Accusing him like that isn’t very nice of me, since I, myself, am freaked out to discover I’m already married.
“No!”he says, his voice cracking like he’s going through puberty.“I’m just surprised.Honestly, I don’t remember it.”
“I don’t remember it either.”
“I remember it!”Beyoncé says.“It’s not often a bride takes her vows after she pops her boobs out of her dress.”
I slap my forehead.
“Now,thatdoes ring a bell,” Declan announces, happily.“Hey, maybe my memory is coming back!”
I stand up and push Declan into the Beyoncé room to talk to him in private.Closing the curtain, I round on him, trying to keep my voice down.
“I can’t do this,” I tell him.
“But—”
“Don’t speak.I can’t be married to a man when I don’t remember actually marrying him!”
“But—”
“Stop!Our marriage is already a joke!Hey, I don’t mind being joked around with, but I don’t want to be laughed at.”
“Who’s laughing?I’m not.And we came here tonight to get married, so this is actually a timesaver!”
I stare at him, baffled.“You know what?I’m the first to admit that I’m not the most romantic person in the world, but evenIdon’t want to be referred to as a timesaver.”
“Not you!Theprocess.The certificate and rings and stuff.It’s already a done deal.”
I squint at him, trying to get a clear picture of what’s going on with him.I watch his shoulders drop.
“You don’t want to marry me, Summer?”he whispers.
“Not like this.At the very least I’d like to remember who said what and exactly what I agreed to.”
“Okay.”Declan looks sad.“So what do you want?An annulment?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll get right on it once we get home.It shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish, and then we can start from scratch.We’ll get married again, stone-cold sober and in front of our friends and family—but without a wedding dress.Though you’ll probably want to keep the girls covered up this time around.”
“Are you laughing at this?”
“No!”Declan says.“Can’t you see I’ve broken out into a sweat?I don’t know what youwant, Summer!I don’t know why this is suddenly such an unpleasant turn of events.We wanted to be married, and we’re married.”
“We made a mistake.Let’s get a quick annulment and forget this ever happened.I want to go home.”I turn to leave but he grabs me and spins me around.He leans into me, drops his gaze to my lips, and kisses me.
I melt in his arms and surrender under the demands of his mouth on mine.Here he is again, trying to convince me of something by kissing me.So much bigger than me.So much power.I love him so much.
But if I let him get away with this, then all he’ll ever have to do is kiss me to get me to agree with him, and I can’t let that happen.
I press my palms against his chest and lean away.When I get a look at his expression, I realize he still has a few things on his mind.
“No,” he says matter-of-factly.“That is not happening, Summer.We willnotforget that we’re married.But since this first attempt wasn’t exactly the fairy tale, we’ll do it again, formally.No arguments.”
“You make me so mad!”I shout at him.
“What did I do?”His voice cracks again.
