He never blushed. The sensation was enough to knock him off his course. She smelled of lilacs and fresh rain.
“I’m so sorry. You go first,” she said. Her voice was strong and yet a caress that drew him near. He had the strangest feeling that he’d like to slay a dragon.
He thrust the door open and motioned for her to enter. “I insist.”
“Thank you.” Her cheeks dusted pink, and for the first time in his life, Adam was quite out of his mind over a woman. He couldn’t remember where he was going or why it was important.
“You look lovely,” he said, not even sure the words made it out of his mouth. He didn’t throw out compliments to strangers. Heck, he didn’t compliment anyone.
Her smile deepened. “Thank you. I’m meeting my fiancé upstairs. We’re getting married today.” She nodded once, her smile lighting up the entire lobby and cracking through the plaster he’d applied to his heart long ago, and then she was off to the elevators and he was left feeling as though he’d missed the opportunity of a lifetime.
Chapter Two
Bella
King County Courthouse was not a cathedral draped in white tulle, nor was it a quaint country church covered in flowers, but it had one thing that Bella Creer’s dream locations did not—a groom. She smiled as she thought of the handsome stranger who’d held the door for her. He had wavy blond hair, and those blue eyes had to be electric, because when he’d looked at her a current ran through her bloodstream. He had a straight nose and an air of determination that was … alluring. That was it. The pull she’d felt toward him was all because he was so handsome—few men could claim the level of good looks he seemed to manage with ease.
But she shouldn’t be thinking about how good-looking another man was on her wedding day. Charles, her fiancé, was no slouch in the looks department. His jet-black hair, olive skin, and charcoal eyes turned heads—including Bella’s.
Charles Alexander worked as a criminal court researcher by day. At night, they’d study for the bar exam together. Well, more like she’d help him study for the bar exam. But helping him learn was helping her learn too. Charles graduated from law school and had just taken the exam, so their lives were in flux, and now was the perfect time to get married. Once they’d tied the knot, she would quit and study for the bar herself. Their plan was working beautifully, and even though she didn’t have a long train on her dress or a veil, she was satisfied with the courthouse marriage. After all, they both loved the law, and it would be a big part of their lives together.
The elevator went up, and Bella tried not to think about the other things that were missing from this day. The cake—who needed the calories? A wedding march—just pomp and circumstance. Although, her heart ached that her father wasn’t there to walk her down the aisle or kiss her cheek in congratulations after she became Mrs. Alexander.
Her father had always encouraged her to go to law school, as he had, and promised her a place in his small firm. But Bella longed to make her own path, to find her place. She’d been on the fence about law school until she met Charles. He laid out a future for them, where they were partners—he the lawyer and she his law clerk—that sounded romantic and important. Charles was going places, and she was right there with him. That’s what this wedding was about. Not showing off a dress, but uniting in their shared dream. Charles wanted her to matter in the world, not handle petty disputes between renters and apartment owners like her father did on a daily basis. She was planning on taking the bar when the timing was right.
The numbers over the door ticked off slowly as Bella fell into a contemplative mindset. Perhaps that’s why she fell so hard so fast for Charles. He was always dreaming, always planning, always on the lookout for his big break. His level of determination was exhausting and thrilling at the same time.
Finding time to tie the knot was more difficult than they’d anticipated. Twice they’d had to put off the date until, finally, Bella thought up thewedding in a lunch. She’d meet Charles in his cubicle on his lunch break, they’d ride the elevators to the top floor for a rooftop exchange of vows, and then be back to work by one.
The elevator doors slid open on the seventh floor, and she glided down the hallway to the small office Charles shared with twenty otherunderlings. (His word, not hers.) She smiled at the few people working through their lunch break and picked up her pace. A level of excitement she hadn’t felt since their first date had her pulse racing. She was getting married!
Rounding the corner, she came up short at an empty cubicle. Not only was Charles missing, so was the picture of the two of them that she’d framed and placed on his desk. She sat down in the rolling chair that smelled of his tangy body spray and drummed her fingers on her knee. Just like Charles, the desk was a cluttered mess of file folders, some empty, some not; a pen without a lid; and irrelevant sticky notes. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and straightened the area for him. After all, a clean desk made a good impression on the boss. She hummed quietly as she worked to fill the sense of emptiness that prevailed. Once the desk was no longer chaos, she checked the time on her phone.
Charles was fifteen minutes late.
She drummed her fingers once before calling his number. Cradling the phone between her shoulder and her cheek, she listened impatiently as it rang once, twice, three times.
“Hello?”
Her shoulders sagged with relief. “Charles? Are you close?”
“Close to where?” He spoke loudly to be heard over the background noise. It sounded like he was on the street.
“To the courthouse.” She glanced at her reflection in the dark monitor and self-consciously smoothed out the line between her eyes.
“Bella—you aren’t going to believe what happened!”
Her throat went dry. “What?”
“I got a call from Wolfe, Wolfe & Wolfe this morning. They want to hire me. We’re waiting for a table at Hattie’s right now. I’m floating. Can you believe it? All my hard work is finally paying off.”
Bella pulled her phone away from her ear and stared at it.Hishard work?She’dcreated his résumé.She’dfilled out the information packet the firm sent him.She’dlooked up interview questions and prepped him for a week, putting off her studies in the process. Brushing away her annoyance—after all, these were the kinds of things people did for one another when they were in love; sacrifice was part of a healthy relationship—she said, “We were supposed to get married five minutes ago,” as sweetly as she could manage.
“We’ll have to reschedule,” he said with all practicality.
Reschedule? Reschedule! She’d had to make this appointment three months in advance. It wasn’t a dental cleaning that could be put off a week.
The sound of his hand covering the mic grated across her nerves. She glanced down at the lemon-yellow dress she’d worn simply because she felt happy that morning. That man with the electric-blue eyes had said she lookedlovely. The word was old-fashioned, but it had rolled off his tongue with ease. When was the last time Charles said anything of the sort? Shouldn’t her fiancé be the one to make butterflies take flight in her stomach, not some gorgeous stranger with wavy blond hair and a broad set of shoulders?
