“Goose?”
Adam blinks once.
“Yes!” Brody exclaims.
My heart is bursting with joy and happiness. I never expected this moment to occur. I thought Adam would despise me for bringing Brody here, and I wouldn’t truly know if it was the case. The relief is overwhelming, and I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
We spend the next two hours watching the movie with Adam, but he quickly falls asleep shortly after the credits begin rolling. I nod my head to tell Brody we should get going. He stands and walks toward the door while I kiss Adam on his head and whisper, “I love you” into his ear before leaving. “See you next week.”
Brody and I were quiet as we left the facility, but as soon as we sat down in the truck, Brody teared up, squeezing his fingers around the bridge of his nose. “Shit,” he says.
“Are you okay?” I ask, placing my hand on his knee.
“No, not at all. I get it, Journey. I get why you take the blame, and though I know the accident wasn’t our fault, it was because of us.”
“Yeah,” I agree.
“He doesn’t deserve this,” he says. “Are we horrible people?”
He’s asking me the same question I ask myself every day. “I’m not the right person to ask,” I tell him honestly.
Brody tosses his head back against his seat and turns his head to look at me. “You are an incredible person, Journey. I’m amazed by you, and I just fell for your heart, your soul—I want to be the kind of person you are. Is that weird?”
I smile because I love his raw honesty. “Very, but a little cute, at the same time.”
“Journey, I just have one question that’s boggling my mind. How is Adam living there for free?”
“I never said he was living here for free.”
21
I had been marriedfor three months to a man I hadn’t seen or spoken to in the same amount of time. I hadn’t attempted to reach him, but I needed to undo what I had done. Klanner Trucking was the company he worked for. I had his name and the company, which was all I needed to locate him, thankfully. I didn’t know what I would say aside from sorry, but all I had done was marry him while drunk on my twenty-first birthday, then took the ten-thousand-dollar ring with me. The ring was still sitting in my coat pocket, which I hadn’t wore since the morning I got home from Vegas.
I spoke to a receptionist for his company and left a phone number for him to reach me. I was shocked to find out he was still working for Klanner Trucking after winning the jackpot. The woman said she would reach out to him and give him the message with my information. It was less than a few hours before my phone rang with an unrecognized number.
I was a nervous wreck saying, “Hello.”
“Journey?” Tucker questioned as if I was a ghost from his past—one he never expected to speak to again.
“I—I am so sorry for running off. I found out my ex-boyfriend had come out of his coma and I just—”
“I understand,” he said. “How do you want to handle this? We’re still legally married.”
“I think an annulment will be the best option. I can send the ring to you. An annulment will make sure you keep all your assets too. I don’t want you to think I had intentions of taking half of what was yours and then running off. It just looked that way.”
There was a pause before Tucker responded. “I didn’t think you were trying to trick me. I figured I scared you off. Plus, I didn’t hear from you, so it wasn’t like I thought you were after the money since it’s in my possession.”
“I’m not after your money at all. I’m just trying to figure out my life, and I’m sorry I pulled you down with me.”
“Don’t be. I enjoyed our time together.”
“Okay, well, I will talk to an attorney about starting the process of an annulment. I’ll probably need some information from you to do so, but I’ll see what that entails first.”
“Whatever you need,” Tucker said. He didn’t seem as upset as I thought he might be. Maybe he realized it was a mistake after I left too. How could he not? His new wife was gone within twenty-four hours of taking vows.
“Is this a good number to reach you at?” I sounded like I was completing a business deal.
“Yes, this is my cell.”
