Chapter 10

Chapter

Ten

DEVIN

“Did you ever go see that movie?”

Victoria moved her head on my chest, so she was angled enough to look up and see me. Her golden hair flowed over my shoulder and down behind her in a silky waterfall, but every time she moved, even slightly, the scent of honeysuckle and vanilla hit me all over again. It felt like coming home. I knew it was something I missed when she wasn’t in my life, but I hadn’t realized how much until I had her back in my arms.

“No. I couldn’t make myself go without you.”

“It’s still playing in Brockton.” Brockton was about an hour drive from home, in another county. It was one of the places we frequented for our dates because it was rare to run into anyone there. The only trouble was, we normally avoided the mall because that was the one place where we might be spotted by someone from our town. It also happened to be where the theater was located.

“Is that a hint?”

“I thought you might want to go see it with me today, since we both have off work.”

“It’s getting awful close to the holidays to be seen in a mall together when you’re married to someone else,” She reminded me.

I couldn’t help the involuntary sigh of frustration I let out.

“I didn’t say, no. I guess we just need to be careful until we know for sure that everything will work out and that… You know,” She finally said after a lengthy pause. It seemed as though my woman was back to not being able to speak about the baby that might be mine. Once again, fear zinged through me. What if I was wrong and the baby turned out to be mine? Would that truly be the end of Victoria and me?

“We will be careful, but Vic, I really don’t think there is anything to worry about and I want to spend the day with you.”

“Did you make her sign a prenup?”

That question was out of the blue, though I supposed it made sense, especially since Vic worked for a divorce attorney.

“Yes. I don’t know if it will hold up in court. It was just something quick that was notarized by the same guy that married us.”

She raised her head up and quirked a brow at me. “Your wedding officiant is also a notary?”

“It was that guy down on first street two blocks from the courthouse. He has to offer extra services because there aren’t as many same-day weddings as they have in Vegas.” I couldn’t help but laugh as I remembered the guy telling me that.

“Virginia really needs to instate a waiting period. It might have saved you from making a huge mistake.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Probably, considering it took about twenty minutes to get the license and then ten minutes after we arrived at The Marriage Place, we signed the certificate and the guy printed out a fairly generic prenup for me when I asked that said the only assets either of us leave the marriage with are the ones we came into it with.”

“It didn’t state anything about money made during the marriage?” I shook my head. “Dumb,” Vic huffed. “Don’t ever get married without consulting me again.”

“Don’t plan on it.”

We got up and got dressed after that because Vic wasn’t really in a talking mood after having to discuss the marriage that never should have happened. She was right though, if there had been waiting period to get married, I might have had time to talk myself out of doing it. The crazy thing was that I was always under the assumption that you had to go to Vegas for a quickie wedding. It was probably good that other people were ignorant to the fact that Vegas wasn’t the only place in the country where you could get married on a whim in under an hour.

Victoria might have been right about it being too close to the holidays to go see a movie together in a theater that was located inside a shopping mall. Not that I would tell her, but I’d seen at least five people from our town since we arrived and we parked as close to the theater entrance as possible.

“I’m going to hit the ladies room while you get our snacks. Be right back!” Vic called out as she ran off to the bathrooms across the theater’s lobby. There were two more people ahead of me, so I hoped Vic would make it back before I grabbed anything.

“Devin!” I turned at the sound of a very familiar voice and had to try really fucking hard not to lose my shit. Dallas headed my way with a giant grin on his face. “What’s up man? Looks like we had the same idea. I tried to call to see if you wanted to come finally watch this thing before it left theaters, but I couldn’t get a hold of you.”

“To be honest, I’m avoiding my phone. There’s a reason I headed over here.” This was the best time to start planting the seeds of discontent between Justice and me, since Dallas thought we were a legitimate couple.

“The wifey on your ass to go get her pickles and ice cream or some shit?” He joked just as Victoria walked up. She must not have noticed him at first, but then her gasp at hearing her brother question me about Justice’s pregnancy cravings and the wife bit caught her completely off guard.

“Vic?” Dallas questioned and then glanced back at me with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“I was supposed to meet Jordan here, but she couldn’t get away quickly enough, so I figured I’d catch a movie while I waited.”

“Oh yeah? What are you going to see.” Victoria admitted she was here to see the same movie and Dallas once again had his head on a swivel looking between the two of us.

“Hey, Dev!” Vic offered cheerfully, as if she had just now noticed me. “I saw you up here and thought you might help me cut the concession line.” The last bit was said in a mock-whisper as she leaned in conspiratorially. “Now, that Dallas is here too, I guess my little brother can buy my concessions.”

“Sure thing, Sis.” Dallas wasn’t an idiot. He was suspicious about the two of us being here together, but he hadn’t said a word yet.

I glanced at Victoria, looking for confirmation that it was okay to tell him about us, but she shook her head and then started to run her mouth about having heard lots of good things about the movie we had come to see together.

“We should all sit together, since we’re here for the same show,” Dallas suggested after we got our drinks and snacks. True to her request, my best friend bought his sister’s stuff and I got my own. Our date had officially been hijacked by the unknowing best friend/brother. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, but it sucked this time because it was like fate was throwing it in our faces that there were too many moving parts, and far too many challenges to us making everything work out as a couple.

I hoped like hell that I was wrong, but we had been happy earlier today and that happiness was dimming by the second with Dallas in tow. It dimmed even further when he insisted on sitting between us like some 1800s chaperone.

Victoria mouthed, “Sorry” to me as she took her seat and her brother slid into the seat between us. I wished like hell I hadn’t turned my cell phone off to avoid all the messages Justice left on my phone while I was with Victoria. Then we would have had a head’s up about Dallas coming to the theater to see the same damn movie. I was damned if I do and if I don’t with my best friend and the woman who roped me into marrying her. Truthfully, if this shit kept up, I’d probably damned lucky if Vic even looked at me again, let alone followed through with our plan to be together out in the open sooner than later.