Chapter 9 #2
I look over at the coffee table and freeze. “Damn, I forgot to get drinks. My mother would be horrified at my hostin’,” I babble, leaning forward to get up again.
I stop when Jude puts his hand up. “Stay there. I’m sure I can find the kitchen again and grab us somethin’. What would you like?”
“A ginger beer, please.”
That earns me another smile. “Comin’ right up.”
“Help yourself to anythin’. Whatever’s there,” I call out to his retreating back, getting a waved hand of acknowledgement in response.
While he’s out of the room, I grab my phone.
Em: Wanna tell me why Jude is here… in my HOUSE?
Dare: It’s not my place to tell you. Just hear him out.
Em: Hear him out about WHAT?
I type as fast as I can, but Dare doesn’t answer again before Jude heads back my way.
I’ve barely let go of my phone before he walks in, his gaze dropping to the device in question. He doesn’t comment though, just bites back a grin as he hands me my drink and takes a seat at the other end of the couch.
“I’d forgotten how nice this town is,” he says after a few minutes.
Now he’s making small talk? Have I somehow fallen into an alternate universe?
“I’m sorry, I just can’t concentrate knowin’ you’re here, totally out of the blue, and eatin’ dinner on my couch.”
He stills, his face going slack as his shoulders straighten. “I wanted to surprise you, but don’t want to impose. If this is a bad idea, I can…” He leans forward, placing his plate on the table and looking ready to bolt.
It hits me then that I don’t want him to leave. I don’t want to go back to feeling wrong in my own skin, my home, my old life, everything that has happened since I left the mountain. Everything felt better the moment Jude stepped into my house. I just wish I knew why.
“No, I didn’t mean—.” I shake my head, trying to find the words to say.
“I don’t want you to go. It’s just… I feel like I’m missin’ somethin’ here.
I messaged Dare and all he said was to hear you out.
” I lock eyes with his. “I guess this is me askin’ you to let me—hear you out, that is.
What was so important that you dropped everythin’ to come here?
I won’t judge or react or whatever. I just need to know. ”
“Somethin’ happened,” he says, not making me wait.
My lips quirk up. “Well, duh. I didn’t think you just turned up at my door with no warnin’ just to say hi.”
He answers with a shrug. “I mean, I would. I’ve been known to be spontaneous on occasion.”
“Duly noted,” I reply. “Now, back to the matter at hand. What happened?”
“He didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean it to happen. It’s just—”
“Jude…” I near-on growl, though I sound more like an angry kitten than a grizzly mama bear. His eyes widen before a startled laugh escapes him.
Dropping his fork down onto the plate in his lap, he holds his hands up in surrender “OK. OK. I ramble when I’m nervous.”
I smile. “I know. Just say it, Jude. I’m a big girl. I can handle it, I promise.”
He takes a deep breath. “You know how Pete organized the weddin’ license for us and took it with him afterward?” I nod for him to continue, still not seeing where this is going. “Somehow it got caught up with papers in his office.”
I scrunch my nose up. “I don’t think I understand.”
He looks at me dead on, not hiding, not masking anything, and before I can fully lose myself in those big brown eyes of his, he drops the bomb.
“Long story short, our marriage was accidentally registered and now…”
The cogs in my brain grind to a halt and I don’t hear anything else he says after that.
There’s fear in his eyes. He’s worried about how I’ll react. The thing is, instead of a sinking weight of dread, something else flickers inside me. “It’s real?” I whisper.
“I’m so sorry. I know this was never meant to happen—not like this.” His words confuse me for a second but he continues before I can wonder what he meant. “But it’s happened, and we’re…and you’re…”
“Here?”
He nods. “Yeah. I wanted to tell you in person not over the phone or over text so I came straight here. Didn’t want you to find out from anyone else because it’s not anyone’s fault.
Well, I guess it kind of is, but it wasn’t intentional.
And Pete has apologized to me and asked me to pass it on to you. I just—"
I can’t take it. His rambling and verbal diarrhea are too much for me to cope with on top of his news. I should be pissed as all get out and yet I’m sitting here listening to him speak and biting back a grin. “Jude?”
