Tess blinked, but to her credit, her surprise lasted only that long before she stepped toward his bedside and said, “Well, the trial officially starts next week, but there’s a bunch of paperwork and some pre-testing involved, so we’d need to get married as soon as possible. The courthouse is open until five.” She glanced at her watch. “If we hurry, we can make it.”
“Today?” Declan’s heart sped up. But that was stupid, really. This was a technicality. Not even real—at least, not in any sense that mattered. Real marriage wasn’t for him.
Tess laughed softly, and the sound put him oddly at ease. “Did you have other plans?”
“I s’pose not,” he said. “So, then it’s just a matter of all the paperwork?”
“Yep. I’ll add you to my insurance as soon as we get the marriage certificate, and then you can get the ball rolling on your pre-trial labs and scans. The trial lasts for ten weeks, and once it’s over and your maintenance period is done, we’ll get a divorce. But since we’re not going to share any property or anything, it’ll be super straightforward.”
“And you’re sure you’re good with it.” A marriage of convenience was still a marriage, after all.
But Tess simply nodded. “I’m a doctor. It’s my job to make sure people get the care they need, no matter what, and this is the only way you’re getting into that trial. So, yes. I wouldn’t have brought it up if I wasn’t sure.”
Declan looked down at the hospital bed, the tubes taped to his inked-up arms reminding him all too starkly that what she said was true.
This trial was his only hope at staying healthy while he waited for a viable kidney. Which meant he needed to do this.
He needed her.
“S’pose I should get ta eating this sandwich, then,” he said, meeting her gaze with certainty of his own. “Seems I’ve got a wedding to attend.”
7
To her credit, when Tess told Charlie that she and Declan were headed to the courthouse for a quickie elopement and, oh, by the way, could Charlie please accompany them to be her maid of honor/witness/babysitter, she did not ask if Tess had lost her flipping marbles.
She did, however, have other questions.
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Charlie said after reclaiming her jaw from the floor in the thankfully otherwise empty attendings’ lounge. “You’re going to marry Connor’s friend, the cover model, so he can get the insurance coverage he needs to participate in the medical trial that could potentially save his life while he waits for a kidney to become available for a transplant. As in, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, ’til death do you part, married?”
Tess was tempted—not a little—to point out that it was the only scenario by which a guy like Declan would ever agree to marry a too-brash, too-sarcastic, way-too-headstrong single mother eight years his senior.
But since she didn’t have time to split that particular hair just now, she said, “Yep. That about covers it. Well, except for the death do us part thing. For us, it’ll be ’til divorce do us part. But, y’know. It’s not like it’ll be my first.”
“That’s a very good point. Your divorce from Alec is pretty fresh,” Charlie said, closing her locker to look at Tess so pointedly that she had no choice but to reply.
“If this is the part of the conversation where you ask me if I’m sure I know what I’m doing, you can save yourself the time, along with the energy. I’m sure.”
“Tess.” Her best friend took a step closer, and damn it, she should have known Charlie wouldn’t let her off the hook so easily.
“What?”
“This is the part of the conversation where I tell you that if you need me to go to the courthouse with you to be your witness while you marry Connor’s best friend so he can get the health insurance he needs, I will absolutely do it.”
“But?” Tess prompted, because it was right there in Charlie’s eyes.
She didn’t disappoint. “But you’re my best friend, and I love you. Which means I also want to be sure you’ve honestly thought this through. You’re not talking about loaning the guy your sweater, Tess. Getting married is a huge deal.”
“To you,” Tess said as gently as she could. But come on. She’d tried marriage the old fashioned way, with the vows and the white dress and the registry as long as her leg, and it had turned out to be a colossal joke. “Look, Charlie, I get that you’re concerned, and I’m grateful, really. But I don’t look at marriage the way most other people do.” This was hardly a fact Charlie—or anyone who knew Tess at all—could argue. “What I’m doing for Declan…it’s just a technicality. A piece of paper. That’s it.”
