The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,288

you, I can’t go back to Kansas City without you. It would be a death sentence.”

“What you fail to mention is that you don’t have to go back to Kansas City at all.”

Her words sobered him. She was right. His only excuse for his frequent trips to K.C. was the work he’d been doing on the merger of his and Josh’s firm with Megan’s father’s firm. If he didn’t work there anymore, he would have no reason to come. No reason to see her.

Libby continued grinning, unaware of his emotional turmoil, and he planned to keep it that way. “I promise you won’t come to any harm on this stop. No guarantee for the next one.” He found what he was looking for and flipped on his turn signal. “We’re almost there. No peeking.”

“Hurry!” she said, squirming in her seat.

He parked the car and turned off the engine, his stomach twisting with anxiety as he looked at the object he’d just driven nearly one hundred miles to show her. It was ridiculous. She was going to think he was crazy. “Okay, open your eyes.”

She dropped her hands, and a moment later, her mouth dropped open too. Then she climbed out of the car.

He followed her, watching her closely as she tucked her hands under her armpits to keep warm. She stared at the giant black object that towered over them. “What is that?”

He swallowed. “It’s the World’s Largest Czechoslovakian Egg.”

“The what?”

Oh, God. She hated it.

“It’s a twenty-foot-tall and fifteen-foot-wide fiberglass egg,” he explained. “The town has a large Czechoslovakian community, but it was dying off. So they built the egg to bring in tourists. A guy somewhere in Kansas made it for cost and the whole town came together to paint it.” He pointed to the black egg with the white and yellow pattern adorning its sides. “They decorated it by hand.”

She stood in silence. Horror stole his breath when he realized there were tears in her eyes. “You hate it.”

She shook her head as the first tear slid down her cheek. Then she turned to him and threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest.

“Talk to me, Libby. Why are you crying?” He’d wanted to make her happy, but apparently this was just one more thing he’d failed at.

“I love it,” she mumbled, still clinging to him.

“You’re crying because you love it?”

She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “This is the most perfect gift anyone has ever given me.” Her arms still firmly wrapped around his neck, she said, “How did you find this place? What made you even think to look for it?”

An older couple walked toward them from the parking lot. They gave Noah and Libby a confused look.

“She’s so overcome by the symbolism of this piece,” he said over the top of her head in mock seriousness. “It’s moved her to tears.”

The elderly man’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at the giant egg, then back at Libby.

Noah shrugged with a who can explain it expression.

Libby broke free and wiped her eyes.

“I told you. It’s Libby Day,” he said. “So I looked for things that I thought would make you happy.”

“Like a giant black egg?”

“Not a giant black egg. The world’s largest Czechoslovakian egg.”

A grin lit up her face and something warm and comforting spread through his chest. He had made her happy after all, and the complete satisfaction that gave him took him by surprise.

“So you like it?” he asked.

“I absolutely love it. It’s perfect.” She wiped her cheeks and sucked in a breath. “I want a photo.”

“Then a photo you shall have.” He walked back to the car and grabbed his phone. “You stand over there,” he said, pointing to the sign in front of the egg.

She moved closer to it, but before he could snap the photo, the elderly woman gestured for him to stop.

“You go on over there with your wife,” she said, walking over to him. “I’ll take a picture of you two together.”

Wife? He started to correct her, but then he glanced over at Libby and the word soaked in.

Wife.

Last night and this morning he’d pretended be her groom, but today there was no wedding dress to give them away.

“Oh,” Libby spoke up. “I’m not—”

“Don’t be silly, Lib,” he said, handing the elderly woman his phone. “Let’s get a photo together.”

Libby gave him a strange glance, but he just wrapped an arm around her back, his hand resting on her hip. They fit together perfectly,