He slowly took the ring. It fit over the very tip of his thumb but went no farther. He held it up between them. “I want things in my life that matter. You matter.”
Her eyes stung. “We don’t love each other. We...we hardly know each other.”
“Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart. Maybe it will start to ring true eventually. I’ve known you half your life.” He ran his thumb and the ring over her cheek. “And if there’s one thing I want for you, it’s that you’d remember that dreams are never pointless.”
She clenched her teeth together.
Then he reached past her for his jeans. “I’ll take you back to your car.”
And back to reality.
Chapter Fourteen
“Mail for you.” Quinn’s cousin, Archer, tossed an envelope down in front of him as he came in the front door of his house. He’d been out running and sweat was running down his face. “I’m hitting the shower. Then you want to go grab a beer?”
It was rare for Arch to be around at all between his various travels to and from Denver and Cheyenne and elsewhere. But it was the middle of the afternoon. It was hot. And a beer sounded good.
“Sure.” Quinn didn’t have anything else in particular to do. And a beer was better than moping.
He waited until his cousin had left the room again before reaching for the manila envelope sitting on the coffee table where Arch had tossed it. He recognized the return address as the one belonging to the lawyer handling his and Penny’s divorce.
He peeled open the envelope and slid out the documents.
She’d signed them already.
They were dated two weeks ago.
She must have submitted them the day after her birthday.
The day after they’d made love.
He sighed.
He hadn’t seen her since that night. Hadn’t talked to her. Not because he didn’t want to. But because he didn’t know what else there was to say.
He read through the papers.
In the state of Wyoming, when the parties were in agreement and there were no children involved, it was a depressingly easy and quick matter to undo one’s marriage vows.
Even ones of the forgotten Vegas variety.
He went and found a pen in Arch’s office and returned to the couch where he’d been spending way too much time lately. He spread the sheets of paper across the coffee table. Clicked the pen a few times.
He was still staring at the red sticky flag that pointed to the line where he was supposed to sign when Archer came back in the room.
He flopped down into the chair next to the couch and rubbed his towel over his blond head. “That the paperwork for your next assignment?”
“No.” His physical with the flight surgeon had come and gone.
Quinn didn’t need to bow to pressure about the First Sergeant deal. Because the flight surgeon had cleared him for flight duty.
The PJ was still a PJ. And his CO needed him in that position more than he needed a shirt. All Quinn needed now were orders for his next assignment, which could arrive in two days or twenty.
He rolled the pen between his fingers. “They’re my divorce papers.”
Arch pulled the towel away from his head. He gave Quinn a long look. “Been hiding a wife all these years?”
Quinn’s lips twisted. He tossed down the pen and leaned back against the couch, stretching his arms behind his head. The twinge in his side was still there. But it was no longer bad enough to end his career. “Only the last month.”
Archer wadded up the towel and pitched it across the room onto the breakfast counter. He combed his fingers through his damp hair and stood. “Come on.” He grabbed the truck keys from the table by the door. “I have the feeling this is going to take more than a beer.”
It took considerably more.
Even though Quinn had matched his cousin whiskey shot for whiskey shot as he’d relayed the framework of his and Penny’s marital mess, he still didn’t feel any mercifully numbing effects.
They were the only ones sitting at the bar at a place called Magic Jax. Which meant Jax wasn’t having a lot of magic on Tuesdays the way that Colbys did over in Weaver.
Quinn tipped the bottle over his shot glass one more time. The bartender had just left the entire bottle to them and was sitting on a bar stool in the corner watching a dinky television and sipping soda through a straw.
“She’s still in love with a kid who has a halo on his head.”
Arch reached over the bar for the container of peanuts and pretzels and refilled the bowl in front of them for about the third time since they’d gotten there. “From everything you’ve said about her life, can you blame her? I remember all those foster kids living across from you. It was like watching a clown car. The front door would open and people just kept pouring out.”
It was an apt description. But then his cousin was a lawyer. He was supposed to be good with words.
“If you are right, then she’s in love with a memory,” Arch added. “And a memory doesn’t keep your toes toasty at night or add little germ pods who call you mommy or daddy.”
Quinn winced. He’d told Archer about the wedding. Not about the entire pregnancy deal. “I can remember the wedding like it was yesterday.”
“Sure that’s not from watching that DVD?”
He shouldn’t have admitted that he’d gotten another copy of the wedding DVD from Happily Ever Chapel.
“I’m a little wounded, though,” Arch said around a mouthful of pretzels. “You go to a stranger to handle the divorce?”
“I told you. She didn’t want anyone to know.”
Arch nodded. “Women be crazy that way.” He squinted as he lifted his shot glass. “To your A-OK from the good air force doctor,” he said more or less clearly.
Quinn tapped his shot glass against his. “Right.” He felt the sideways look his cousin gave him. “What?”
“Your life’s gonna be back to normal, Sarge. That’s what you want, right?”
“Yup.” He nodded. Twisted the shot glass between his fingers. “Normal.” He was pretty sure nothing was going to feel normal for a very, very long time.