“There’s a bit more to getting married than that,” Charlie argued.
Tess bit back the laugh welling in the back of her throat, mostly because she knew it held no joy. “There really isn’t. Not in this case, anyway. I get that for you and Parker, it’s different,” she added, because a) it was true, and, more importantly, b) Charlie wasn’t going to let it drop otherwise. “And I get that I’m an outlier here in thinking marriage isn’t a huge deal. But I’ve been there and done that, and the traditional way…let’s just say it’s not for me.”
It was, of course, an understatement and a half. Her failed marriage was like the cherry on top of the Things Tess Has Fucked Up sundae.
She shook off the thought. She had bigger things to focus on right now; namely, picking up Jackson from childcare and getting her ass to the courthouse in time to make the appointment she’d booked online. “You’ve seen Declan’s chart, Charlie. You know what he’s up against.”
“This trial is probably the only way to keep him off dialysis before a kidney can be found,” she agreed slowly. “Still. I know he’s Connor’s friend, so he’s not exactly some random patient, but are you sure?”
Finally, a painless question. “It’ll save him and cost me nothing, and you’re right.” Tess’s belly tightened at the hope she’d seen buried in Declan’s bright green stare. She could help him. At least in this one thing, she could trust. “He’s not some random patient. We won’t be sharing anything other than insurance. No assets, no property. No power of attorney. He’s certainly not going to have any rights to Jackson.” It was the one thing Tess had made one million percent sure of with her attorney before even going to Declan with the idea, and it was also the one thing on which she would never, ever budge. “So, yes. I’m very sure.”
“Okay, then.” With a no-nonsense nod, Charlie reached into her tote bag and started to rummage, prompting Tess’s brows to climb upward.
“What are you doing?”
“Improvising. Ah!” Charlie brandished a tube of cherry lip balm, still in its packaging. “This is going to have to do double duty as something borrowed and something new, I’m afraid.”
This time, Tess’s laugh was genuine. “I don’t believe in any of that stuff, you know.”
Charlie put a hand on her hip. “You did when I got married. Both times,” she said.
“That’s totally different! First of all, you married the same guy both times. Secondly, you and Parker are all in love and stuff. This”—Tess waved a hand in front of herself—“hardly counts.”
“It’s legal,” Charlie insisted. “It counts.”
Ehhhh, she had a point. “Fine, have it your way. My jeans can count as something blue.”
“Great. Now we just need something old.”
“I’m old,” Tess said, taking the lip balm out of its packaging and slicking some over her mouth to humor Charlie, who rolled her eyes at the claim. “And I’m also going to be late unless we leave right now.”
“Alright, then. Let’s go, Methuselah.” Charlie rolled her eyes, but the sparkle there removed any rudeness from the gesture. “Being late for your own wedding is bad luck.”
Since Tess had both pickup from daycare and maneuvering Remington’s city streets down to an art form, she and Charlie and Jackson made it to city hall with four minutes to spare. Her heart kick-started in her c
hest at the sight of Connor, Harlow, and Declan already standing in the building’s main lobby, her pulse doing double-time at the way Declan’s eyes went impossibly wide as he took in the baby on her hip.
“You have a son?” he asked, his voice rusty and low. Jackson gripped her shirt a little tighter and buried his face in her neck, but she smoothed a hand over his back to reassure him. Not a whole lot of things could derail her plan to proceed, here, but this? Was definitely one of them.
“Is that a problem?” she asked, trying to keep the edge from her voice. “This thing between you and me doesn’t involve him, at all. Legally or otherwise.”
Declan’s head shake came too quickly to be anything other than genuine. “No. I…no. I’m just surprised, is all. You didn’t mention him before.”
“Oh.” That made sense, Tess supposed. She hadn’t mentioned Jackson because she’d known there would be no obligation or question of custody, but if Declan had shown up with a baby in tow, she’d have been equally WTF. “Well, this is my son, Jackson.”
