Flanked (17 page)

That thought didn’t help Garret’s confusion any. “You don’t think it might look strange if I’m living in Ohio and you’re living in North Carolina after we tell our friends that we’re married?”

“No, not really. We’ll say we lived separately until we could make the official announcement after Luke and Annie’s wedding. And you wanted the surgery in your hometown where you know the doctors and I couldn’t leave North Carolina to be with you there while school was still in session because of my job.”

“That might work as an excuse.” His future wife was quite the capable liar. He’d enjoyed it before, when they’d been sneaking around behind everyone’s backs to have sex. It was a less charming trait now he was going to be married to her.

“Oh look. The speed limit went down to fifty-five.” Silver raised her eyebrows and reached for his leg again.

She was so bad, and persistent, it made Garret laugh. He knew Aaron was going to watch him like a hawk around Silver. Thanks to Aaron’s brotherly attention, it was damn likely they wouldn’t get to have sex again before or after they were married, as ironic as that seemed. He glanced at Silver, and found her watching him.

“This is insane, you know.” Even so, he eased off the accelerator and slid his seat back a few notches. “But all right.”

“You are so easily influenced.” A sexy smile lit Silver’s face. She leaned over and opened his belt buckle. His zipper followed.

“Only by you.” Letting his legs fall open wider, Garret forced himself to stare out the windshield at the road ahead rather than at the amazing sight of Silver as she slid her mouth over him.

Chapter Thirteen

Garret ran a finger between the collar of his shirt and his neck. Suddenly he couldn’t breathe or swallow. He looked to see if there was a window he could open nearby. The sleepless night spent on Aaron’s sofa hadn’t helped his mental state any. He’d faced the rankest bulls on the circuit with less nervousness than he was facing today.

While they both waited for Aaron, Silver flipped through one of the magazines the coffee shop provided for its patrons. Aaron had gone into town to find out the details about getting them a marriage license. Then he was going to meet them here at the coffee shop during Silver’s lunch period since that’s when she could leave school.

Garret couldn’t find anything to hold his attention right now, but he sure needed something to hold in his hands so he could ignore they were shaking. With nothing to do but wait and think, it was too tempting to reach for Silver…to hold her like an anchor and kiss her to quell his nerves. But Aaron would be here any minute, so he reached for his coffee cup instead. It was empty, but at least he had something to hold now.

The tinkling of the bell above the entrance had Garret looking up just as Aaron pushed through the door. Silver raised her gaze from the glossy photos.

“So here’s the deal. There’s no waiting period for a license in North Carolina, and there’s no required waiting period between getting the license and the actual marriage. So all we have to do is go to the town clerk right now with your ID and for something like a thirty-five-buck license fee, you two will be on your way to being legal.”

“Now? Wow. Okay.” Garret swallowed hard, torn between the flutter of anticipation inside him and being scared shitless.

Aaron nodded. “Yup. Then after that we’ll go see about an appointment for the ceremony with a justice of the peace. If they have time later this afternoon when Silver can get away from work, you two can be married today.”

Wow. It was all going to happen and today. He’d assumed he’d have a little bit of time to get used to the idea.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.” Silver tossed the magazine back onto the table and stood. “We can get married today and then tomorrow I’ll contact the benefits department and add Garret to my policy as my spouse. I looked it up online. I read the whole damn hundred-page benefits document—that was real fun, I can tell you—but it said as long as a spouse is added within thirty days of the marriage, he’ll be covered as of the first of the month with no waiting period for pre-existing conditions.”

“Good. He’s going to finish out the season before the surgery anyway, so that’ll be after the first. Perfect timing.” Aaron and Silver continued to discuss Garret as if he wasn’t there. As speechless as he was, he might as well not be there.

Finally, Silver turned to include him in the conversation. “I’ve been thinking, and I think it’s best if you hang around town and not go home to your father’s place just yet. In case there are any questions about adding you to my policy.”

“That’s no problem. He can stay at my place until the next event.” Aaron glanced at Garret. “Good?”

