“Yeah, but in a good way.”
Freaking out and good didn’t go together in Kendall’s book, but when they went into the house, hand in hand, she absolutely trusted him.
“Hey, everyone,” he said by way of greeting as they walked into a cozy yellow family room, the gas fireplace lit. “Kendall and I are getting married!”
There was a pause while all heads swiveled towards them, then the congrats started pouring in.
“Of course you are,” Tamara said, with a knowing smile and a kiss for each of them.
Evan’s mother wrapped Kendall in a big hug. “That’s wonderful, dear.” Then she murmured in her ear, “He’s been waiting a long time for you to come back around, you know.”
She hadn’t known that a month ago. But she did now. Maybe she had since that first night Tuesday had forced them to talk to each other in the wine bar. “I know. I guess I needed to be sure, and I wasn’t at eighteen.”
“There’s nothing wrong with caution.”
“So we have a wedding to plan?” Eve looked surprisingly gleeful at the prospect.
“No wedding. We’re getting married tonight,” Evan told her.
It was the second time in ten minutes they had brought his family to complete and total silence.
“Tonight?” his mother asked, her hand fingering the pearls around her neck, her expression bewildered. “Can you do that?”
Elec, who Kendall hadn’t even realized was missing, came into the room with his cell phone at his ear. “We can go pick up the license in half an hour. Kendall, we just need your birth certificate and a few other details like that. I found a chapel right here in Mooresville that will do a wedding at midnight for you.”
Tamara looked at her husband with naked adoration. “You’re a good, good man, do you know that?”
At the moment, Kendall wasn’t going to argue that point one bit. Elec had just made it possible for them to get married in five hours. At midnight. That seemed wildly romantic to her.
Elec just shrugged, then held up his finger and started talking into his phone. “That’s right. Evan Roscoe Monroe. R-o-s-c-o-e.”
“Your middle name is Roscoe?” Kendall grinned at Evan. “You never told me that. Geez, you think you know a guy . . .”
“It’s a family name.” He leaned in and kissed her. “No making fun,” he murmured. “And I don’t know your middle name either.”
“Carolina.” Which she had to admit was appalling in its own right, given she was born and raised in the Carolinas. But it still wasn’t Roscoe.
“Kendall Carolina Holbrook Monroe. Now that’s a good name.”
It was a good name. Kendall felt that feeling again, that weird inflating in her chest, like she was inhaling helium. Everyone else in the room receded and it was just her and Evan, her first and last love.
Until Tamara’s daughter Hunter squeezed in between them. “Does this make you my aunt Kendall?”
She blinked down at the little girl, who was wearing a jacked-up ponytail and an Elec Monroe T-shirt. “Yes, it does. I’m looking forward to spending time with you, Hunter.”
“Cool. Us girl drivers have to stick together.”
“Hunter’s got her heart set on the cup series,” Evan told her.
“I see. Yep, we definitely need to stick together.” Kendall reached down and did a fist bump with Hunter. “Right now I’m a little lonely in the girl’s clubhouse.”
“That sucks. I cheer you on, as long as you’re not ahead of Elec. Or Ty. Or Ryder. Or Evan.”
She grinned at the little girl. “So far I haven’t been, so no worries. And I appreciate you cheering me on.”
“You’re welcome.” Then Hunter seemed to lose interest in the conversation and went to retrieve the grape soda she was drinking.
Tamara said, “Thank God she didn’t ask you anything inappropriate. I was waiting for it. That was borderline rude, but I expected worse.”
“I’ll ask something inappropriate,” Eve said. “Are you pregnant?”
“Eve, come on,” Evan said. “Mind your own business.”
Kendall felt her stomach drop to the floor at the very thought of being pregnant. And she wasn’t sure if that was a good feeling or a bad feeling sending her gut plummeting. It didn’t occur to her to be offended at the personal nature of the question. She just shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
Evan’s eyes went from his sister to her. “What do you mean? You think you might be?”
Oh, Lord. Her cheeks were feeling a little warm again. “No, no, of course not. I’m definitely not.” Well, she supposed she didn’t know that one hundred percent, but she was on the pill, so what were the odds? It was too frightening to even contemplate, really. She’d just impulsively asked Evan to marry her, but the thought of starting a family made her brain freeze. It was one thing to fantasize about the picket fence and babies, another altogether to actually take that gigantic step.
“Oh, okay.”
Damned if he didn’t look a little disappointed. A warning bell went off in the back of Kendall’s mind, that maybe they should discuss what they wanted in terms of the future, but she didn’t want to ruin the mood. This was a moment to celebrate, to be certain.
She had broken the pattern of worrying herself into inaction and she needed to stick by her decision. She wanted to marry Evan. There was no doubt.
Looking up at him, at the tender expression on his handsome face, she realized she wanted that more than anything else.
And there was no time like the present to make it a reality.
EVAN stood at the front of the chapel fidgeting with some nerves, but mostly excitement. The venue wasn’t the stuff bridal dreams were made of, but Kendall hadn’t seemed to mind the indoor arbor and the plastic flowers. He certainly didn’t care. They could have been married in that dirty old barn and he would have been happy.
“Do you have the ring?” he asked Elec for the third time.
His brother patted his pocket. “I have it. Relax.”
In the interest of not offending anyone in Kendall’s family or any of their friends, they had kept it simple. The only people with them were Elec and Tamara, who were acting as witnesses. Other than that, it was just the minister, or whatever he was, and a female staff member taking pictures for them. It was some kind of package deal that Elec had figured out and paid for.