“You’re probably as upset as I am,” he heard Hope say.
John tamped down his jubilation and schooled his features.
Her face was bleached white, those stunning green eyes wide with worry.
Sensing this wasn’t the time to tell her how thrilled he was, he forced a grave expression. “This is quite a surprise.”
“I’m so angry at Buddy,” she blurted out. “He assured us if he didn’t send in those papers that it was as if the wedding had never taken place. I suppose we shouldn’t have taken the word of a college guy who’d gotten his ordination online and had only performed one wedding before ours.”
Hope stopped and pressed her lips together as if realizing she was chattering. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. “The bottom line is—we’re still married.”
There was a beat of silence.
He drew air slowly into his lungs. “You’re certain?”
“Positive. The person I spoke with at the county recorder’s office said if we had the license, the minister met the qualifications in Idaho—which Buddy did—and the marriage took place, it was legal, just not on record.”
John forced a nonchalant tone. “If we don’t say anything, who would know?” He had to bring up the option before he got too jazzed.
“Don’t think I didn’t consider that already.” Hope gave a humorless laugh. She didn’t appear to notice when he placed his arm on the top of the sofa. “But you know how I am about rules. I can’t simply close my eyes and pretend it didn’t happen or isn’t legal just because to do so would be more convenient.”
“You always were a stickler for following rules,” John murmured, rubbing a strand of her hair between his fingers. It was soft, like the finest silk. How long had it been since he’d touched her hair, her face, since his mouth had closed over hers?
Hope lifted her face to his.
His heart clenched at the tears swimming in the green depths.
“I’m s-sorry.”
With the tip of a finger, he gently brushed a tear that slipped down her cheek. “For what? This isn’t your fault.”
“For me not being able to pr-pretend it didn’t happen.”
“Ah, sweetheart,” he said softly. “If you could do that, you wouldn’t be you.”
“But it would b-be so much easier.” Her voice broke and she covered her face with her hands.
“It appears, my darling Hope, that you and I are married.” Tenderly he separated her hands and gazed into eyes blurred with tears. “In the sight of God and man.”
Though he kept his tone mild, it produced more tears.
John shifted and gathered her close. Hope was his wife.
His heart was a sweet, heavy mass in his chest.
As he kissed a tear on her cheek, her arms wound around his neck and he touched her lips with his.
When her fingers slid into his hair, he folded her more fully into his arms, anchoring her against his chest as his mouth covered hers in a deep kiss. She fit perfectly against him. She always had.
This was the woman who held his heart. Whether she wanted it or not, she had it for all eternity.
John had always felt connected to her. He’d never forgotten the vows they’d made and the promise given. In this moment, he saw those same sentiments in her expression.
Several hours later, Hope left John’s bed and headed downtown for an appointment she’d made after speaking with the county recorder. At Reid Mueller’s office, she received the news that her actions that morning made getting the marriage annulled impossible. The family law attorney had been adamant that even if she or John were willing to swear they were of unsound mind at the time they married, the fact that they’d slept together made divorce the only option.
She’d known what Reid would say, but she had to hear it from his own lips. She couldn’t believe she’d been so foolish, but being in John’s arms again had brought all her buried emotions to the surface. It felt as if they’d just stood in front of the minister, had just said their vows. In one minute, all her years of denying her feelings for John had been swept away.
Divorce.
Filing for an annulment, effectively saying that a marriage had never taken place, was one thing. But a divorce . . .
Every part of her being railed at the thought. Still, she wondered if it might not be better to call it quits before they ended up hating each other. As attracted as she was to John, she needed a responsible man, one who took life—and his finances—seriously.
A sense of melancholy filled Hope. She paused at the top of the stairs leading down from the second floor of the law office on Market Street. She gripped the railing but couldn’t make herself walk back into the real world.
If only she hadn’t kissed John back . . .