The Wall of Winnipeg and Me - Mariana Zapata Page 0,63
not much in sizes large enough to fit Aiden’s fingers. Luckily, he said he could get something resized for me in record time, and I chose a basic fourteen-karat white gold band. It was nothing remotely fancy or even eighteen karat, but… no one likes a picky bitch, and I was paying for it out of my own pocket, so he better not complain.
I was buying my soon-to-be fake husband a wedding ring that he may or may not wear.
After all, we had to make it believable. So even if he didn’t wear it, at least he’d have it, I figured.
It only made me not want to get it more.
* * *
“Are you ready?” Aiden called up the stairs.
I was never going to be ready. Ever.
I’d been up since four in the morning, waking up to find my heart pounding, and a hundred million thoughts going through my head one after the other. We were leaving. We were going to Vegas to sign paperwork that would legally make me able to change my name to Graves if I wanted to.
That was another thing we hadn’t talked about, but I didn’t see a point in bringing it up. Plenty of women didn’t change their names when they got married nowadays, right? If he didn’t ask me to, I sure as hell wasn’t going to bring it up. That just seemed like a nightmare waiting to happen at the social security office.
“Vanessa,” he hollered. “We need to go.”
With a nervous sigh that bordered on a growl, I got off the edge of the bed, where I’d been sitting for the last fifteen minutes while I waited for the nausea and the nerves to go somewhere else, and grabbed my duffel bag. We were only staying one night, but I didn’t know what to pack or what to wear to… do it… so I brought a casual dress I’d worn ten times before, dressy jeans and a blouse, and two T-shirts to be on the safe side, along with one of my favorite pairs of heels. Underwear, socks, a toothbrush, travel toothpaste, a hairbrush, and deodorant rounded out my bag. I was wearing my tennis shoes on the way. For one day, it was definitely more than I really needed, but I hated not being prepared, so I’d live with what I’d packed.
Packed to go get married.
It was just as big of a deal as I was trying not to make it out to be.
“Vanessa,” Aiden bellowed, not impatiently, more just so I could hear him. “Come on.”
“I’m coming. Hold your horses!” I yelled back from the top of the stairs, before hightailing it over to Zac’s room real quick. Knocking on the door, I pressed my ear against it. “Zac Attack, we’re leaving!”
The door opened a few seconds later. His dark blond head peeked out, a big smile already plastered to his face. He had been teasing me nearly nonstop since he’d gotten home right after I moved in, apologizing for not making it home in time and not needing to hint that he’d stayed over at a woman’s house. The first chance I had with him alone, I’d asked him again if he was really fine with what was going on. His response: “Why wouldn’t I be, darlin’? You’re the one marryin’ him, not me, and I like havin’ you around.”
And that was that.
With them being away from the house so much, it wasn’t like we’d been inconveniencing each other or anything.
“Gimme a hug then, bride-to-be,” Zac said, already holding his arms wide.
“Ugh.” I scowled even as I leaned into his embrace.
“Vanessa!”
“Your future hubby is waitin’,” Zac said before I reached up and pinched his lips together.
“We’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Vanessa!”
I sighed and took a step back. “Wish me luck.”
Zac waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, an ornery smile taking over his tan face. “I sure will, Mrs. Graves.”
He was so full of shit, but I knew if I didn’t get downstairs, Aiden would probably come up here and drag me down—he hated being late—so I let Zac’s comment go and ran down the stairs. At the bottom, Aiden’s expression was his typical exasperated one. He was dressed in jeans and a black V-neck that stretched across the wide width of his muscular chest. His favorite hoodie dangled from his fingertips.
He gave me a look as I jogged down the steps, nerves making my knees weak. Aiden didn’t wait for me to make it down before he was on his way