“How old is he?” Declan asked as Charlie finished hugging Harlow and Connor in greeting, then bribed Jackson into her arms with his favorite stuffed octopus.
Tess let him go reluctantly, which was always how she felt when she let go of him. “Almost ten months.”
“He looks like you,” Declan said, and Tess made herself smile. Alec had always been far more handsome than she was pretty, so the fact that Jackson looked like her (and he really did) had never struck her as a compliment.
“He’ll probably outgrow it. Anyway”—she gestured down the hallway that, according to the directory in front of them, led to the clerk’s office—“did you bring all the documents they asked for on the website?”
Declan nodded. “I didn’t leave much of anything behind in LA, so…”
Right. Tess ignored the last-hope sucker punch his words delivered to her breastbone. “Good. I filled out my part of the application.” She pulled the sheets she’d printed out at the nurses’ station out of the diaper bag on her shoulder. “I wasn’t sure where you were staying, so I just put my address down for both of us, to make things easier. All you have to do is fill out a few more things and sign it.”
“Sounds good,” he said, taking the pen she’d passed over and starting to read. Harlow chose that moment to interrupt for a quick hug, handing over a small bouquet of hydrangeas tied together with a white satin ribbon.
“For the bride,” she said, smiling so warmly that Tess had no choice but to smile back.
“Okay, but—”
“Nope. No buts. I know this isn’t exactly, ah. Traditional.” Harlow’s gaze was loaded with understanding, but she squeezed Tess’s arm regardless. “Even so, it matters. A lot.”
Well, shit. Tess could hardly argue the point. “Thank you.”
Connor appeared beside Harlow, taking Tess’s free hand, which happened to be her left. “Alrighty, then. Let’s see if we got this right,” he said, taking a ring from his jeans pocket.
“I hope it fits,” Harlow said, smiling as the band slid easily over Tess’s finger. “I thought you and I might be about the same size. We got it from the jeweler up the street on the fly.”
Tess looked at the band, made up of thin ribbons of gold and platinum woven together in a simple braid. “Actually, it’s perfect. And beautiful.”
“Declan picked it,” Connor said, nodding at his friend, whose expression was—shocker—unreadable as he filled out the marriage license from a few paces away. The ring was lovely, far more her taste than the over-the-top, blinged-out band Alec had insisted upon giving her when they’d gotten married, but no. Nope. She had to shove that down, and shove it down fast.
This wasn’t a wedding like that, and there damn sure wasn’t going to be a happily ever after other than the one Declan was going to get by way of a clean bill of health.
Tess turned toward Connor, her armor fully in place. “I’ll pay you back.”
“No can do, doc.” He took the ring back and pressed a simple, gunmetal gray band into her hand—clearly meant for Declan—and winked. “Consider them both a wedding present from me and Harlow.”
Oh, come on. They didn’t even technically need rings to make this official. “Connor—”
“Look, I know the deal with your motivations,” he said, dropping his voice as Harlow quietly moved over to the spot where Charlie was putting Jackson into his stroller. “I get that this isn’t the way most people—or, okay, any people other than you—do this. I just want you to know how much it means to me that you’re willing to do something big to help him, and the rings were the best I could do on such short notice. So, could you help a guy out, please, and just smile and say okay?”
Tess’s eyes warmed, and ugggggh, she’d always had such a soft spot for the big oaf. “Okay. Thank you.”
He gathered her in for a bear hug that did nothing to help her get rid of the pesky tears forming behind her eyelids. “You’re welcome. Now, let’s go get your wedding on so I can have cake. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Declan finished with his part of the license a minute later, and after a meeting with the clerk for the whole document-check, sign-here-here-and-here thing, they filed into the courtroom side by side, with the rest of the group right behind them.
Declan surprised her by stopping less than halfway up the aisle, then surprised her harder by grabbing her hand. “You’re sure you want ta do this,” he murmured, so softly that no one else could hear.
Tess’s pulse kicked a steady cadence at her throat. Too headstrong. Too opinionated. Too much, came her mother’s voice.
