Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“Yes, dear?”
“Oh, I, um…no…I…um…”
Gannon came to my rescue. “If you ladies will excuse us.”
“Of course, of course.” Aunt Agatha motioned with her hands for us to leave.
“You came in the nick of time,” I whispered as Gannon led us away with a hand on my arm. “I don’t think your aunt is very happy about us getting married on Halloween. Or maybe it’s Monday that’s the problem.”
Gannon laughed, steering us through the crowd of people.
“Where are we going?” I asked, smiling at the people we passed.
Leaning in closer, Gannon said, “I found out where Harlee and Thomas disappeared to. Brax told me.”
“How did he know?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know as we made our way to the back far right corner of the room.
“I saw him coming through the same door with my cousin, Lynn.”
I stopped walking. “He did not!”
Gannon laughed under his breath. “Oh yes, he did. He confessed everything.”
“I’m not having sex where my brother just had sex, Gannon!”
“We’re not. He only made it to the men’s restroom. Apparently, Lynn was impatient.”
“Ugh,” I gagged, trying to get the mental image out of my head.
Gannon pulled open a door, and we both glanced behind us to see if anyone was watching before we slipped inside. We were standing in a hallway that led to one set of bathrooms.
“Where else does this go?” I asked as Gannon guided us down the hall.
“Apparently there’s an office back here with a large desk and a sofa.”
“And how did you find that out?”
“Thomas told Braxton, who told me. Then he said if I even thought of sneaking you out to have sex, he’d beat my ass.”
I rolled my eyes. “Like he’s so innocent.”
We stopped at the office door and Gannon put his hand on the knob, but I quickly stopped him. Leaning toward the door, I put my finger up to my mouth.
“Someone’s in there,” I whispered.
Gannon shook his head. “Impossible.”
I could hear muffled voices, but I wasn’t entirely sure where they were coming from.
“I think that’s just noise from the bakery downstairs,” Gannon said softly. He turned the knob and opened the door.
We both carefully stepped inside, exhaling in relief. The room was empty. Gannon shut the door and locked it as I walked farther into the room.
He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder. “I was so looking forward to being inside of you, but honestly I’m exhausted.”
“Me too,” I said with a giggle. Turning in his arms, I wrapped my own around his neck. “I cannot wait to marry you, Gannon.”
He rubbed his nose against mine. “Neither can I. I’m counting down the days. I don’t want to wait any longer.”
My stomach did a little drop as if I’d just gone down a rollercoaster. “What if we don’t wait?”
He drew his brows in. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we still get married on Halloween—but what if we sneak off to the courthouse before then? We already have the marriage license. Let’s just do it!”
He stepped back and looked at me with surprise. “You want to?”
Laughing, I hopped up and down a bit. “Yes! Let’s do it.”
“Okay…Monday morning?”
“Monday morning!”
The knob to the room jiggled, followed by a loud knock.
“Gannon Wilson, you get off of my daughter right this second!”
Gannon and I walked up the steps of the small office off Main Street that housed the Seaside Police Department, the city offices, and the courthouse where the justice of the peace would marry us. If anyone saw us, they’d most likely assume we were going to get our marriage license.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I said. “I feel like we’re being naughty!”
Gannon took my hand in his as he opened the door to the building. We made our way through the halls to an office in the back where I knew Mitch Murphy, a justice of the peace, would be working today.
Gannon held up the file that contained our marriage license. “Ready?”
I placed my hand over my mouth, attempting to keep a giggle in. “So ready!”
There was really no good reason we were doing this, other than to just do it. Something all on our own that no one else knew about. A secret the two of us would share with no one else.
Lord help us if there were any spies in the courthouse.
I reached for the door and opened it. The receptionist was an old friend of ours from high school. She looked up and smiled.
“Oh my gosh, what are you two doing here?” Mindy Larson asked as she stood and came around the desk. “I haven’t seen you in forever, Addie! I’ve been meaning to call you, but things have been so busy I haven’t had a chance to reach out.”
I smiled. “It’s been a crazy few months since I’ve been back.”