“It’s not a problem,” I said, keen to get off the phone. Admittedly, I’d been disappointed when we’d checked the records and weren’t listed, which meant our marriage certificate hadn’t been filed.
It was what we’d hoped for, right?
“I can guarantee you, Mr. Beckett, that we pride ourselves in giving our couples the best experience. Now that your certificate has been filed, you’ll see it in the public records in a few days?—”
“I’m sorry, what?”
She cleared her voice. “As I said, your marriage certificate has been filed. I’m so very sorry it was late. To compensate for this, we would like to offer to host your vow renewal at no cost should you want to celebrate it in the future. Your information is in our records now, so all we’ll need is a date, and we’ll be happy to accommodate you.”
“Um…okay…” was all I could get out as I looked at Jax’s expression, totally oblivious to the bomb I was going to drop as soon as I got off the call.
“Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Beckett. Have a great day.”
I put the phone down, my hands shaking.
“What’s going on?” Jodie asked.
“Tanner?”
I circled my temples to find the strength to stand up to my best friend and not lose the man I’d been in love with most of my life.
“Jax, we’re still married. That was the chapel. They apologi?—”
“You’re fucking what?” Jodie asked in a raised voice.
I put my hands on her shoulders. “Jodie, honey. I’m so sorry, but you and I can’t get married. You deserve to find someone who loves all of you, not just your heart. You will always be my best friend, and I will always love you to the moon and back, but I also want to spend my life loving someone who can give me their heart, body, and soul.”
Her voice was surprisingly steady when she replied. “I’m really confused. You said you were married.”
“Well, that’s a different story altogether. Jax and I went to Vegas and ended up getting married. When we contacted the chapel to ask them not to file the paperwork, they said they’d lost it. That call was them saying they finally found and filed the certificate. So another one of the reasons I can’t marry you is because I’m already married to Jax.”
She turned to Jax. “Is this true?”
Jax nodded. I went over to him and placed my hands on his waist. “Did you really mean what you said earlier? Before the kiss?”
“Every single fucking word.”
“Manners, Jaxon,” Jodie chided, and I bit back a smile while Jax rolled his eyes.
“That thing you feel when you’re close to me? I feel the same way about you, Jax. I’m so stupidly in love with you, and I’m tired of hiding it. Tired of pretending that I’m happy doing the casual thing and not talking about what it means. I want to talk about what it means and tell you that every kiss from you lights up my soul.”
Jodie made a gagging sound that I ignored.
“What do we do now?” he asked.
“We go on dates, we have all the sex, and in a year, if we’re still together, we can renew our vows in Vegas for free.”
Jax’s arms tightened around me, and he pressed his face into the crook of my neck. “God, I fucking love you so much, Tan. This has all been a mess, but I can’t bring myself to regret it.”
“I feel the same way.”
He gave me a short kiss on the lips that carried more meaning than any other kiss we’d had before, but when we parted, his eyes went over to his sister.
Jodie sat on the couch with her hands covering her face. Her shoulders were shaking. Jax sat next to her and held her.
“I’m so sorry, Jodie. We didn’t mean to hurt you.” He kissed her head. “Wait—are you laughing?”
She raised her head and her eyes filled with tears.
