CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
QUINN
Well,evidently I was a married woman now, and I hadn’t yet completely lost it. Okay, so I’d had a minor freak-out when Ford had handed me a key outside town hall and said he’d see me at home because…what?
Home?
A home we’d now, apparently, share…
Somehow during all of this, I hadn’t stopped to think about the details. Like the fact that husbands and wives generally lived together, and we certainly weren’t going to do that in Mabel’s extra bedroom down the hall from where she hosted sex toy parties.
Which was how I found myself sitting in my car outside Ford’s cottage, in the dark, and unable to move. My moving in here made the most sense, even if his place looked small enough that I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t accidentally smother him in his sleep in the first week, not to mention the weeks after while we kept up this farce.
What the hell was Idoing? What werewedoing? It was one thing to dive into this when I knew there was nothing between us but simmering animosity, but after that kiss last night…after our first kiss as a technically married couple? I knew I wasn’t the only one who had felt those sparks. The feel of exactly what those kisses had done to Ford had been proof enough of that.
The front door opened, and there he stood. “Are you waiting for an invitation, Mrs. McKenzie?” he asked, backlit by the porch light as he strolled down the front steps of his cottage toward me.
“It’s Cartwright,” I snapped, angry at myself more than him but unable to curb my snippiness.
He was close enough now that I could see him clearly, even in the dark of night, as he eyed me. “You’re not taking my last name?”
“Uh…no,” I said, gathering my purse and the bag I had in the passenger seat. “This is going to be a blink of a marriage, so I’m not going through all that. Changing names is a giant pain in the ass. If this were forever, it would be a different story, but we’re not talking about forever. We’re talking about for now.”
It was the same thing I’d been repeating to myself since we’d said I do, but it hadn’t seemed to lessen this giant boulder filling up the entirety of my stomach.
After a deep breath, I stepped out of the car and finally allowed myself to take him in. He’d changed out of his wedding attire—thank God—but this wasn’t any better. He wore a fitted SCFD T-shirt that molded to his chest and biceps and a pair of gray sweatpants that left very little to the imagination and showcased a whole lot of him.
A whole fucking lot. Sweet fancy Moses riding a bicycle, there didn’t appear to be anything little aboutthat.
He chuckled under his breath and snapped his fingers in front of his crotch. “Man, Beck really is onto something…”
I shot my gaze up to his. “What?”
“He and Everly read romance books together. He swears they’re like manuals and more men should take note. And your ogling proves romances are basically law—gray sweatpants really are like lingerie for men, aren’t they?”
I refused to take his bait about the sweatpants—but he was absolutely right, because sweet Lord in heaven, they should’ve been illegal on Ford and his not-so-little friend—and admit he’d caught me drooling over him. So instead, I asked, “You read romance?”
“Hell yeah, I do,” he said, taking my bag from my hand and shouldering it. Then, with a wink, he added, “The filthy ones are my favorite.”
Romances ranked right up there with cozy mysteries for me, so I’d read my fair share of them—had a well-worn copy ofBeing His Good Girlstuffed in my bag, in fact—so I could only imagine what constituted filthy in Ford’s mind.
“You got any more?” he asked.
I snapped my gaze to his, wondering if I’d mentioned the dog-eared copy of one of my favorite books out loud.
“Bags,” he clarified. “Is it just this sad little thing, or do you have more?”
“One more in the back seat.”
“Twosad little bags.” He opened the back door and grabbed it. “You travel light.”
That was true. I’d sold most of my possessions before the move to Starlight Cove since I didn’t know where I’d be staying or how long I’d be staying there.
I shrugged, following him up the stairs to his cottage. “I still have a few things at Mabel’s place, but I didn’t want to chance being there any longer than I had to be in case I ran into her. But you and I both know that only buys us a couple hours, max, and she’s going to be on this. I hope you’re prepared to tell everybody tomorrow.”
“I’ll never be ready to have my ass handed to me by my baby sister.”
“Addison will be mad?”
