“This is fine,” Livvi whispered theatrically from behind me. “Totally normal.”
I turned to glare at her, but she only widened her eyes innocently, clutching her vanilla latte like we’d dragged her to a funeral.
Talon stood next to her, arms crossed over his chest, radiating swimmer-boy big-brother energy. “Are you two sure about this?”
Ledger and I exchanged a quick look. A silent, shared please-don’t-make-us-say-it-out-loud look we’d perfected over the last forty-eight hours.
“It’s the only option.” I tried to sound confident instead of like my soul had temporarily left my body.
Ledger nodded firmly, like he was giving a post-swim interview. “Yeah. This is the only way to keep everything from falling apart. Housing, sponsorship, my swim career … this is what makes sense.”
“‘Makes sense’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here,” Talon muttered.
I lifted my chin anyway. “We know it’s insane. But we also know it’s what we have to do.”
“We’re sure.” Ledger exhaled slowly. “As sure as we’re ever going to be.”
Talon didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue, either.
Ridge held up his phone. “Can’t wait to tell your future kids about this one. ‘Hey, little Hayes, want tosee the courtroom where your parents got panic-married?’”
Livvi elbowed him. “There will be no children. This is clearly a short-term, paperwork-based union of convenience.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Thank you, Liv.”
I inhaled deeply, letting the courthouse air, dry and mildly depressing, fill my lungs. This was good. This was fine. A means to an end.
A woman in a black dress poked her head out of the double doors. “Roxie Montgomery and Ledger Hayes?”
We both flinched.
We followed her into a cramped room with peeling wallpaper and a ficus plant in the corner that had clearly given up on life the same year the furniture was purchased. A podium stood at the front, a laminated sign taped to it reading“Congratulations on your marriage!”
The exclamation point felt aggressive.
“This is it?” I murmured.
Ledger glanced around. “You expected flowers?”
“No. But maybe a window. Or a plant that hasn’t been dead since the nineties.”
His mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. But close.
Ridge walked in behind us and immediately stage-whispered, “Wow. Stunning. Breathtaking.”
Talon pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ridge, for once, please?—”
“No, no,” he insisted, waving vaguely at the room. “Let the romance wash over you. Let the magic seep into your pores.”
Livvi snorted. “If magic smells like carpet mildew, sure.”
I shot Ledger a sideways glance. He looked … not nervous, exactly. Just deeply uncomfortable. Like he wanted to detach from his own body and observe this moment from a safe emotional distance.
Which, honestly, was a mood.
The officiant, a middle-aged woman in a courthouse badge and a cardigan decorated with embroidered kittens, smiled warmly at us. “All right, you two lovebirds. Are we ready?”
My brain short-circuited. Lovebirds.
