#Heart (Hashtag #6) (18 page)

For making sure our family wasn’t tormented any further by someone who should never have been granted leave from the mental ward.

“He has enough to likely press charges. But the charges won’t stick. I’ll get them thrown out.”

“But that would drag him and Ivy both through the mud!” Rimmel said, getting visibly upset. “They’ve been through so much already. I don’t want to see them hurt anymore.”

I pressed my hand to her back and rubbed in slow circles, trying to calm her down.

Dad sighed, and I noticed how tired he looked. It was clear he’d been working around the clock since B and I met with him and told him about the situation. “No charges have been filed yet. There’s still time. If I could only make the man see reason, but I’m afraid he’s past that. Zach died, he let his practice fall into the gutter, and then his wife left him.”

“She couldn’t stand the public shame,” Mom whispered. “The fact that her son had conned his way out of a facility, stalked a poor woman, and then tried to kill her. Not to mention the fact that Robert would never just admit that Zach was wrong. He was going around the country club telling everyone that Zach was just as much a victim as the people he hurt.” Mom glanced at me. “You know she’s not even his mother.”

“What?” Rimmel gasped.

Mom nodded. “She was his stepmother. His real mother, Robert’s first wife, killed herself years ago.”

I hadn’t known that. Come to think of it, I didn’t know much about Zach at all. All he ever was to me was an asshole.

“That’s terrible.” Rimmel sympathized. “I hope he’s found some peace in death. He certainly never had it while I knew him.”

There was that soft heart of hers again. It was specifically soft for the lost and damaged. It’s why she loved the shelter so much. There were so many animals there that needed her care.

Had Zach been lost and damaged? Is that why he did all the terrible things he did?

I guess we’d never know.

I don’t think it really mattered. What mattered to me was that Braeden’s life wasn’t destroyed because Zach’s father was mad at the world for the shitty hand he was dealt.

“How close is he to having charges pressed?” I asked Dad.

“I managed to put him off today, but I really don’t know if I’ll be able to stop him.”

“He knows the case will be a losing battle?” I pressed.

“I told him as much. Ivy was there. She was a witness. Her testimony along with the findings of the investigation would be enough to prove probable cause. That car blowing like it did was inevitable. I read the forensics report. Frankly, Braeden’s lucky he got Ivy out in time before the whole thing went up.”

“He just wants to take Braeden’s life away like his son’s was taken,” Rimmel whispered, a catch in her voice.

I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her into my chest. She sniffled and wiped her face on my T-shirt.

“I’ll keep working on it,” Dad said. “I’m not going to give up that easily.”

“Thank you,” Rimmel said fiercely and got up to hug him spontaneously. A look of surprise flickered over both my mother’s and father’s faces.

Dad recovered first and hugged her back with the arm not holding his coffee and cleared his throat. “Of course, sweetheart,” he said.

Ahh, she’d gotten to him.

She’d penetrated the impenetrable Anthony Anderson, take-no-prisoners lawyer. I’d seen very few people get a place inside my father’s heart throughout my life (besides me and Mom of course), Braeden being one. And now there was my soon-to-be wife.

“Now don’t you worry about this. You just focus on marrying my son.”

Rimmel returned to my side and wiped her face on my shirt again. I kinda liked being her human tissue.

“Anthony,” Mom said with a wise look in her eye, “please tell these two they cannot elope to Vegas.”

“What?” Dad said and shook his head. “No, no, no.” He set down his cup and patted Rimmel’s hand. “That’s not good enough for my kids. You make sure you do up something nice for them, Valerie, and, Rimmel honey, you send me the bill.”

“Oh, no,” Rimmel said for like the millionth time when my parents brought up the bill.

“Yes. It will give me something to look forward to in between all these football contracts and dealings with Robert Bettinger. It’ll do my heart good.”

Rimmel bit down on her lower lip and nodded. If there was one person my girl had yet to learn how to say no to, it was my father. She had a soft spot for him. She told me once it was because he was an older version of me. Clearly, my mother had figured this out all on her own.

Well played, Mom. Well played.

Not too long later, we were outside in the whipping wind, hurrying toward the Hellcat.

“That was brutal,” Rim moaned when I opened the door for her to get in. The heat was already toasty thanks to the remote start.

I ran around and shut myself in the driver’s seat.

“You better figure out what kind of wedding you want and fast, baby. ‘Cause if you don’t, you’re going to end up with something that will make the society pages green with envy.”

“All I want is you,” she whined.

