Page 77 of The Marriage Mistake

“Yep,” I said, stroking the back of her arm.

She smiled at me, and even though I didn’t see anything wrong in her gaze, a dart of doubt went through me. This was exactly what Ember had wanted. Filing this wedding certificate was part of our agreement.

After this, would she leave? Would she file for divorce once she got her inheritance?

Everything had changed for me, but I wasn’t sure Ember was the type of woman who would change directions once she was on her chosen path.

I wasn’t sure I would be a big enough reason for her to stay.

And if she did stay…what kind of man did that make me? To move on from my dead wife so easily. To bring a new woman into my daughter’s life.

I knew it had been over a decade. I knew Darby loved having Ember around. Still, doubts swirled.

When Ember smiled shyly at me and tucked the wedding certificate into her bag, the doubts faded. She was here, and she was mine. We would figure it out.

TWENTY

EMBER

Filing the wedding certificate was the work of a few minutes. We did the paperwork and then stepped out onto the steps outside Town Hall. Trees shed their leaves in the strong breeze. I inhaled the briny scent of the sea and looked around at the shabby but cute town that hugged the coastline. A place that had felt wild and unfamiliar, and now felt like home.

I didn’t want to leave. I hugged my wool jacket around myself as a gust of wind blasted into me, promising a cold winter. Even as I shivered, my legs only covered with sheer tights and my favorite burgundy pencil skirt, I couldn’t make myself want to move somewhere warmer. I’d take a bitter winter. I’d take stormy seas and downed trees. I’d take anything, because Marswood Harbor was where I wanted to be.

No—that wasn’t quite accurate. I wanted to be where Jack and Darby were, and the fact that he was in this beautiful, wild, windy town was just a happy bonus.

Then I turned and blinked. Jack was gone. No—not gone. He was down on one knee, and he was holding something sparkly.

His gaze was soft, and his lips were curled into a smile. “I saw the way you looked when you picked it up at Ivan’s shop,” he said, tilting a little velvet box toward me.

I realized it was the ring. The cluster ring with a round diamond in the center and about ten stones surrounding it. The one that had made my heart squeeze.

“What—when⁠—?”

“I went back that afternoon,” Jack admitted, taking my left hand and slipping the ring onto it. It fit.

My heart was a hard ball. I stared and stared and stared. I’d never thought of myself as vain. I’d never imagined that I would be swept up in something as frivolous as a bit of metal and stone on my finger. I was practical, and reasonable, and logical.

And yet.

Looking at my hand bearing my two new rings, I felt like someone different. I felt like a woman worthy of being married, someone who had been chosen, someone who was loved. It was right there on my finger for anyone to see.

I wasn’t the off-putting, dry, unwanted thirty-year-old who was too boring to bag a man. With this ring, I was the wife of a man as beautiful, charming, clever, and funny as Jack.

He’d spent so much money on this. And he’d done it after we’d only known each other one single day. This meant that from the start, he felt… He wanted…

I met his gaze, dizzy. “I can’t,” I whispered.

“You can,” he whispered back.

“It’s too much.”

His thumb stroked the edge of my hand, all the way down to my wrist. “I want you to wear it.”

“It’s too expensive.” My voice was a croak.

Jack stood. The light touch of his finger on my chin made me glance away from the ring and into the blue of his eyes. “Ember,” he murmured. “I want you to have it. I want you to wear it every day. Everywhere. It’s not too expensive. It’s not too much. If I could, I would have you dripping in precious stones, because that’s how much you’re worth to me.”

Inhaling, I couldn’t ignore the way his words made my body tighten. The way that light touch on my chin made me burn for him. “I don’t understand.”