Forever was only a few short words from that moment.
“I now pronounce you man and wife,” Father Flanagan said, after Kelly had made his promises.
My brother made a low, desperate noise in his throat, but it didn’t matter. There was no use in protesting. It was done.
“You may kiss your bride, Cashel Fallon Kelly.”
Kelly stared at me a moment before he set my veil aside. I lifted my eyes in challenge, daring him to kiss me again. The look on his face after our kiss in Harrison’s kitchen would forever be burned into my memory. He was a pawn to it, to whatever attraction existed between us, just like I was.
As if he could read my thoughts, he grinned at me, and then his hand slid into my hair and he pulled my face closer to his. “That’s a real daring face, darlin’, and somethin’ you should know about me—I never pick truth.”
Then he kissed me.
I didn’t even realize that someone had busted through the doors of the church. That he was screaming. That I had a trembling hand pressed against my lips. That my heart felt utterly wild, my soul completely lost, my mind locked in battle with the rest of me. Not until Kelly turned away from me, a grin on his face, to face an enraged Scott Stone, who, a second later, had my new husband in handcuffs.
13
Keely
Cashel Kelly was a fucking masochist if I’d ever met one.
He didn’t fight the handcuffs. He didn’t even stop smiling as Scott read him his rights. All the while I stood there next to Father Flanagan, while my brother demanded to know the charges against his client, wondering if this was going to be my life.
Reality check.It is.
I should’ve known that our first meeting directed our relationship. How many people meet in a cemetery?
“It’s not too late to back out,” Father Flanagan said to me, not looking at me but at the scene in front of him. “No papers have been signed.”
He had asked me that before, during our meeting, if I wanted an out. He said he’d known Cash his entire life, since he was a wee babe, and how persuasive he could be when he set his mind to something. It seemed Father Flanagan knew more about this situation than he cared to admit. However, there was no out for me.
“No,” I said. “Papers weren’t signed, but this is a done deal. I made vows I intend to keep. They mean something to me, regardless of the circumstances.”
“Ah,” Father Flanagan breathed out, and there was something almost funny about the way he had done it.
I turned to look at him and a huge smile lit up his face.
“What?” I said.
“Oh, nothin’,” he said, with the samela de daattitude Kelly pulled off. “I…I’m delighted! I’d tell you to give him hell, but I’d prefer it if you’d give him a taste of heaven, since…”
I lifted my dress, prepared to ride with Harrison to the police station. “Hell is more his speed.”
“Somethin’ like that.” He put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Go with vigor and grace, my child. You’re going to need both.”
I met Harrison outside as they put a hand to Cash’s head, pushing him into a waiting police car. There were five cars, each one holding two policemen, for one man.
“What are they arresting him for?” I asked my brother.
Harrison shook his head. “Murder.”
I turned and really looked at him. He shrugged, like the charge was nothing too exciting.
“Did he do it?” I asked.
“Draw your own conclusions, but they never have enough evidence to convict him.”
I let that sink in for a moment.They never have enough evidence.