“Granny Viv’s debate is tonight.”
Quinn nodded again. The debate that would never have come about if not for Penny’s efforts. “Yup.”
Arch slapped his shoulder. “We should go.”
Magic Jax was only a couple blocks from Archer’s house. “Better walk,” Quinn said. Neither one of them was sober enough to drive even a short distance.
“Helluva long walk to Weaver, boy-o.”
“Weaver. Who said anything about Weaver?”
“I did. And you know you want to go, even though you’re too much of a girl to admit it. Man up a little, wouldja? You’re a disgrace to the entire macho breed.” Archer pulled out his wallet and extracted several bills. He tossed them on the bar. “Come on.”
“You don’t handle enough driving-while-intoxicated, you want to add ourselves to your caseload?”
Archer made a face. “Have I taught you nothing?” He’d already pulled out his cell phone. “Maddie,” he said a moment later. He grinned at Quinn. “How’d you like to do your big brother a little favor?”
Quinn shook his head. “I can’t believe you called your sister for a ride,” he said once Archer hung up.
“She’s on her way,” he said, looking satisfied. He paused for a moment. “You just need to propose to Penny.”
Quinn jerked. “What?”
“Propose,” Arch said blithely. As though he was an authority on the subject. “Down on one knee. Give her a ring. The whole bit.”
Arch wasn’t an authority on proposals. Propositions? That was a different story. “I gave her a ring. She gave it back.” It was still in
Quinn’s pocket. A constant reminder of what they might have had.
“Yeah, well, she can’t remember you offering it to her in the first place, can she? Y’all just woke up married. Fait accompli.”
“She’s not in love with me. She said so.” She’d also implied that she did.
Arch was waving his hand, dismissing that. “Women say that all the time. In my experience, if they take the trouble to say it, they rarely mean it.”
Quinn snorted. “I see the years haven’t made you any more modest.”
“Waste of time.” Arch pointed. “There’s Maddie’s car.”
The conservative sedan pulled up at the curb a moment later and they piled in. Archer in the front. Quinn in the back. “You boys smell like a distillery,” Maddie told them. “Fortunately, I came prepared.” She handed them both tall thermoses of hot coffee.
“S’why you’re my favorite little sister, Maddie.” Archer grinned over his shoulder at Quinn.
“And when Ali’s doing you a favor, she’s your favorite,” Maddie said drily. “Same with Greer. You’re not fooling anyone, brother dear. But as it happens, I don’t mind driving either one of you to Weaver, because I want to see Vivian’s debate, too.” She looked at Quinn through the rearview mirror. “Congrats on the flight status, by the way.”
“News travels fast in this town.” He’d only gotten the clearance a few days earlier.
“You wanna talk about news.” Arch leaned toward Maddie as he fastened his seat belt while she pulled away from the curb. “Quinn’s got juicier news ‘n that.”
Quinn leaned his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. “Shut up, Archer.”
He heard his cousin laughing silently. But at least he didn’t spill the beans to his sister. So maybe his lawyer cousin wasn’t too far gone on the pain-in-the-ass scale.
Propose to Penny.
What good would it do? He’d already told her how he’d felt. He’d gotten an envelope full of divorce papers as a result.
Maddie seemed to know all the details about the debate already, and drove straight to the high school in less than an hour.
“Wow,” Maddie murmured as she drove around looking for a vacant spot. “Never underestimate a local election’s importance.” She ended up parking down the street from the school.
She had no way of knowing just how close to Penny’s house that was.
He could see the porch light burning in the front of the white and yellow bungalow. She wouldn’t be there, of course. She was Vivian’s right-hand woman. She would naturally be at the debate.
They got out of the car. Maddie and Archer headed one way toward the school.
He set off the other way toward Penny’s house. He heard Maddie call his name. Archer telling her to let him go.
He broke into a jog after a few yards. Then a run.
He could have run for miles without breaking a sweat. But he felt breathless when he reached her front porch and pulled open the screen door. There was no way she’d be there. He knocked anyway.
The door suddenly opened and she stood there. The woman who was his wife in none of the ways that mattered.
She was wearing a thin pink robe that left way too little to his imagination and holding something black and sequined in her hands.
“Sequins look pretty fancy for a town council debate.”
The shock in her translucent blue eyes disappeared like a snap.
She tossed the sequined garment aside but didn’t move an inch out of the doorway as she folded her arms over her chest. It did nothing but accentuate the lush curves beneath her robe, which he was certain had not been her intention. “What are you doing here? If this is about the divorce papers, you could’ve just sent them back to the lawyer.”
“I don’t want a divorce. I want to marry my wife.”
Her lips parted. Color drained out of her face. Then it climbed just as quickly back up her long, lovely throat. “You had your appointment with the flight surgeon, I guess.”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with me being here.”
“Hey there, Penny!”
He jerked around to see a round, red-haired woman striding down the street with a skinny bald guy by her side, watching them unashamedly. “Going to see you at the debate, I’m sure?”
