Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Abruptly, Madden stopped kissing her, but he kept her head cradled in his palm while he settled their foreheads together, searching her eyes.
“If this goes on any longer, I’ll never be able to leave.”
“And you must.” She sounded like a buzz saw. “There’s no choice . . . right?”
His lips twitched against her mouth. “No, but I’m glad you’re wishing otherwise.”
Eve tried to sound breezy. “Am I?”
“You having fun with my pecs, love?”
Eve dropped her gaze and blinked, discovering her wayward hands were caressing the thick double hill of Madden’s pectoral muscles, massaging them through the front of his dress shirt. “Just helping you warm up for the game,” she muttered.
“Game’s tomorrow.”
“That’s why I’m being so thorough.” She started to drop her hands, but he caught the right one, bringing her wrist to his mouth for a kiss, right on top of her erratic pulse.
“That does it. I need a drink,” Veda announced.
“You guys know we’re still here, right?” This, from Elton.
“I’m here too,” said the officiant.
Eve took a giant step back, attempting to fix her hair while Madden watched her in all his characteristic stillness. Observing. Memorizing.
“We’re supposed to get a certificate, I believe,” Eve prompted the officiant, her fingers clumsy in their attempts to fix her braid.
“You should get a medal,” Elton pointed out. “Who kisses like that at a wedding?”
“We do,” Madden answered, calmly.
Veda shook her head. “My situationship never kisses me like that.”
“He should.” Elton seemed to startle himself with that comment. “I mean . . .”
The younger woman turned slightly to face Elton. “You mean . . . ?”
Elton looked long and hard at Veda before clearing his throat. Hard. “You don’t happen to have an older sister, do you?”
Veda’s shoulders drooped, but she appeared to force a smile. “I do. You’d love her.” She fluttered her lashes a little maniacally. “Everyone does.”
Oh boy, Eve thought. Oh boy.
“As soon as we sign the certificate, I have to get on the road,” Madden said in her ear, distracting her. “I’m going to call the family liaison while I’m driving, so they can get whatever documentation you need for the insurance.”
The reminder of the insurance was good. Well-timed.
She’d almost forgotten why they were really there.
“Thanks, Madden,” Eve said quietly, a few minutes later, as the foursome piled out of the courthouse, Veda and Elton suspiciously quiet.
“You don’t have to thank me,” Madden said.
“Sorry, my gratitude stands.”
His nod was reluctant, but his eyes held a promise as he climbed into his truck. “I’ll be back soon, Eve,” he said, before closing the door and starting the engine.
Madden pulled out of his parking spot to reveal Elton on the other side of the truck, getting ready to enter his own vehicle. “I’ll be in town for the night, if you need anything,” he said, winking at Eve. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” Eve said dryly. “Come to the club for a drink if you’re bored.”
“I’ll see if I can convince my sister to come too.” Veda pushed through a smile.
“Great,” Elton said, after a beat. “Will your situationship be there?”
“I don’t know! Maybe!”
“Okay!” Elton jerked open the door of his car with a smidgen too much force, smiling back at them with a full mouth of teeth. “See you later, then.”
Veda and Eve stood side by side in the parking lot, long after both men’s vehicles had disappeared from view.
“It’s been a weird morning,” Veda remarked, sounding a little tired.
“Yeah.”
“We should go to iHop and grub.”
“That’s the best thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Oh yeah?” Veda turned her grin on Eve. “I haven’t given you your wedding present yet.”
“Wedding present?”
Veda rolled her lips inward to wet them. “I know it’s premature, because we haven’t heard back from the inspector yet, but sue me, I’m an optimist.”
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“Deal with it. I just watched you make out for a full minute with an Irish god and have no current plans to get laid.”
Eve’s tummy muscles cinched up like a pair of handcuffs. “Fine, that’s fair.”
“He wants to impregnate you. You realize that.”
She fanned herself as discreetly as possible. “Stop sidebarring.”
“Fine.” Veda squared her shoulders. “I started the GoFundMe for the Jam Jar at the Gilded Garden. That’s what I’m calling the music venue for now, by the way.” She rubbed her hands together. “We’ve already raised thirty thousand bucks.”
Disbelief had Eve’s mouth falling open. “Thirty thousand?”
“I told you. Musicians have rich parents who want them out of the house!”
And while Veda commenced dancing the Charleston, belting out “We’re in the Money,” Eve heard her new friend’s singing voice for the first time.
“Holy shit.”
Chapter Eighteen
Eve stared dumbfounded at the entrance of the Gilded Garden as more and more customers arrived. The tables were almost completely full and it had been so long since that happened, she wasn’t prepared with enough waitstaff, so she’d had no choice but to jump in and play hostess, guiding people to their seats in front of the stage and taking drink orders.