“I appreciate it and thank you for coming here.” A dry sob stuck in her throat. “I guess it was a waste.”
“Excuse me.” The woman who had been in Trudy’s room a few minutes earlier approached them. “We haven’t met yet. I’m Samantha Frederick, the new director here. I hope I’m not overstepping, but I overheard your dilemma. It’s not much, and nowhere near as beautiful as your church would have been, but you’re welcome to get married here tomorrow. We don’t have the space for a big reception, but the garden is in full bloom and you wouldn’t have to do anything to it. Reverend Grady is here now and I just spoke with him. He said he’d be happy to perform the ceremony. It will allow your grandmother to be a part of your wedding.”
“Oh!” Belle laughed.
Harlan stood, unable to hold back a chuckle of his own at the irony of the situation. “That’s sweet of you.”
“But completely unnecessary,” Belle interjected.
“Well, wait a minute.” Harlan tapped Belle’s shoulder. “It’s not a bad idea. Let’s at least give it some thought.”
“Please do.” Samantha smiled. “My office is next to the front desk. Come see me when you’ve decided. We’d love to have you.”
“Thank you.” Harlan removed his phone from his pocket. Tomorrow was Tuesday and he didn’t have any court dates planned. He reasoned Sheriff Parker would give him the day off to get married.
“Harlan, we can’t do this.”
“Why not?” He knew the idea sounded crazy, but it was only temporary. “We’ll stay married until—” He hated saying the words knowing they’d hurt Belle. “Until your grandmother’s memories fade. What’s a few months or even a year?”
“More like a few weeks at the rate she’s regressing.” Belle stared at her hands.
“However long, we’ll get married, live our separate lives like we already do. We’ll meet up here and visit her together, and then we’ll have it annulled.”
“How will we explain the lack of guests?”
“We can ask the employees to fill in for a few minutes. It will be fast.”
Belle stared up at him. “We can’t get a marriage license by tomorrow.”
“There’s no waiting period in Montana, but we would need to see the county clerk before she leaves today. If we sign the blood test waiver, we’ll be good to go. Besides, like you said, I owe you a wedding. It’s the least I can do.”
“Or we can hire a fake reverend,” Belle said.
“We could.” Harlan crouched down in front of her again. “But knowing you the way I do—or the way I used to—I think lying to your grandmother about something this big would bother you. I saw the look on your face in there when you told her she’ll go home soon. You hated lying to her. I don’t think you’d go through with this if it wasn’t real.”
“I would go through hell to make my grandmother happy.”
“There you have it. What’s more hellacious than marrying me on our not-so-wedding anniversary?”
“Ha!” Belle held out her hand to him. “You’ve got that right.”
He took her hand between both of his, causing her to shake her head. “What?”
“It’s supposed to be a handshake, Harlan.” She withdrew her hand and offered it again. “We’re making a deal, so let’s shake on it. And in case I don’t say it later, thank you for doing this.”
This was the second craziest thing Harlan had ever done. The first had been walking out on Belle. “Let’s get hitched.”
Copyright © 2017 by Amanda Renee
ISBN-13: 9781488010828
A Son for the Cowboy
Copyright © 2017 by Sasha Best
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