25. Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
Gina
Diana parks her SUV next to my truck ten minutes early on Tuesday. Benji immediately gets up from his spot by the fire to help carry the food to the picnic table.
“Ass-kisser,” Milo mutters.
I point a warning finger at him, but he rolls his eyes and swigs his beer. Then, because we have an audience, he leans close to give me a fake peck on the cheek before he goes inside to pour his grandmother a glass of wine.
Benji sees. He frowns and looks away. Guilt clenches tight in my guts, even though he knows Milo and I need to convince Diana that our relationship is good. I told him he didn’t need to be here tonight, but he insisted he’d be fine.
We just need to get through dinner.
Diana is smiling too much. She asks us all about our day, and her voice is unusually eager.
An energy simmers below the surface, like a pot about to boil over.
Milo gives her a suspicious look when she graciously accepts the glass of wine he offers her.
When he shoots me a quizzical glance, I shrug.
Once everyone has settled in with a drink—Milo at the grill, Benji and Briar seated around the campfire, Diana and I standing nearby—Diana raises her voice. “I have some good news.”
“Did you find a place in Florida?” I ask when she beams at me. She’s been searching for a condo in Punta Gorda with Sue.
Diana dismisses my question with a wave of her hand. “No, Sue can’t make up her mind. But I was chatting with Cheryl the other day, and we talked to the caterers, and long story short, we’ve arranged to have the wedding next week!”
My blood goes polar vortex cold. “Next week?”
She nods enthusiastically. “Tuesday, July first. We have your dress, and Milo’s got his suit. The guest list was all local. There’s no reason to wait until the end of August.”
“But…” No reason. Shit, she’s right. There’s no reason, no excuse I can think of. “My mom?”
Diana rolls her eyes because she always does when my mother is brought up. “Dawn never misses Havenwood’s craft fair on July second. And if she’s made other plans this year, she can cancel them.”
There’s a moose on my chest, or that’s how it feels when I try to take a deep breath. I glance at Benji. He’s on his feet now, watching me, concern in his turquoise eyes. Briar takes a drink from her beer and turns away.
My eyes land on Milo. He looks terrified.
“The invites?” I ask Diana. I am grasping at straws, but there has to be something that will put a stop to this. “Will anyone be able to make it on such short notice?”
“I sent them out today,” Diana says.
That is the last straw for Milo. “You can’t change the date of someone else’s wedding because you feel like it,” he snaps at his grandmother.
Diana doesn’t flinch, but her chin tilts up. “The other day, Gina said she’d marry you tomorrow if she could. The date has never been important to you. I chose it the first time. So now I’ve changed it.”
“You didn’t ask us,” I say quietly.
Diana blinks at me, clearly taken aback that I’m not jumping up and down for joy.
I take a deep breath and let it out on a shaky exhale. “Diana, I’m thankful for everything you’ve done for us, but we can’t have the wedding next week.”
“Why not?” she demands.
Because I’m already married. There is no other reason.
When I don’t answer, Diana continues. “I went through a lot of trouble to change the date with the caterers and the officiant—not to mention Anabelle with the cake. I’m the only one going through any trouble about this wedding.
Getting a decision on anything from either of you has been like pulling teeth. ”
I stuff my hands in my pockets and press a finger against the pointy prong of the diamond ring’s setting. I take another deep breath. Hold it for a few seconds. Let it out slowly. I’m not going to lose it.
“It’s our wedding,” Milo insists. “You don’t get to tell us what to do. You don’t get to control this.”
“I’m paying for it!”
“Because you guilt-tripped us into letting you,” Milo roars back.
“We’ll change it back,” I say, my hand shaking as I touch Milo’s arm. “I’ll call the caterers and Dr. Adams and Anabelle. I’ll call everyone on the invite list and let them know it was a mistake.”
Diana puts her hands on her hips. “Why? Tell me why you can’t get married next week.”
Milo and I look at each other.
“I’m doing my best,” Diana says, her voice finally betraying the emotion she’s restraining.
“You’re my grandchild,” she says to Milo.
“The only family I have left. I’m doing this for you because I want to help you.
And Gina, your grandmother was my best friend, but I’m glad she’s not here today to see this. The two of you should be ashamed.”
Tears prick my eyes. My grandmother would be disappointed in me. If she knew the whole truth? She’d be even more disappointed. To see her look at me the way she’d always looked at my mother would bury me.
“This isn’t what we wanted,” Milo says doggedly. “Change the date back.”