Penny nodded. “Hi, Dori. Yes, I’ll be there.”
The woman looked like she would have stopped and waited for Penny right then and there, if not for the skinny guy pulling her arm to keep on moving.
Quinn turned his back on them, focusing on Penny.
She moistened her lips, looking away. She kept one hand wrapped around herself, but grabbed the door with the other. Preparing to close it in his face, maybe.
He put his foot in the doorway. Just in case.
But it also brought him closer to her.
He heard the breath she inhaled before she took a step back.
“Quinn, I can’t do this. I’m going to be late for the debate.”
“You were already late for the debate before I got here. Another few minutes aren’t going to matter.”
She looked pained.
“Are you going to let me in, or are we going to do this on your front porch?”
“Do what?”
He pulled the wedding ring out of his pocket. She’d chosen it at Happily Ever Chapel. Something inside her had to remember that. Even subconsciously. He dropped down to one knee.
She gaped. “What are you doing?” She dragged at his shoulders. “Get up before someone else sees you.”
So much for going on one knee. It hadn’t worked to get him a kiss that time she’d been mowing her lawn, and it wasn’t getting him any further with a proposal now. “This knee business is for the birds,” he muttered, straightening. He stepped forward, nudging her far enough backward that he could slam the door on the outside world.
She tried to pull away from him, but he held fast. “I am in love with you,” he said bluntly. “That’s the only reason I’m here. Not because of Las Vegas. Though if what happened there hadn’t happened there, it might have taken us a little longer to get to this point.”
He could feel the fine tremble that worked through her. “We’re not at any point, Quinn! The divorce papers just need your signature.”
“And I’ll sign the damn things if it means I can marry you the way I want to!”
Her expression pinched. “S-stop saying that!”
“Why? You don’t like hearing the truth?”
She blinked. Swiped at her cheek and tried to pull away from him yet again. “You wanted me to have a dream, Quinn? Well, the only dream I have is not being second choice. Not your second choice.”
“Who the hell am I supposed to choose above you?” His voice was rising and he couldn’t seem to do a damn thing to stop it. “You’re the only woman I’ve ever met who makes me want something that I’ve never wanted before. And it took a grenade nearly blowing me up to come back to find you.”
“Not who. What! You were a PJ! I know what that meant to you. And now because of that grenade you can’t be one, and you’ve had a glimpse of fatherhood and decided hey, that might not be such a bad alternative, so you—”
He covered her mouth with his hand.
Her eyes flashed at him. She said something against his palm that she probably hadn’t said since she’d been fifteen and furious as hell with him.
“I am a pararescueman,” he said. “I got signed off for duty last week. But I know how you feel about hitching your wagon to a military man. Which is why I’m putting in for reassignment.” The decision was so freaking easy now that he’d made it, he couldn’t figure why it had taken him this long. “I’ll ride a desk. I’ll teach. I’ll talk to my shirt and figure out anything that’ll keep me Stateside and safe as hou
ses. I can get retirement at twenty years. That’s only eighteen months away, sweetheart. We can get married then if you want. But if you can’t wait that long, or you won’t wait even two minutes, I’ll get out now. I’m a paramedic. I’ll find a job. I’ll support you. I’ll support our kids. I’ll do anything it takes. But if you say one more time that you’re anything but my first choice—my first priority—I’m gonna put you over my knee the way somebody should have done when you were fifteen!”
She’d gone still. Her eyes were liquid blue saucers above his hand.
He hauled in a deep breath. “I haven’t had anything mess with my head as bad as you since I was going through Indoc, when I first enlisted a long damn time ago.” He pulled his hand away from her mouth. “And I’ve never had anyone mess with my heart the way you do. Just give me a chance to make you happy, Penny. That’s all I’m asking for here.”
Her eyes overflowed. “You were cleared for flight duty.”
“You’re missing the point, sweetheart.”
She shook her head. Swiped her cheeks. “I can’t ask you to make that choice.”
He lifted her chin. Looked into her eyes. “There is no choice, Penny. Don’t you get it yet? There’s only you. I choose you. I choose us.”
“But the paperwork—”
“Do we really have to divorce each other just so we can get married the right way?”
There was a tremulous smile finally growing on her lips. Enough of one that he drew his first easy breath in the last two weeks. “I’m used to convoluted reasoning when it comes to the military, so I suppose I—”
She covered his mouth with her palm. “I choose you, too, Quinn.”
Relief was a wave rolling over him. “You’ll marry me.”
She held out her left hand. It was shaking. “I already did. The night you put that beautiful band on my finger.”
His throat felt tight. He slid the ring into place. Lifted her hand and kissed it. “Tell me you love me.” He needed to hear the words.
“I was crazy about you when I was fifteen. I’m crazy about you still.” She slid her hand behind his neck, pressing herself against him as she stretched up to his mouth. “I love you, Quinn Templeton. Now.” She punctuated it with a brush of her lips against his. “Always.” Another kiss. “I just have one request.”
Vegas Wedding, Weaver Bride Page 18