“Yeah?”
“You need to breathe, hubby.”
That jolts him out of whatever downward spiral he was stuck in. “What?” he says with a startled laugh.
“Just breathe.” I smirk. “I’m startin’ to worry that you might pass out from lack of oxygen with all that ramblin’.”
He shakes his head as if to clear his mind, his eyes studying me like I’m one of the wonders of the world.
“You’re confusin’ me now. Aren’t you—did you hear what I said?” he asks, looking completely dumbfounded.
“Yeah. I heard. Pete registered our marriage by mistake. We’re now married for real.”
His head jerks back. “And you’re OK with that?”
“I’m…” I need a stronger drink than damn Ginger Ale. “I don’t quite know how I am with it.” Probably because I’m not freaking out like I should be. “I think we need liquor,” I blurt out.
I can see Jude’s brain working a mile a minute as he tries to catch up with where I’m at. “Yes. Alcohol. Strong. That’s what we need.”
Needing to move, I put my dinner down and leap up off the couch, only to trip over my feet, then Jude’s, and end up crashing into his lap with a shriek. Thankfully, his arm acts as a cushion for my head, protecting me from injury. In the end, half of me is sprawled over him.
“Shit. Are you OK?” he asks, gazing down at me, concern written all over his face.
I take stock of where I am, what hurts—nothing—and how he’s holding me tight, looking down at me with the softest, most heartfelt, earnest expression on his face.
Am I OK?
It feels like I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole and landed in another universe. A better one.
In the space of an hour, my night has gone from wondering what to have for dinner, to having my not-so-fake husband arrive on my doorstep.
That’s after he braved my brothers to get my address, drove hundreds of miles to see me, found out my favorite takeout and delivered it to me.
All of that effort to tell me in person that our symbolic wedding ceremony was more real and legal than either of us bargained for.
I’m stuck on one part of that. After finding this out, he drove straight here to tell me.
“Don’t discount today and what it means. You’re givin’ Dad his dyin’ wish, and that’s somethin’ only you, and Jude, can do. It’s selfless, and I hope you and Jude know just how much it means to the rest of us,” Dare had told me.
Then there’s Jude’s note from our wedding day.
From the moment you pledge your life to mine, I will be your person and you’ll be mine. My vows will become my truth, my oath, and my life mission from the moment we’re declared husband and wife.
There is still a lot—OK, everything—to learn about each other, and this is somewhat of an unconventional way to meet your partner, but I want to start it as I mean to finish… honestly and committed in every possible way.
Please trust that I’m going into this with an open heart and open mind. All I ask is for you to be open to doing the same.
Did he know back then that this would happen? That this—us—was inevitable?
Thump. Thump. Thump. My heart answers for me.
Suddenly it seems clear. Everything that’s happened, everything that brought us to this moment, right now. Dad, my brothers, even Pete and the inadvertent role he’s played.
Is this what Dad always hoped for?
“There’s more…” he says, looking down at me.
I’d forgotten I was still lying in his lap. Then again, he’s comfortable and something about being close is probably helping me stay calm. That’s what I tell myself, anyway.
“I know,” I say. My words are barely audible but since Jude’s looking like he wants to kiss me, that’s taking all of my focus right now. The thing is, if he wanted to, I’d totally let him.
The moment’s broken when he freezes, his eyes widening. “You know?”
I hold my hand up toward his. Thankfully, he takes the hint and lifts his palm, pressing it to mine. As soon as he does, my whole body lights from head to toe, the buzzing under my skin and the goosebumps following in its wake impossible to ignore.
“You feel that, right?”
“Felt it before,” he whispers.
I think back to when I brushed his arm before the wedding. Then there was the way my whole body, mind, and soul felt centered the moment we first kissed. And now, how I haven’t felt normal since I left the mountain… not until Jude arrived tonight.
“When you put your hand on my back at Dad’s bedside.” It’s a statement not a question because I felt it then too.
“What do we do now?” he asks at the same time I mutter, “this is so surreal.”
He smiles at the same time I snicker.
“Guess we’ve got some talkin’ to do, hubby” I say.
“And now you know why I’m here.”