Chapter 19
Will: Hey. I can’t get a hold of Tate or Liv. Where are they?
Luke: *Checks watch.* Four pm on a Monday afternoon? They are probably riding off into the sunset right now.
Will: What?
Luke: On their honeymoon. Would not recommend disturbing.
Will: WHAT?
I was a married woman.
I kept reminding myself of that fact as we set our wedding clothes in the backseat of his truck and slowly made our way toward the highway.
The late-afternoon sun cast a rich halo in its path, highlighting the fall colors on display.
The ring on my finger felt foreign. Tate wore his own gold band, and I wondered if his eyes kept drifting to it as well.
Tate had set the marriage paperwork on the seat between us.
I had scrawled my signature next to his.
The deed was now done. So simple, really.
I wasn’t sure how I expected to feel today, but so far, other than the fact that I was now Olivia Walker, not much felt different.
If I completely ignored the whole elephant-in-the-room kind of kiss we just shared, that is.
“Do you want to grab a burger real quick?”
Tate motioned toward a fast-food restaurant coming up on his left, complete with a spinning sign and drive-up window boasting the county’s best bacon burger three years in a row.
Any other day, that burger would have been completely enticing.
Even the image of me eating a messy burger in my white wedding dress had a certain romantic charm.
But today?
Nobody expects their wedding day to feel like an ordinary Monday. Even though our marriage would eventually be annulled, that day wasn’t today. It was still a wedding day, and it looked like it was up to me to make the day something I’d remember.
Just in case I ever wanted to.
“Hold up. No husband of mine would take me to eat fast food on my wedding day.”
The grin was reluctant, but it came all the same. The reckless kind that frayed my nerves and made my heart beat a little faster.
“Alright. What do you want?”
“Steak.” I smiled cheekily at him. “Maybe lobster. Maybe both. I’ll see how I’m feeling.”
“So, is this what we’re doing, then?” He looked at me with pointed interest. “We each get to pick one thing we want to do on our wedding day?” Before I could wipe the startled deer-in-the-headlights look off my face, he added cheerfully, “Maybe I’ll cash mine in tonight.”
I blinked. If he was after a reaction with his words…he got it. My face flooded with heat, and my mind drew a blank the moment his teasing drawl settled over me.
“As long as it’s steak or lobster, you can cash it in right now.”
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“No.”
“Because no wife of mine wouldn’t want to—” He stopped there and gave me a pointed look before I swatted his arm, delighted at his low chuckle filling the truck.
“You love steak! This is both of our picks. Dinner is the only thing we’re doing tonight!” I declared before my face blazed yet again.
“Naw, this is all you. I’m more of a chicken salad kind of guy.”
“You are not!”
He smiled and thankfully let our conversation fizzle after promising to pull over at the next decent-sized town that would have a few options for food. I concentrated my gaze out the window, willing my flushed cheeks to cool and the smile on my face to lessen.
We crossed the border back into Vermont.
And as much as I loved this state, I wasn’t ready to face reality just yet.
This whole day had felt like an escape, which didn’t make any sense.
But now, I got to pretend I had a husband and we were out on a drive like any other regular couple, and I hadn’t looked over my shoulder once since we’d been in the truck.
I’d forgotten there was even a need to do so.
“I almost forgot I had a stalker today.”
His brow furrowed. “We literally got married because of your stalker.”
“I know. I just…besides that.”
There was a beat of silence between us where I got the impression he was trying not to smile.
“It just… It felt like an escape, you know? Just going out for a drive in a new town, looking at new things. It felt like I was me again, back before…” I drifted off, not wanting to say the name that would spoil all of it. “Anyway, it was nice.”
He sobered before rubbing his hand on his chin.
I turned my face to the window, determined to stop talking.
The hills, nestled on each side of the road, were lit in a riot of reds, oranges, and yellows.
Brief flashes of another life showed me riding in the hills by Autumn Ridge, pretending to be tourists and leaf peeping with Ari and Reese—with the windows rolled down and the music up as loud as possible.
