“Then I guess this is the push you need to prove it to her,” Case says, looking over at his now smiling wife. “Sometimes, that’s all it takes to get things movin’ down the right path.”
“You know I didn’t believe in the whole prophesy in the beginnin’,” Isla explains. “But I knew how I felt about Case andthathelped me trust in myself, him, and eventually the mountain.”
“You sayin’ I need to man up, and not only tell her what I want, but show her too?”
This time it’s Blair that nods. “You two are meant to be. Legally bound or otherwise. All that’s left to do is prove it’s true.”
OK. I’m actually going to do this.
“If it helps, in all of Aster’s books about the Call, there’s a common theme thatalwayswins the reluctant or disbelievin’ heroines over,” Birdie says. “Want to know what it is?”
I think back to the books I’ve read and almost all of the stories are about the couple falling in love and overcoming whatever obstacles are in their way to be together—even if it’s themselves.
Birdie continues, answering for me. “It’s about showin’ up. The whole idea of ‘if they wanted to, they would’ idea. If you want her, if you want this to turn into somethin’ real?—”
“I do. I knew the moment I saw her. I was sure when I talked to her. But when I kissed her as my wife—even knowin’ it wasn’t real—nothin’ was more important to me than her.” I wince when I realize how that might sound to my family. “Sorry, I mean?—”
“You mean exactly what you said,” Will says, a wide smile taking over his face as he looks to his wife. “That’s how it’s supposed to be. You know this isn’t goin’ to be easy though. Especially since the first thing you’ve got to do is go to the Wilsons to get Em’s address.”
Dread hits me like a freight train. “I’ll have to tell them.”
“We can come with you, if you want. Go as a united front?” Case suggests. Will and Sutton nod in agreement.
“I can come and confess my part in all of this too,” Pete offers. “Whatever helps, Jude. Maybe it’ll stop them thinkin’ this was anythin’ else but an unfortunate accident.”
I bristle at the word unfortunate. Untimely? Sure. Never unfortunate.
It hits me that this could’ve been on the cards the whole time. Em and I were simply tempting fate.
What itdoesmean is my plan to take it slow with Em has just taken an unexpected detour straight to ‘act now.’
“I appreciate the offer,” I say, looking around the room. “But this is somethin’ I need to do on my own. It wasn’t part of the plan, but it’s no one’s fault. That doesn’t mean that I can't start to try and make it right. Startin’ with going to Palmer and telling Em about this in person.”
It’s exactly what a good, not-so-fake husband should do.
“What did you just say?” Asher growls, jumping to his feet.
“Ash,” Dare warns, pressing his hand against his brother’s chest. “We said we would hear him out.”
Asher’s glare cuts from me to the oldest Wilson sibling. “That was before he told us he tricked our sister… ourdad—into binding us all by marriage.” Ash turns back to me. “Was this the plan? To join our families so we couldn’t go after what Dad wanted?”
“Ash, that’senough,” Dare says, leaving absolutely no room for argument in his tone. “You know that Em and Jude bein’ legally married means nothin’ in terms of the ranch. They signed a prenup before the ceremony. Jude wouldn’t have done that if he wanted to get his hands on our land.” He looks over his shoulder. “Right?”
I nod, deciding now mightnotbe the right time to get into the nitty gritty about the prenup.
“It was an accident,” I repeat, even though I’ve come to hate that word. “Pete didn’t realize that the license was in the pile. He didn’t know what he’d done until the certificate arrived in the mail.”
“Wait,” one of the twins says, entering the fray. I wish I knew how to tell EJ and BJ apart but when they wear almost identical shirts and jeans like they are today, it’s near impossible. “Can’t you cancel it. It’s not like they’ve consummated the marriage, and it was nevermeantto be real. Is there like a thirty-day cancellation policy or somethin’?”
I rub the back of my neck, suddenly regretting my decision not to let someone from home come along with me for moral support, if nothing else. “It’s been more than thirty days.”Five weeks and four days, in fact. “But there’s no provision for that anyway.”
The other twin has been quiet the whole time I’ve been here, but now he’s busy scrolling on his phone. “OK. OK. I’velooked up grounds for annulment in the state of Alaska.”
“I don’twantan annulment,” I mutter but my declaration goes unnoticed, all attention goes to the twin with the phone.
“What does it say, BJ?” Dare asks.At least I know which twin is which now.
“Includes bigamy,” he looks up at me, “are you already married?” I shake my head, earning a shrug from him before he continues, “incest—well that’s out, obviously. Fraud? Duress? What does that mean?”