He had to force himself to respond. “Good. That sounds good.”

“So it’s settled then. We’ll get married, you stay with Aaron until the next event, finish out the season, then go back to Ohio.” Silver’s expression told him she wasn’t as happy about Aaron’s offer that Garret stay at his place after the wedding as she was pretending to be.

If he knew his bride at all, she was already plotting something so they could be alone. Somehow, Garret found that comforting. They were good at sex, at least. Marriage…well, they’d see about that soon, wouldn’t they?

“So when is Luke’s wedding? Have they set a date yet?” The wheels were definitely turning in Silver’s brain.

“I asked Annie about that. It’s going to be sometime over the long break. She said she’ll mail out the invitations as soon as she gets the details settled. It’ll be at Luke’s family ranch in Montana. So obviously you two both need to be there so it won’t look totally out of the blue when sometime after their wedding you tell everyone you eloped.”

Wow. This lying was going to give him an ulcer in addition to his bad shoulder, but Aaron was sure on top of things. Garret was in such a daze he was lucky he’d remembered to put on his boots this morning. Forget about remembering to talk to Annie about her wedding before they left the event yesterday.

He swallowed hard. “Okay.”

Silver hoisted herself out of the chair and lobbed her coffee cup into the trash. “I guess we should get going to the clerk for that license. Then I better get back to work. Can one of you text me when you find out what time our appointment for the ceremony is?”

The ceremony. Garret swallowed hard. “Um, sure.”

So he and his soon-to-be brother-in-law would be making the appointment for his and Silver’s wedding. This day really couldn’t get much stranger. Then again, maybe it could.

He watched Silver’s ass sway as she sashayed through the door. She was wearing heels, dressy-looking slacks and a sweater, pretty much the opposite attire of what he’d seen her in this weekend at the competition. Apparently, she was used to having two separate lives, her work life and her private one. Somehow Garret was going to have to span them both as her official husband of record for her insurance, as well as remain her secret lover as far as their friends and family were concerned. At least for the foreseeable future.

Things were going to get real interesting.

Silver listened to her students struggling to get the harmony of the song for the upcoming chorus concert. She played along with them on the piano, but today her mind wasn’t in the task. She cringed as the class hit a sour note, but it was no worse than her stumbling musical accompaniment.

Why did the music room’s piano always sound so out of tune? She’d convinced the administration it had to be tuned before the start of each school year, and still it sounded like crap. Maybe it only grated on her nerves so badly today because she was on edge waiting for the text from Aaron or Garret. Honestly, how she thought she could come back to work and keep her mind on her classes after getting a marriage license on her lunch break was beyond her.

She thought she’d been okay with this casual marriage of convenience, but as her fingers once again hit the wrong key on the piano, she wondered if it was more important to her than she’d let herself believe.

And on top of it all, she’d been dodging phone calls from Beckie since she’d been back. Silver knew her best friend only wanted to see how the weekend had been, but how in the world could she tell her? Beckie lived by a different moral compass than Silver. She would rather die than break a law, or even bend one. Getting married for the insurance would be a huge no-no in Beckie’s book. She would be absolutely horrified Silver would even consider it, forget about actually do it. She’d probably do her best to talk Silver out of it and Silver didn’t need that pressure right now. On the other hand, how could she not tell her? Beckie knew Silver too well. She would know immediately if she tried hiding the truth from her.

Nope, the best course of action would be to avoid all contact, at least until after it was a done deal. Then Silver would consider if Beckie could handle the truth, or a portion of it, after the fact.

Maybe Garret was right, this was a bit more complicated than she’d first assumed.

One glance at the clock told her there were only ten more minutes in this class. Thank God for that. These kids didn’t deserve a teacher who couldn’t concentrate on even a few simple chords.

The phone in her pocket vibrated and Silver jumped. It had to be the text about the appointment for the ceremony. She itched to stop playing and read it, but they were only halfway through this eternally long song.