Too bad, Mom.
“Yes,” she answered truthfully. “Are you?”
Sure, the whole thing was by design, but still. Declan was…well, Declan. Every human whose sexual preference was for men probably found him wildly attractive. He could probably get half the staff at Remington Mem to agree to convenience-marry him.
So Tess was more than a little stunned at the speed and certainty of his answer. “Very.”
“Okay, then. Let’s get you well.”
“Riley/Michaelson?” the bailiff asked, waving them forward. The judge, a man who looked to be in his sixties, smiled warmly as she and Declan walked past the seats in the galley and approached the bench.
“Ah, I do love wedding duty,” the judge said, not batting so much as a single lash at the fact that both Tess and Declan were clad in jeans and T-shirts or that one of their “witnesses” was still in diapers. “I’m Judge Esposito, and I’ll be presiding today. Shall we get started?”
“Yes, please,” Tess said. They went through a couple of legalities to establish that she and Declan were both who they claimed to be and that they had witnesses who were who they claimed to be.
Then, Judge Esposito threw out a whammy. “Tess. Declan. You may join hands as you recite your vows.”
Oh, hell. She had just watched Charlie and Parker get remarried. How had she forgotten this part?
Thankfully, Declan covered her hesitation by smoothly scooping up both of her hands. His fingers closed around hers with the perfect amount of pressure to let her know he was there, steady, but not so much that he overpowered her. It put her oddly at ease, and before Tess knew it, Judge Esposito was on to the ceremony. The words were boilerplate, and Tess had, of course, heard them before at her own wedding, not to mention a dozen more for family and friends. They got through the intention part easily enough, needing only to say “I do” when called upon. Tess even managed to repeat the judge’s words about richer or poorer and sickness and health, then slide the ring Connor had given her onto Declan’s finger without much fanfare from her heart. Sickness and health were the whole point. She was doing this to save Declan from one and deliver him safely to the other.
But then it was Declan’s turn, and her heart delivered a completely unexpected bitch-slap before galloping through her chest.
“I, Declan, take you, Tess, to be my wife. To have and
to hold”—he slid his right hand from her left to cup her chin in illustration, and making Charlie and Harlow, and Tess’s traitorous lady bits, sigh in unison. This is an act to make things look genuine. The words don’t really apply to you, she reminded herself sternly, meeting his gaze head-on as he continued with the script—“in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer”—Declan’s thumb swept over her cheek. God, he was really selling it—“and I promise my love to you. With this ring, I thee wed.”
He slipped the ring he’d chosen onto her finger, gathering her hands in his again as Judge Esposito took the lead.
“Love is the reason you’re here today, and it should be the core of your marriage.”
Tess’s pulse sped up. Speaking of words that didn’t apply. Still, this had to look legit, so she kept her expression steady, and—whew—Declan did the same.
“But it also will take trust,” Judge Esposito continued. “To know in your hearts you want the best for each other. It will take dedication, to stay open to one another; to learn and to grow together, even when it’s not always so easy to do.”
The thump of her heartbeat pressed faster against her ears. “It will take faith, to be willing to go forward to tomorrow, never really knowing what tomorrow will bring. In addition, it will take commitment, to hold true to the journey you both now pledge to share together. Tess and Declan.” The judge smiled so warmly that, for a tiny, split second, Tess felt a ribbon of warmth uncurl in her chest, too.
“In so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in matrimony, have promised your love for each other by these vows, I now declare you to be husband and wife.” Judge Esposito’s smile grew even bigger as he added,
“You may now kiss the bride.”
8
In the moment that Tess’s soft gasp crossed what Declan would bet were her even softer lips, it hit him that she’d forgotten the ceremony would culminate here, with his mouth on hers. Still, she didn’t pull away, or even drop her chin by so much as a fraction. Nope. Not Tess. Instead, she pressed up to kiss him.
Beyond Just Us (Remington Medical Book 4): A Single Parent Marriage of Convenience Romance Page 6
