A Convenient Texas Wedding

by Sheri WhiteFeather

  After she finished tidying up, she smoothed her simple cotton dress and combed her hair, checking her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She looked as ordinary as she always did, except maybe a tad more flushed.

  About ten minutes later the doorbell rang. She answered the summons and greeted Rand. He was as dapper as ever, dressed in casual clothes, his broad-shouldered body filling up the tiny space on her stoop.

  She invited him inside, and he glanced around and said, “This is a cute place, a nice little studio.”

  “Thank you.” She’d tried to make it seem more like a one-bedroom by dividing the sleeping area from the living area, but she wasn’t able to block her bed completely. A portion of it was still visible, on the other side of a bookcase.

  Thankfully, he didn’t mention it. But why would he say something about her bed?

  “It’s bright and sunny,” he said.

  Allison nodded. Was he getting the small talk over with before he presented her with the ring? “I like bright spaces.” But so did he, she realized. He had lots of windows in his house. Most of her light was coming from a sliding glass door that led to her patio.

  He asked, “Are you keeping this apartment for after the divorce or are you planning on getting a different one?”

  “I was going to come back here.” She couldn’t afford to start over somewhere else. “Why? Do you think me keeping it is going to be a red flag with Immigration?”

  He appeared to be contemplating a solution. “We can say that we’re going to use it as our Dallas residence, for those times when I have meetings in this area. Since Spark Energy has an office not far from here, Immigration shouldn’t take issue with that.”

  “Initially, I chose this apartment because Rich suggested that I acquire one near the office where he primarily worked.” The same Dallas office Rand had just referred to. “And now this location is factoring into my arrangement with you.”

  “Everything is going to factor into our arrangement.”

  That was certainly true. She gestured to the kitchenette. “Would you like a beverage? I should have offered you something before now.” She was normally a better hostess than this. But being in such tight quarters with this hot, sexy man was distracting her, especially with her bed being so doggone close. It just seemed so intimate somehow. “I’ve got iced tea in the fridge.”

  “No, thanks. I’m fine.” He reached into his front jeans pocket and removed a small cloth pouch. “Here’s your ring.” He opened the pouch and dropped the ring into her hand, treating it like a free-falling gumdrop. “It’s an Edwardian piece with a European-cut diamond. But it’s not part of a set, like I thought it would be.”

  “Oh my stars.” She gazed at the object glittering in her palm. “It’s exquisite.” The center stone was mounted in an ornate platinum setting with lacy scrolls and brilliant emerald accents.

  “The dealer told me that in the Edwardian era, women usually wore their engagement rings on a different hand than their wedding rings because both rings were so intricate they didn’t always match up too well. That’s why this isn’t part of a set. But I got a small platinum-and-diamond band that will complement it, so you can wear them together. I didn’t bring that one with me. I figured I’d save it for the wedding day.”

  “Should I put this one on now?”

  “Sure. Let’s see if I sized you correctly.”

  She slipped it on her left hand. It fit perfectly. “It’s exactly as it should be.”

  “I chose it because of the emeralds. I figured that a green-eyed girl marrying a green-eyed boy should have some emeralds.”

  “That’s a lovely sentiment.” But the bridelike feeling it gave her was making her head spin.

  He tucked the empty pouch back into his pocket. “Promise me that you’ll keep it after we split up. I don’t want the first ring I gave someone to be meaningless. I really want you to have it.”

  Mercy, she thought. Now how was she supposed to refuse? To even the playing field, she said, “All right, but this will have to work both ways. I’ll buy your wedding band instead of you getting it for yourself. And you’ll have to keep it afterward, too.”

  He smiled, shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

  She glanced at the dazzling diamond on her hand, wondering what she’d gotten herself into, making a pact with him to keep their rings.

  “Did you talk to your family?” he asked. “Did you tell them about us?”

  She redirected her focus. “Yes, I did.” She gestured for him to sit, and they proceeded to the sofa. “I spoke to them first thing this morning. Ma cried, just as I knew she would, and offered to remake her dress for me. She said that she could tell how in love I was, just by the sound of my voice. But I did lay it on pretty thick.” Allison was still suppressing the guilt that caused. “Now Da, he didn’t react as well. He wanted to be sure that I wasn’t jumping into anything too soon. Or that I wouldn’t end up getting hurt again.”

  “Given the circumstances of your last relationship, I can understand his concern.”

  “I told him that you’re a good man and you’d never hurt me.” Something she hoped and prayed was true. With her track record, she wasn’t the best judge of character. “I had to warn him about your reputation, though. I didn’t want him Googling you and finding out on his own.”

  He made a tight face. “I hope you convinced him that I changed my ways.”

  “I certainly tried. But I think he’ll feel better after you video chat with him.”

  Rand gentled his expression. “I’ll do what I can to help put him at ease. By the way, I was thinking that you should probably pack up some things and start staying with me.”

  “You want me to move in this soon?”

  “Why not? We need to get used to being around each other. It’ll be easier to arrange the wedding if we’re already living together, too.”