Crap. She couldn’t stand it any longer.

Without warning, mid stanza, she lifted her hands off the keys and stood. The students stopped singing in reaction. “That’s sounding great. We still have a way to go but there are weeks before the concert. How about we end class a few minutes early today and start fresh next time?”

A chorus of “yay” that sounded far more harmonious than the song followed that announcement. Maybe they were capable of working as a group after all. Silver shook her head and pulled out her phone. The readout said
Aaron
. She’d kind of been hoping it would be from Garret. They were about to be married and yet her brother was there at every turn playing chaperone. It was getting very annoying. She sighed and opened the text.

Today at four. Good?

Silver smiled and texted back.
Good!

Let Aaron play mother, father-of-the-bride and wedding planner if he wanted, because she had a plan to get some time alone with Garret. Their relationship had been built on sneaking around from the start. The sex during their secret marriage might as well be too. It added to the excitement of being with him.

Silver halted in the process of stashing her phone back in her pants pocket.
Relationship
. Had she really just thought that word? And had she meant it? She thought she did. It felt like a relationship.

While still in her hand, the phone vibrated again. She glanced down.
Garret.
Her heart rate picked up speed as she opened the text.
See you at four.

The children could have been wreaking havoc in the room and she wouldn’t have noticed. Her hand shook as she texted back to her soon-to-be husband.
Can’t wait
.

As the bell rang and class officially ended, the group of students filtered out and Silver realized she still had two more classes to get through. Then she’d have to go home and change. She couldn’t get married in her work clothes. What did she have to wear? It wasn’t like she had prepared for this. It also wasn’t like this was a real wedding, not in the conventional sense of the word.

Then why did it feel so damn real?

The next group of students began to stream in through the door. Silver glanced at the wall clock one more time and blew out a big, slow breath. It was going to be a long afternoon leading up to four.

Chapter Fourteen

Inside the office of the justice of the peace, standing in front of the judge, Garret took Silver’s hand in his and it started to feel even more real. Really real.

He looked nice in one of Aaron’s white button-down shirts and a tie. Even his regular jeans and cowboy boots, shined up for the occasion, didn’t detract from how hot he looked all dressed up. The best she’d come up with was a white cotton dress with tiny blue flowers on it. She wasn’t a girly girl. It wasn’t like she had a closet full of options to choose from or the time to shop for something.

But even so, Garret had smiled when he’d seen her arrive at the town office. He’d held a small bunch of tiny white tea roses in his hand. Her bridal bouquet. He’d handed it to her as he kissed her on the cheek and told her she looked beautiful. She hadn’t stopped shaking since then.

Silver drew in a deep breath as her heart raced. Next to them stood Aaron, the only witness they’d come with. A secretary from the town office was there as the second witness. Before them stood the justice of the peace, saying all the official stuff he was supposed to say to make this thing legal. She couldn’t have told anyone what exactly he’d said. It was all a kind of buzzing noise in the background behind the loud pounding of her own pulse.

“Are there rings?”

The question cut through her thoughts. Crap. She hadn’t even thought of—

Aaron stepped forward. “Yes, sir.”

Silver’s eyes opened wide as she turned to see the two familiar gold bands in his open palm. Matching filigree etched both the smaller and the larger circles. “Grandma and grandpa’s rings?” She brought her gaze up to meet her brother’s as he nodded.

“Yup. Mom gave them to me after Grandma died. I guess she figured I’d be the first one to get married.”

Her gaze cut to Garret, watching them silently, and then to the justice of the peace. She couldn’t reassure Aaron right now that she’d give the family heirlooms back to him after this marriage ended, so instead she just said, “Thanks.”

Next thing she knew, Garret was slipping the band onto her trembling finger and they were proclaimed husband and wife. They signed some papers, but after that ring went on her finger it was all a blur. Silver knew she had to concentrate extra hard to stop her hand from trembling as she took the pen and signed her name. She was aware of Garret as he dug into his wallet for cash to pay the fee.