The Marriage Bargain

When she turned back around, a gold ring glimmered in Mom’s palm—her dad’s wedding ring. “For you. I know your dad would want you to have it.”

The ring was a little dull, a little scratched and battered, but it was a pure sign of the love that her father had for her mother—and for their children. Jules missed him every single day. Her father had been a big man with a hearty laugh. The local chief of police, he could be stern when needed, but she’d never hesitated to crawl into his lap and lay her head on his broad shoulder.

He’d never met a problem he didn’t face head-on. She liked to think she was like him in that way, practical and driven.

She lifted the ring from her mother’s hand and slid it onto her thumb, her throat aching. “Thanks, Mom.” A half laugh, half sob came bubbling up. “If I don’t go, I’m going to be late for my own wedding.”

“You’ve never been late for anything in your entire life. Go. I’ll be praying.”

Jules glanced in the mirror at her reflection one last time. Color flagged her cheeks, but the veil was perfect.

And she was as ready as she would ever be.

* * *

Cameron paced outside the small gray stone courthouse in the county seat a few miles down the road from Red Hill Springs. He glanced at his watch for the fourteenth time in as many minutes. This half-baked plan may have been Juliet’s idea, but he should never have agreed to drive separately.

As he paced back the other direction, her black minivan pulled into a space across the street. The merry-go-round of what-ifs stopped short in his mind as he saw one long leg and then another swing out. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her in anything but her work clothes. But today, she had on heels, a formfitting dress and...a wedding veil.

His heart did a little stutter. He caught her eye as she crossed the street, a hesitant smile on her face. And had to steady his voice before he could speak. “Wow—you look incredible.”

A trembling hand touched the veil. “I hope it’s not too much. It was my great-grandmother’s.”

“It’s perfect. I have something for you.” He turned to the bench behind him and picked up a small hand-tied bouquet of pale pink roses. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but he realized now that he didn’t even know if she liked roses. And maybe he’d been making a huge assumption. “I, um, I didn’t want you to get married without flowers.”

She smiled down at the bouquet. “I love it, thank you.”

He held out his arm for her. “Ready to go in?”

She nodded and slid her hand into place at his elbow as they walked into the building. Fifteen minutes later, license in hand, they were waiting to see the judge. Feeling like he did when he landed in New York City after months in the slower pace of a third-world country, he stopped outside the door to the courtroom, mind swirling with thoughts. “Are you sure you want to do this? We can find another way. We’ll run away to Argentina or Uruguay or Iceland—I don’t know. We’ll figure out something.”

“If you changed your mind, it’s okay, Cam.”

“No.” He said it—and surprisingly, meant it—with a steadiness he hadn’t been sure he felt, and the tightness in his chest loosened its grip. “If you’re good, I’m good.”

“I’m good.” She said it quietly. And the doors to the courtroom opened.

The judge looked up as they entered the room and came down the stairs from the bench to meet them. He didn’t look nervous at all, which seemed strange considering the dive-bombing bats in Cam’s stomach. He could adapt to a lot of things, and had, but marriage was a new one.

The words to the marriage ceremony were familiar as the judge said them, but the five-minute ceremony went by in a blur. There were I-do’s and I-will’s, but the first thing Cam really heard was “You may kiss your bride.”

Somehow, ridiculous as it seemed, he hadn’t foreseen this moment, and he had the urge to ask her, Is this okay?

Then, with the weight of her father’s ring on his finger, he cupped her cheek with his hand, slid his other hand around her waist and pulled her closer, letting his lips gently brush hers.

He’d made promises before—some of them he’d kept and some of them he hadn’t—but he’d never felt a promise down to his toes like he did this one. He looked into Juliet’s eyes and he knew in that second that he could never find another person who gave her heart as truly or loved as sacrificially as Jules did.

Letting go of her would be...crazy.

Chapter Five (#uc9161e85-c785-54eb-8e6a-ddb5d3aac218)

Jules slammed the door to her car and swung her bag with her laptop over her shoulder. She pulled her coat tighter across her chest. A front was blowing through and the north wind felt like it could slice right through her.

As she hurried toward the bakery and past the law office where her sister worked, the door swung open and a hand grabbed her arm.

“Get in here. We need to talk.” Wynn nearly pulled her off her feet as she dragged her into the office.

Wynn’s partner, Garrett, lounged at his desk in the back, tossing paper balls at the trash can across the room. He looked up with an apologetic wince.

“What’s going on, Wynn?” Jules had hoped to have a day or two to get used to the idea of being married to Cam, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. She should’ve expected it; in a town the size of Red Hill Springs, especially when every third person was a member of her family, secrets were hard to keep.

“Oh, no. That’s my question. Mom told me something that is just...so crazy that I know she didn’t make it up.” Her sister glared at her, hands on her hips, looking all fashionable in her cashmere wrap. By comparison, Jules felt dumpy in her typical work outfit of black leggings and Converse sneakers. She pulled her coat tighter around her and adjusted the strap of the bag on her shoulder.

Wynn snatched her hand and pulled it close. “Oh. My. Lanta. It is true. You have on a wedding ring. Jules, what did you do?”

Jules snatched her hand from her sister’s grasp and fingered the unfamiliar gold-and-diamond ring Cam had put on her finger yesterday. It was beautiful, catching the cold winter light in a million tiny sparkles.

And it felt like it weighed five hundred pounds on her finger. She slid her hand into her hair, rubbing the back of her neck. This was the conversation Jules had been dreading. Of everyone in the world, Wynn knew her the best. She even knew how scared Jules was of losing the girls. And despite the fact that Wynn had made some spectacular mistakes in her life, she always seemed to have it together.

“Well?”

Jules cleared her throat. “Garrett said—”

Alarm flashed across Garrett’s face as his feet hit the floor. “Oh, no, don’t even try that. Garrett said make friends with the uncle. Garrett said try to get the uncle on your side. Garrett did not tell you to pledge your undying love and the next fifty years of your life to the uncle.”

Jules took a deep breath. “You’re right—you’re right. He didn’t. But I did. Marry him, I mean. So you’re both going to have to deal with it.”

Wynn rubbed a hand across her eyes. “I can’t believe you did this. You—the person who has to consult her calendar before she decides to brush her teeth in the morning—just up and got married. What were you thinking?”

Jules shook her head. It wasn’t like it was a complicated decision. Could it really be that hard for Wynn to understand? “It’s actually very simple. I may not have birthed Eleanor and Emma, but they’re mine to protect. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them. Does that clear things up for you?”

Wynn rocked back on her heels. She glanced at the portable crib where her baby girl lay sleeping, and shook her head with a small shrug. “Okay. I get it—I do. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

Jules met her sister’s eyes, so much like hers that they could be identical. The truth slipped out before she could stop it. “I hope so, too.”

“Do you really think the judge will buy it?” Wynn turned to Garrett. “Do you?”

He leaned forward, his earnest face and unruly brown hair a counterpoint to Wynn’s polished beauty. “I don’t know, but if it’s going to have a chance, you’re going to have to act like it’s a genuine relationship.”

“Agreed.” Wynn nodded and turned back to Jules. “Family lunch on Sunday. We’ll have a cake and take pictures, like a reception. You better make it look real.”