s goin’ on in that busy little head of yours?”
One thing sits at the forefront in my mind now, and as soon as it comes to me, I know it’s the right decision—the only one, actually.
I jump up to my feet. “I need to see her. Need to tell her in person. At the very least, she deserves that much.”
Birdie, Blair and Isla all exchange bright, approving looks. “That’s exactly what you should do,” Blair says. “Now, how can we make that happen?”
“We?” I ask.
She rolls her eyes and waves her hand in the air to signal the room. “I mean all of us. How can we help?”
“Do you know her address?” Case asks, pulling out his phone. “I can look up and see how long it would take to get there.”
I look to Will, finding him watching me closely. “I know we’re in the middle of preppin’ for winter. I can probably finish up most of it by the end of the week and—”
He shoots me a weird look like I’m not making any sense.
I run through what I said but can’t work out what I did wrong.
“Jude, take a breath.” Doing what I’m told, I close my eyes and inhale slowly before letting it out again.
“Listen to me carefully. This is more important than the ranch and chores. This is your future, Jude. Em’s too.
” He looks around the room. “We all know you’ve been sufferin’ of late. Am I right?”
My brows furrow. “How did you…?”
Will rolls his eyes. “You’ve been quiet and keepin’ to yourself.”
“And Wy told us how you’ve been strugglin’ to do the heavy grunt work we all know you could do with your eyes closed and no sleep,” Sutton adds, sounding concerned.
My best friend is lucky he’s visiting his family at Bull Mountain Ranch right now otherwise he’d be getting an earful about ratting me out to my brothers.
“It’s the Call, right? You’re missin’ Em,” Case asks.
“I was doin’ OK, I swear. But over the last week or so it's like there’s a part of me missin’.” I shake my head. “Or out of place, maybe.”
The couples in the room exchange a knowing look. “What?”
Isla sighs. “The mountain can get a little—”
“Impatient?” Blair adds.
“Determined?” Birdie replies.
“All of the above,” Will says, “and that can show itself through the recipients feelin’ sick, tired, and—”
‘Achin’?” I ask.
All of my brothers look at me with understanding. “Yeah. Have you been feelin’ any of that?” Sutton asks.
I nod. “Em said she’s been off kilter since the funeral. Said it’s like nothing seems to fit right.”
“Like clothes? Or life?” Birdie asks, brows furrowed.
“I don’t know. But we both thought it was just part of her grief.”
Sutton nods. "Remember what I told you about that? Grief—even when it’s expected—doesn’t have a time limit. It lasts as long as it lasts. There’s no rushin’ it. You can think you’re handlin’ everythin’ OK and then somethin’ will happen and you’ll find yourself drownin’ all over again.”
“Findin’ out we’re legally married is the last thing she needs,” I surmise. “I have to tell her. I want to. She deserves to know and have a say in where we go from here.”
Looking around the room, I’m met with looks of pride and agreement from my family.
“You’re doin’ the right thing, Jude,” Will says. “It may be hard, and it might complicate a lot of things, but Em’s in this as much as you are.”
“I really am sorry,” Pete says again.
“I know, Pete. It’s not your fault, not really. This is just a consequence that we now have to face. Maybe the mountain thought I wasn’t takin’ her seriously.”
“Em’s your One. You know that—” Birdie says.
I look my sister-in-law in the eye. “But she doesn’t.”
“Then I guess this is the push you need to prove it to her,” Case says, looking over at his now smiling wife. “Sometimes, that’s all it takes to get things movin’ down the right path.”
“You know I didn’t believe in the whole prophesy in the beginnin’,” Isla explains. “But I knew how I felt about Case and that helped me trust in myself, him, and eventually the mountain.”
“You sayin’ I need to man up, and not only tell her what I want, but show her too?”
This time it’s Blair that nods. “You two are meant to be. Legally bound or otherwise. All that’s left to do is prove it’s true.”
OK. I’m actually going to do this.
“If it helps, in all of Aster’s books about the Call, there’s a common theme that always wins the reluctant or disbelievin’ heroines over,” Birdie says. “Want to know what it is?”
I think back to the books I’ve read and almost all of the stories are about the couple falling in love and overcoming whatever obstacles are in their way to be together—even if it’s themselves.
Birdie continues, answering for me. “It’s about showin’ up. The whole idea of ‘if they wanted to, they would’ idea. If you want her, if you want this to turn into somethin’ real—”
“I do. I knew the moment I saw her. I was sure when I talked to her. But when I kissed her as my wife—even knowin’ it wasn’t real—nothin’ was more important to me than her.” I wince when I realize how that might sound to my family. “Sorry, I mean—”
“You mean exactly what you said,” Will says, a wide smile taking over his face as he looks to his wife. “That’s how it’s supposed to be. You know this isn’t goin’ to be easy though. Especially since the first thing you’ve got to do is go to the Wilsons to get Em’s address.”
Dread hits me like a freight train. “I’ll have to tell them.”
“We can come with you, if you want. Go as a united front?” Case suggests. Will and Sutton nod in agreement.
“I can come and confess my part in all of this too,” Pete offers. “Whatever helps, Jude. Maybe it’ll stop them thinkin’ this was anythin’ else but an unfortunate accident.”
I bristle at the word unfortunate. Untimely? Sure. Never unfortunate.
It hits me that this could’ve been on the cards the whole time. Em and I were simply tempting fate.
What it does mean is my plan to take it slow with Em has just taken an unexpected detour straight to ‘act now.’
“I appreciate the offer,” I say, looking around the room. “But this is somethin’ I need to do on my own. It wasn’t part of the plan, but it’s no one’s fault. That doesn’t mean that I can't start to try and make it right. Startin’ with going to Palmer and telling Em about this in person.”
It’s exactly what a good, not-so-fake husband should do.
“What did you just say?” Asher growls, jumping to his feet.
“Ash,” Dare warns, pressing his hand against his brother’s chest. “We said we would hear him out.”
Asher’s glare cuts from me to the oldest Wilson sibling. “That was before he told us he tricked our sister… our dad—into binding us all by marriage.” Ash turns back to me. “Was this the plan? To join our families so we couldn’t go after what Dad wanted?”