“No. You stop living in the goddamn woods and running from your responsibilities. If you love Gina—”
I can’t listen anymore. Milo and Diana shout at each other, but my head is full of oh god, oh shit, oh no . Over and over on repeat because I’m already married.
I know everything the internet knows about marriage and divorce in Minnesota.
Even if Benji and I go tomorrow, it takes four weeks at minimum for an uncontested divorce to be finalized.
Which means if I marry Milo on Tuesday, I’ll be a bigamist. Even if I avoid jail time—yes, it’s a thing, I looked it up—I’ll be a joke in Havenwood.
In the whole county. Everything I’ve ever done to prove myself will be for nothing.
If I call off the wedding—goodbye Happy Lake and whatever trust and respect Diana still has in me. She’ll kick me out like she did her daughter, and I’ll lose my home and my job. My entire work history is Happy Lake—how could I find a new job?
The argument around me peaks, with a crying Diana grabbing her Tupperware and stomping to her SUV.
“Gina.” Milo grabs me by the arms. “Breathe.” But there’s still anger in his eyes. If I hadn’t been selfish and reckless, we could just get married on Tuesday. Happy Lake would be ours in a few months.
“You aren’t helping,” Benji snaps from behind me.
I can’t deal with this, so I run for it, but my body picks the stupidest path and takes me out onto the dock, where there’s nowhere to go.
“Gina.” Benji steps onto the dock.
I tip my head to the evening sky, fighting the urge to scream. The dock sways a little as he walks closer. He stops just within arm’s reach.
I can’t do this. I can’t even breathe.
“Do you have anything in your pockets that can’t get wet?” he asks.
The question breaks the panic spiraling inside me. “No,” I say, puzzled. I’ve only got the rings in one of them. I’m too slow to realize why he’s asking me that, even when he swoops me into his arms.
He takes two steps and leaps. We crash into the water together.
The shock of finding myself in the lake resets everything.
I’m barely underwater before Benji lifts me, but it’s enough.
I don’t emerge calm, but I’m no longer locked up.
I throw my arms around his neck, and he shifts me, wrapping my legs around his waist. Water laps around us, and he holds me tight.
“We’ll figure this out,” he says softly against my ear.
“I don’t want to be a bigamist,” I sniffle.
His hands tighten on me. “I don’t want to be a brother-husband.” He pauses. “That’s like a reverse sister-wife.”
That makes me laugh, but reality is stealing that tiny spark of humor. “What are we going to do?”
Benji thinks for a moment. “Well, I’ll dunk you again if you need me to. And when you’re ready, we’ll go back to the cabin, change into dry clothes, and the four of us will come up with a plan.”
It sounds so reasonable. Until I remember, there is no way out of this.
I groan. “I’m going to go to jail. Happy Lake is going to be turned into a luxury resort.
” It happened to Aurora Family Campground near Pine Point a few years ago.
“Milo’s going to leave again, and when my mom inevitably forgets to pay her mortgage—”
Benji drops us both underwater. This time, I splutter when we come up. Benji shifts to hold me with one hand, wrapping the other in the hair at the back of my neck and tilting my face to his. “I’m not going to let any of that happen.”
There’s so much conviction in his voice. I want to believe him so badly. None of this has been easy for him, but he hasn’t left, and I gave him ample opportunity to divorce me and go back to his life, and he stayed.
He starts to say, “We’ll figure th—” but I cut him off with a kiss.
There’s a fervor in how he kisses me back, maybe because we shouldn’t be doing this out here in the late evening light, even though Diana won’t be back after that fight.
His kiss is strong and determined, like nothing will ever pull us apart.
So I hold him tighter. Kiss him with everything I am.
And maybe some of his strength passes on to me because my heart steadies, and I stop shaking.
“That’s my girl,” Benji murmurs against my lips.
I give him an exasperated sigh. “I’m nine years older than you.”
He shrugs. “Still mine.”
“Do you want me to say that’s my boy ?” I toy with the wet locks of his hair.
“Could be hot in the bedroom,” he says with a grin. “We could try it.”
“Benji.”
He kisses me gently. “As long as you call me yours.”
“Always mine.”
“Good.” He glances up the hill toward my cabin. “Are you ready?”
“Honestly?” I glance up the hill. “I’d rather stay here with you and pretend none of this is happening.”
“You’re good at a lot of things. I don’t think that’s going to be one of them.”
He’s right, but I get one more long, perfect kiss from him before we both slosh out of the lake and walk in our dripping clothes and squelching shoes up to the cabin.