The truck began to slow. I looked over at Tate as he pulled off the 89 interstate and onto an exit marked for a town called Woodstock.
“Alright, we can’t be gone for long. It’s getting late, and the longer we’re away, the more nervous I get. But there haven’t been any cars following us all day, so I think we can swing it. Are you up for some dinner and a honeymoon date in a random town?”
A grin split my face. “Yes.”
“Now you’ll be able to commemorate the day you hitched your wagon to mine,” he said as I watched his manly hands maneuver the wheel.
We arrived in the town as the sun was nearly setting.
The red-and-orange glow from the sky set the stage, highlighting the charming town’s beauty.
When I saw the adorable streets lined with shops and trees, and sidewalks filled with colorful leaves, and the most beautiful covered bridge I’d ever seen in the middle of town, I declared we had to go on a walk first before all the shops closed for the day.
Though he must have been starving, Tate only smiled.
For the first little while, he held himself slightly tense, no doubt searching every face that passed.
He made the rounds at every store we wandered into and assessed every dark corner, but eventually, even he seemed to relax.
He stuck close to me when I wanted to look at something and rolled his eyes appropriately when I pointed out a funny t-shirt or keychain.
When we passed through a crush of tourists standing outside the general store, he grabbed my hand and pulled me close.
He still held my hand when we wandered out to see the covered bridge, even humoring me when I decided I wanted to walk through it.
The bridge shouldn’t have been a big deal.
They were definitely not an oddity in Vermont.
Autumn Ridge had its own covered bridge leading onto Main Street.
But somehow, the smell of fall, the crisp air, the crowds, and the man holding my hand made this quaint little town radiate with a romantic glow.
Plot Twist: Holding hands with the guy you’re in a sham undercover relationship with hits different when you’re married.
The restaurant gave us a corner booth in the back, per Tate’s request. He sat on the side against the wall, where he could watch the entire restaurant bustling about, leaving me to relax and happily peruse the menu without a care in the world.
“What are you getting?” I asked him after I’d finally made my choice of steak.
“Chicken salad.”
I jolted and looked up to see him watching me, a soft teasing in his eyes that made my stomach flip.
“You are not.”
“Tonight, of all nights, it just sounds good.”
I shook my head, pursing my lips in an attempt to hold back the smile wanting to break free.
In the end, relief and disappointment flooded my body when he ordered a New York Strip. But as I sat across from him in the restaurant, a new memory surfaced.
“Do you remember that night you and Will crashed my date with Brock Howard at the Maple Bar and Grill?”
The smile on his face told me that, yes, in fact, he did remember.
“You mean the night we accidentally and very innocently bumped into you at the bar and grill? One of only three places to eat in town,” he countered.
“The night you two chose to sit in the booth right beside ours and talk loudly about your latest hunting skills.”
“If we don’t tell people about it, did it really happen?” he asked, his hands out innocently.
“You don’t even hunt! You guys kept talking all about how you skinned whatever you caught. With a knife. In great detail.”
He closed his eyes briefly, laughing. “I plead the fifth.”
“How do we tell Will?” I asked a while later, after taking a bite of my perfectly cooked steak.
“Let me worry about that.”
“If you end up missing, I’ll just assume Will must have found out.”
Tate huffed out a laugh, but didn’t look overly concerned by the prospect.
Later, when the bill came, the price of my food and the fact that it was my idea to eat somewhere fancy began to weigh on me. Tate was already doing me a huge favor, and now I was making him buy me steak. I reached into my purse, retrieved some cash, and began to count out the bills.
“What are you doing?” Tate asked.
“I’m going to pay. I didn’t really mean for you to have to buy me dinner. I think marrying me is enough of a price to pay today,” I half joked before I looked up at him. The expression on his face halted whatever else I was about to say.
“You’re not paying for dinner,” he said, ignoring the wad of cash I was holding out to him. He signed the receipt and slipped his wallet into his back pocket before standing up and slipping out of the booth.
“Yes.”
“No.”
I waved the money at him. “Please. At least for my half. This was my idea.”