“You got me.” I picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “How about me and two hundred and fifty of our most personal friends?” I joked.

“There’s one person who won’t be there,” she said softly and looked out the window, avoiding my eyes.

Damn.

I should have seen that one coming.

“Is that why you’ve been a little hesitant to plan anything?” I asked.

She nodded, and I watched her throat work as she swallowed. “How does a girl plan her wedding without her mother?”

What the fuck did a guy say to that?

Sure, my mom was dramatic, all up in our business, and totally controlling, but she was here. Rimmel wouldn’t ever get to say that.

I could tell her that her mom would be there in spirit. I could tell her she was looking down on our wedding from heaven. I could even tell Rimmel that her mom would be proud.

She knew all of that.

She’d heard it likely half her life.

It still didn’t make it suck any less.

“So we won’t plan a wedding,” I said instead.

Rimmel looked at me, surprise in her tearful eyes. “What?”

“I should have taken you to Vegas the night I put that ring on your finger and you said yes. I was trying to be a good guy by giving you a wedding with our family and the shit girls are always going on about. But I forgot you aren’t like most girls. You don’t need dresses and flowers. So fuck this shit. Let’s fly to Vegas tonight.”

She laughed. It was a good sound. “You heard your parents in there. They want to be part of this.”

“But this isn’t about them. It’s about you and me.”

“If there’s one thing I learned in the past couple months, it’s that weddings are definitely not just about the bride and groom. If they were, we wouldn’t need a venue, centerpieces, and favors. And we definitely wouldn’t need to invite every person your mother sits on charitable boards with.”

She was right.

Almost from the moment I proposed, it became about everyone else. We spent one night in a gorgeous hotel and then flew out early to be with our family. We’d been at home and focused on making sure everyone was okay. We’d been careful not to make too many flashy plans in fear we’d draw more media. We didn’t want to celebrate too much or be too excited because it felt wrong to be so happy when B and Ivy were still trying to heal. And my mother, dear Lord, we had to give her an extravagant party just so she’d not kill us with plans and charts.

Somehow, I’d let the one thing I’d taken for myself become about everything else.

“I’m not sharing you,” I growled and threw the car in gear.

“Where are we going?” she asked as I sped out of the drive. When I didn’t answer, she said, “We can’t go to Vegas today, as much as I want to. I have classes in the morning, a dress fitting with Ivy, and Braeden needs you…”

Yeah, everyone else.

But the most important person is you.

“Romeo?”

“I’m not going to Vegas, baby.” I promised.

“Then where are you going?”

“I’m making it about me and you again.”

“How are you going to do that?” She wondered.

I smiled.

Rimmel

He drove us downtown.

Even though it wasn’t quite yet five o’clock, the sun was already beginning to set. Not that it had been very bright to begin with. The winter sky was gray and full of clouds, giving everything an overcast hue.

When he pulled up in front of a large stone building with great wide concrete steps, my brow furrowed. Then he parked at the curb.

How he always managed to find the best parking spot on a street was something I could only chalk up to Romeo magic.

This wasn’t a part of town I was very familiar with. I’d only been downtown once before when Romeo and I had tried some restaurant a few streets over. Mostly, we stuck around campus and in the neighborhood we lived in now.

So it took me a minute to realize where he’d brought us.

Okay, fine. I saw the sign.

“The county courthouse?” I asked.

He didn’t answer, only flung open his door and came around to mine. When he reached his hand into the open doorway, I didn’t hesitate to give him mine. I allowed him to tug me out onto the sidewalk and pull me into his arms.

“Marry me. Marry me right the fuck now.”

My heart skipped a beat and butterflies erupted in my belly. Excitement sizzled along every nerve inside my body because I knew he was being one hundred percent sincere.

“Right now?” I asked.

“Right the fuck now.”

I giggled. “What about the wedding? Your parents?”

His arms shifted when he shrugged. “We’ll have the wedding.”

“You want to get married twice?” I laughed.

He put his forehead against mine and stared into my eyes. “I’d marry you a thousand times if I could.”

“Oh, Romeo¸” I whispered.

“But this first time. The official time. This time is for us and only us. No reporters, no waiters with trays of appetizers, no cameras going off, and no speeches to listen to. Just me. Just you.”

“Just us.” My voice was wistful, totally captivated by the picture he painted.

This was the way we were meant to get married.