  He was right. It didn’t make sense for her to keep going back and forth from Dallas to Royal. “I can move in tomorrow.” Since she wasn’t giving up her apartment altogether, all she had to do was pack her essentials. “Will that be soon enough?”

  “That’s fine.”

  “Is it all right if I bring my plants to your house? I have some fairy gardens on my patio, and I don’t want to leave them behind. They’ll die if I don’t keep watering them.”

  “You can bring whatever you want,” he reassured her. “I’ll help you haul your things over. But truthfully, I don’t even know what fairy gardens are.”

  “Come on, I’ll show you.” She took him through the sliding glass door and onto her patio, where her creations were. “See, each one is a miniature garden, with living plants, designed as a place for fairies to frolic.” She’d used clay pots for the containers, some of them purposely broken or chipped, so the tiny structures inside of them were more visible. “I wrote an article a while back about how popular fairy gardening has become around the world, particularly in the States, and I got so fascinated with it, I decided to build my own once I came here.”

  He knelt to observe the work she’d done. She watched as he examined the glitter-speckled stones, the moss-covered cottages, the glass mushrooms and wooden bridges. He studied the wee-bit fairies themselves, too.

  She said, “In Ireland, some of our fairies can be dark and sinister. But these fairies aren’t like that. They have goodness in their hearts.”

  He was still looking at them, squinting at how small they were.

  She continued her tale, “But just because they’re kind, doesn’t mean that they aren’t without mischief. If we’re not careful, they might capture us on our wedding day and whisk us off to the Land of the Young.” She turned dreamy, imagining how it would be. “It’s an enchanting place, a supernatural realm of everlasting youth and beauty. But once we’re there, we wouldn’t be able to come back, at least not at the risk of turn
ing old right away.”

  He stood to his full height. “Is that part of your folklore or did you just make that up?”

  “It’s real.” She sent him a silly smile. “Are you sure you still want to marry me?”

  He smiled, too, and laughed a little. “I’ll take my chances.” With a more serious tone, he added, “But for now, I think we should go to The Bellamy on our wedding night. I can book one of their honeymoon packages, so it’ll seem as romantic as it’s supposed to be. Come to think of it, I should Instagram some pictures of us while we’re there. I think that’ll be the most effective way to let the masses know we’re married, straight from the honeymoon.”

  She hadn’t considered where they would be spending their wedding night. But now that he’d brought it up, her traitorous body had gone much too warm, her blood surging through her veins in short silky bursts.

  “We can do a newspaper announcement, too, with a traditional wedding photo,” he told her. “But we can do that after our hotel stint. I’d rather reach out on social media first.”

  She had to ask, “What kinds of honeymoon pictures are you talking about?”

  He pushed his typically tousled hair away from his forehead. “Just some cozy shots that make us look like a blissfully happy new couple. ’Cause what the heck, right? That’s got to be safer than being whisked away to a supernatural realm.”

  Allison nodded, even if she didn’t agree. Getting cozy in a honeymoon suite with him didn’t sound safe at all.

  Four

  Rand poured himself an orange juice from the wet bar in his bedroom. With the way he was feeling he was tempted to add vodka to it, but he refrained. It was too early for a cocktail, so he drank it the way it was.

  His video chat with Allison’s parents had just ended, and it had gone exceptionally well. But it was an uncomfortable reminder, too, of how important he was already becoming to her family.

  He glanced at the double doors between their rooms. Allison was on the other side of them, putting her belongings away. He’d helped her bring her stuff over this morning, including the fairy gardens. They were in his backyard now, on the patio near some other potted plants, where Allison could see them from her window. She’d chosen the spot herself.

  He left his empty glass on the bar, strode over to the doors and rapped on one of them, giving it a musical rat-a-tat-tat.

  She called out, “Come in!” No hesitation whatsoever, but she was expecting a full report from him on how the chat went with her folks.

  He opened both doors, leaving them wide-open, and entered her suite. This was the first time anyone had ever occupied it who wasn’t going to straddle his lap or purr like a kitten in his ear, and it gave him a strange sensation to see her there. With her casually ponytailed hair and makeup-free complexion, she looked as cute and fresh and off-limits as she was.

  He glanced at the bed, where she stood, and where some of her clothes were piled. The rest of them were already hanging in the walk-in closet, which was nearly the same size as her entire apartment. He’d built the closet for his fashionista lovers. Allison certainly didn’t need one that big. Her wardrobe was modest, at best.

  He moved toward her, without getting too close to the bed. She would be climbing under those very covers tonight. Whether she slept buttoned up, scantily clothed or full-on naked, he couldn’t say. But thinking about it sent a carnal shiver through his blood.

  “How’d it go?” she eagerly asked.

  He cleared the heat from his mind and got straight to the heart of it, the stuff that had been hard for him to swallow. “You were right about how much your dad adores you. He made me promise to protect you with my life.”

  She made a pained face. “Da can be over the top sometimes.”

  “It made me feel like a medieval swordsman or something, vowing to safeguard his maiden. I’ve never been in a position like that before. But I handled it okay.” By making a commitment he wasn’t going to keep, by pretending to be far more honorable than he could ever be. “He gave me his blessing to marry you.”