Tate, a little incredulously and a lot sexily, set his palms on the table as he leaned down, his face inches from mine.
My eyes were naturally drawn to his lips as he spoke slowly, calmly, and without any room for argument.
“There is no way on this green earth I will be letting you pay a dime for this dinner. Put your money away. You’re with me now. ”
I swallowed. But I found that all my logical reasoning had vanished, leaving only unabashed swoon in its wake.
Swoon.
I tried, but there really was no other word for the feeling of bliss threatening to drown my body. So I let him take my hand, pull me up, and lead me out of the restaurant.
It was nearly ten p.m. when we arrived back at the Walker farm.
I wasn’t sure what my stay in this home would look like with our newly minted marriage license.
He had said we would be sharing a room, but now…
when it was actually nighttime…and we were married…
my brain had a hard time knowing what to think.
Even platonically, it was…a lot to take in.
I attempted a breezy attitude as we walked toward the front door and even patted myself on the back for thinking well enough to comment (breezily) about my favorite maple tree outside my window, bursting with copper leaves.
Tate seemed unbothered by anything and reached ahead of me to open the door.
It was locked.
He tried again. Still nothing budged. He banged on the door. Nothing. We quickly checked all the other doors into the house to no avail.
He sighed. “Dominic changed the locks yesterday. I don’t have a new key.”
Tate pulled out his phone, but before he could dial, there was a knock at a window, coming from inside the house.
We walked a few steps to the right of the porch before we saw all three Walker brothers’ faces smiling at us from the inside as they opened the window between us a crack.
“Open the door,” Tate said.
Luke looked confused before bringing his hand to his ear like he hadn’t heard right. “Huh?”
“Let us in,” Tate said, somewhat impatiently.
Ben stepped forward and waved at us both. The kind of wave that told me entertainment was on its way. “Now, what kind of brothers would we be if we let you spend your wedding night at the house? You’re a husband now. You better start treating your lady right.”
Tate’s back stiffened. His demeanor abruptly took on a brotherly, I’m going to kill you type of vibe, which I found to be quite endearing. He appealed next to Jaxon.
“Jax. Let us in. Now.”
But Jaxon only grinned, comfortably leaning his shoulder against the window frame, holding up what looked like a pamphlet from the town’s bed and breakfast.
“We all chipped in and got you a room at the Inn for tonight.”
“No,” Tate said, but Jaxon went on cheerfully like he hadn’t heard a word.
“It’s a wedding present,” Luke added, practically beaming.
“Isn’t it under construction?” I asked.
Jax flipped open a pamphlet showing the old Once Upon an Inn B&B on the cover. “They are now completely open for business.”
“Come on.” Tate banged against the window. “Let us in.”
“I mean…it sounds pretty good to me,” Jax said, opening the pamphlet.
“We splurged and got you the Sleeping Beauty room. It says right here that you can, ‘Indulge in our enchanting haven where moonlight dances across silky sheets. Bask in a night to remember with golden candlelight and complimentary white wine while you let romance sweep you off your feet.’”
I covered my mouth with my hand. Tate gave me a pointed look with raised eyebrows before turning his attention back to his wholly unchastened brothers. “Where are Mom and Dad?”
“They’re in bed, probably watching a rerun of Jeopardy right now,” Ben said, his arm against the window frame as he leaned forward. When he saw Tate begin to lift his phone, he added quickly, “But I have to warn you, they’re definitely on our side with this one.”
The door creaked open, and a partially full duffel bag flew out, landing on the steps before the door slammed shut. The sound of the lock came next.
Ben reappeared in the window, standing a bit taller than the others. “We had Mom pack a shared overnight bag for you both.” He motioned to all his brothers. “We wanted to buy you both some new…pajamas, to celebrate, but Mom wouldn’t let us. Just know, it wasn’t for lack of trying.”
Tate swore under his breath as he ran an annoyed hand through his hair while my cheeks blazed.
“Fine,” he said. “You’re all safer if I leave now anyway. Where’s the room key?”
“Rosie’s expecting you.” Luke smiled. “She’ll get you all settled in when you get there.”