He patted the seat beside him. Laurel went to take another sip of coffee and found her cup empty. Tossing it into a nearby trash bin, she finally relented and joined him. She hardly made contact with the bench before Chase dove right into the heart of the matter. “There’s no way to sugarcoat this, so I won’t.”
The serious tone caused Laurel to stiffen with concern.Guess we’re done discussing the fire. She hadn’t given much thought as towhatthis news was other thannot good, but now she was afraid it was bad. Too many possibilities raced through her overactive mind, and none of them did anything for that knot in her stomach. “Are you sick? You’re not dying, are you?”
“What? No.” Chase’s light chuckle eased a sliver of her fears. “Nothing like that.”
“Then, what?”
“We’re still married.”
Laurel stared at him, unblinking. “Excuse me?”
“It’s a technicality,” he explained, his gaze focused on a fishing boat in the bay headed toward deeper waters. “A missed signature.”
“We got divorced fiveyearsago.” Laurel took a deep inhale, willing her brain to function at a higher capacity. Surely there was something she was missing. Something she misunderstood. No one wentfive yearsbelieving they were legally divorced only to find out they weren’t. “This isn’t some movie, Chase. This is real life.”
“Jenkins discovered it,” he said evasively.
“Six months ago?” She remembered how he’d pulled her into a spare room at Ava’s engagement party, insisting he had something important to tell her. Only she asked him to wait until Melly was born before he did. And he’d waited all that time.
He dug his fingers hard into his neck as he rolled it around his shoulders, like he always did when he was avoiding some hard-to-spit-out truth. “More like a year.”
“Ayear?” Laurel gripped the bench so hard she thought she might crack a board. “You didn’t think to call me?”
“Don’t have your newFloridanumber.”
Laurel pinned him with narrowed eyes. She hoped he could feel the daggers she was shooting at him. “So, you ask my parents. Or Marc. Or Cody. Or look me up on LinkedIn.” Laurel’s hands trembled from multiple emotions: irritation, shock, and worst of all, mourning. Sitting still had never been her forte, but now it felt impossible. She sprang to her feet so she could pace, narrowly missing a jogger on the sidewalk.
The day she left Sunset Ridge would be burned into her mind forever. The pain she felt when she shattered the undeniable connection between them and boarded the plane. She left a piece of her soul behind that day, but it was what had to happen. The only fair thing to do in the grand scheme of things.
Why was fate pulling a fast one on her now?
“You get married to someone else while you were away or something?” Though Chase chuckled, she caught the undercurrent in his tone. She wasn’t doing this. Not today. Not on such little sleep and not nearly enough coffee.
“How didyoufind out, Chase?”
“I told you. Jenkins.”
She bit down on her bottom lip so hard she thought it might bleed. Jenkins had handled the whole divorce. But because Chase paid all the fees, it made irritating sense that the lawyer wouldn’t try to contactherabout the matter. “Whose signature is missing?”
“Yours.”
Her TOMS sandals tore up the grass as she marched back and forth, back and forth. The shock of this news made the series of sleepless nights seem pleasant in comparison. How could they have been married this entire time? “Do you have the papers?”
“They’re at Jenkins’ office.”
At least this matter could be put to rest swiftly. “Well, don’t just sit there. Let’s go.” Laurel had to sign them now, before she had too much time to think and lost her nerve. She refused to believe this was fate nudging her at some sappy second chance. They weren’t meant to be together, and she couldn’t start entertaining that very dangerous thought just because this small detail came to light.
“I thought you were busy,” Chase challenged as he followed her to the main sidewalk.
“This is by far the quickest thing I can mark off my to-do list today.”
“So, that’s it, then?” he said, hurt in his tone that nearly made Laurel’s heart crack in two all over again. But she refused to let an ounce of it show in her expression. It was better if he thought she no longer loved him. He deserved the things she couldn’t give him.
“This is just a technicality. Nothing more.”
He shoved both hands into his pockets, the sun catching the prominent stain on his shirt. She really did feel bad about spilling and eagerly jumped on the chance to change the subject. “I can have that shirt dry-cleaned,” she offered a second time. “Or buy you a new one.”
“I’ll just give it to Zeus. He’ll think it’s his birthday and rip it to shreds.”