  “Well, thank goodness for that.” She sat on the edge of the bed, near her clothes.

  “I could tell that he liked me. I liked him, too.” Angus Cartwright was a good-natured man, a hardworking sheep farmer, with thinning gray hair, a booming smile and wire-rimmed glasses. By comparison, Rand’s father had been the head of a financial institution—a tall, trim, tight-ass CEO who rarely smiled. “Your grandfather jumped in to meet me, but I barely understood a word he was saying. His accent is really thick, and I think he was tossing in some Gaelic words to trip me up.”

  She laughed. “Granda has a wicked sense of humor.”

  He managed a laugh, too. “So I gathered.” He went serious again. “You were right about your family wanting us to get remarried in Ireland. Your dad mentioned that to me.”

  She sighed. “How did you respond?”

  “I told him that maybe we could do it next year sometime. I was just trying to buy us some time, and then he suggested our first-year anniversary. So I went ahead and agreed to that.”

  “You did the best you could under the circumstances.”

  He’d certainly tried. “When your dad introduced me to your mom, she kept staring at me, marveling at how handsome she thought I was. She went a little nutty over my eyes and how similar the color is to yours. She said that we were going to have the most beautiful green-eyed babies ever born.”

  “How embarrassing.” Allison covered her face with her hands, peering at him through her fingers. When she lowered them, she said, “But I told you she was meddlesome.”

  “Yes, you did.” Sheila Cartwright was as sweetly intrusive as a parent could be. “I didn’t mind that she thought I was handsome, but the kid thing kind of freaked me out. I didn’t know what to say, so I told her that I gave you a ring with emeralds because of how alike our eyes are. She started crying after that and praised me for being handsome and romantic.”

  “At least you made a good impression on her.”

  He nodded. At this stage of the lie, they had to fool their families before fooling anyone else. “Your mom told me that I’m not allowed to see you in your dress before the ceremony. She also said she was sending you a little silver horseshoe to put in your bouquet for some extra-special luck. She explained that in the old Celtic way, women carried around real horseshoes on their wedding days, but now they do it with small symbols of them.”

  “Ma has always been superstitious, in all sorts of ways.”

  “That’s what I figured. But she’s also one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. She treated me as nicely as anyone ever has, and it’s obvious how much she loves you.” Sheila’s maternal nature made Rand miss his own mother and a pang of longing went through him. “You’re lucky to have her in your life.”

  Allison smiled with pride. “Thank you.”

  He studied her from where he stood. “You resemble her.” Their glossy red hair, their fair skin. “It makes sense that she would want you to wear her dress.” And now that he was prohibited from seeing his bride before the ceremony, he was even more interested in how she was going to look.

  “Did you happen to meet my granny? Or my brother?”

  “Your grandmother was waving in the background when your mom was talking to me. Your brother wasn’t there. I guess he was in London. But I let your mom know they could all attend the ceremony on Skype, and that made her cry all over again.”

  “You’ve had quite a morning, with Ma bawling at you.”

  “You warned me ahead of time that she was going to cry.” He thought about how quickly the divorce was going to roll around. “What are you going to tell your parents when we split up? How are you going to explain it?”

  “I’ll probably just say neither of us was as ready for marriage as we thought we were. That Da was right when he was first worried about us r
ushing into it.”

  “We can use that story with everyone. But people will probably think I’m the one who screwed up. You’re too sweet to get blamed.”

  “No one should be blaming anyone, not if we part as friends. I’ll tell everyone that you tried to be the best husband you could be.”

  “I appreciate that.” But the promises he’d made to her dad were still weighing on him. “Your family is going to be disappointed in me when it ends.”

  “They’ll be disappointed in me, too. They won’t understand why I’m giving up on my marriage so easily. But I’m never going to tell them the truth.”

  He pressed his lips into a grim line. “I’ve still got a lot more lies to tell. I’m going to head over to my brother’s place to talk to him today.”

  “Is he expecting you?”

  “Yes.” And Rand just wanted to get it over with. “I didn’t tell him why I needed to see him, but I said it was important. I haven’t told my grandmother yet, but I’ll do that later today, too. But as befuddled as her short-term memory is, I’m not going to wear her down with an in-person visit. I’m just going to call her.” He exhaled roughly. “She’ll probably forget bits and pieces of what I tell her, and I’ll have to repeat it before the wedding, anyway. And with how rushed everything is, I might not get the chance to introduce you to her until that day. But we can spend some quality time with her after we’re married.”

  She walked over to the other side of the room, settling on a spot near a window, where the sun illuminated her. “How do you think she’s going to feel about you getting married in such a rush? Or getting married at all?”

  “She’ll be fine with it.” He took a moment to observe Allison, to appreciate how natural she looked in the light. She wasn’t what most people would consider beautiful, but now that he was getting to know her, he thought she was getting prettier and prettier. Was it any wonder he was eager to see her in her wedding dress? “Nothing I do bothers my grandmother.”

  She tilted her head. “Your reputation never bothered her?”