“You in your yoga pants and Alpha U hoodie, me in my jeans and snotty T-shirt.” I laughed, and he grinned. “Us exactly as we always are together and nothing else. As far as everyone else will know, we got married on the day of our wedding. But we’ll know. And every time I look at you, there will be an unspoken secret between us, a bond of how we really vowed to be together.”

A tear slipped out of the corner of my eye, and he kissed it away. “It’s perfect.”

“Say yes, Rimmel.” He urged.

“Yes.”

After a quick kiss to my lips, he pulled back to take my hand, and we ran up the courthouse steps and into the huge, historic building.

Of course, we had to go through security, and he became impatient. But my lips danced with laughter, and even though I couldn’t see them, I knew my eyes held a note of promise. I didn’t mind the wait.

It just added to the anticipation.

The anticipation of the moment when he would become mine completely.

When we were finally cleared to travel deeper into the building, Romeo tugged me along behind him as he followed the signs toward where we needed to go. When we finally stepped into the small office, it was five minutes until five.

It was almost closing time.

There was an older woman sitting behind a very long counter on the far side of the room. Her hair was graying and styled. She smiled when Romeo approached the counter.

“We need a marriage license, please.”

My heart burst with joy, and my fingers tightened around his. I suddenly wanted to scream that this beautiful man was going to marry me.

But I didn’t. I somehow managed to contain my joy.

The woman chuckled like his impatience was evident to more than just me and pulled out a clipboard with an application on it. “Fill this out. Pay the fee. In Maryland, there is a standard two-day waiting period. Once it’s up, you can come back in and we’ll marry you.”

“Two days,” I intoned. Suddenly, two days seemed unbearable. It seemed like a lifetime. I was ready now.

Romeo untangled our hands and leaned on the counter to deliver a devastating smile. “Here’s the thing, Kathy,” he said, reading her name off the badge pinned to her shirt. “We’re having a big wedding, for our family and a million of my mother’s closest friends.”

As he spoke, he drew the attention of the other two women in the room. Like gravity, he pulled them all in with his deep, smooth voice, charming smile, and movie star good looks.

“But I don’t care about any of that stuff. I only care about her.” He leaned back to wrap an arm around me and draw me into the conversation. “We don’t want to wait two days. Hell, I’ve been waiting since the minute she shoved a wrinkled piece of paper in my face and forced me to study with her.”

“I did not force you,” I demanded.

He kissed my forehead like he was humoring me, and the woman off to my left sighed.

“Well, I guess I could see if the justice of the peace has left for the day,” Kathy said.

“I’ll go get him!” one of the other women yelled and raced off.

“It’s closing time,” Kathy said, her gaze bouncing between us. “A secret wedding, huh?”

“You good at keeping secrets, Kathy?” Romeo asked and then winked.

She blushed. Good Lord, she was blushing.

Seconds later, the woman who ran off returned with a man in a suit and a scowl on his face. “Here they are,” she said, pointing at us.

The man looked up, and the bothered look fell away, replaced by recognition. “Roman Anderson?”

Romeo smiled. “How you doing?” He pushed his arm across the counter and held his hand out to the justice of the peace.

“I’m good,” he said, shaking Romeo’s hand and then glancing at me. “You want to get married?”

“Right now if we can,” he replied, nodding.

“Coming in at the end of the day was pretty smart,” the man said. “No one would suspect you’d be here.”

“That’s the idea,” he said.

“I take it you don’t want the media to know about this?”

“No. It’s a secret,” I said, thrilled at the idea of Romeo and me having a secret no one else knew.

“Do it, Abe.” The woman who ran off to find him encouraged him.

“I can waive the two-day waiting period as long as you both can attest to the fact that no one is forcing you to be here. This is not a union under duress.”

“The only duress I feel right now is the possibility that you’re going to say no,” I said.

Romeo laughed. “What she said.”

“All right, then. It’d be my pleasure to marry you and your lady, Mr. Anderson.”

“Romeo,” he said and grinned. “And thank you.”

“You can thank me by signing your autograph after you’re married.”

“Sure thing.”

The justice of the peace turned to the three women standing there taking it all in. “I’m going to need a witness.”

All three of them raised their hands and then scowled at each other for daring to take the position.

“Three witnesses should make it extra official, don’t you think, Romeo?” I asked.

“I like extra official.” He agreed.

The women all looked at Abe with hope in their eyes. He chuckled. “Everybody in my office.”

Kathy, the woman standing just behind the counter, pointed to the papers. “Fill these out and then we’ll get you two lovebirds married.”

Romeo picked up a pen and started writing furiously.

Married.

Romeo and I were getting married.