Once Upon A Half-Time: A Sports Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,18

if they were single.”

“I have six sisters—Edda, Emily, Estée, Evie, Erica, and Erin.”

“Wow.”

“The last time we were all together was during Edda’s wedding, and everyone agreed it was a disaster. But now, that seems like a fairy tale in comparison to the worst wedding I’ve been a part of. Wanna take a guess at which magical night it was?”

I had a good idea.

“My wedding was the worst—and I don’t remember any of it!”

“I remember some of it.” I examined a tiny swan figurine carved from quartz on her end table. Elle slapped it out of my reach. “If it helps, you looked beautiful.”

She groaned. “Was I even dressed?”

“You might have vowed never to wear panties again.”

“Oh God.”

Elle brushed her hand through her hair, lovely waves of dark, teased with a bright, playful red. She licked her full lips, but the frown lingered. No scowl should have marred that beauty. Too bad my wife wasn’t the type to let her husband kiss away those worries.

“Why didn’t you tell me we were married?” Elle asked.

“You had no idea we’d eloped?”

“Not until you spouted it off to the entire locker room.”

“Yeah, you earned me a lot of points with the guys.”

“I’m so glad you scored.”

“I’d love to score twice—”

Elle pointed a finger at me. “Forget it, Charming. I’m not going deep with you anymore.”

I leaned into the couch, winced, and tossed aside a—what the hell was it? An unsmoked, ivory pipe? This girl had too many treasures.

“You’re not looking at the big picture, Elle,” I said. “This is a marriage, not a curse.”

“One—this is not a marriage. Two—you have no idea how complicated this is.”

“It’s only as complicated as you want to make it,” I said. “I wish you could have seen your face when I said we were married. That is a picture someone needed to take. You were so…”

Well, then she had been shocked. Now she was pissed.

Her expression twisted well beyond sassy and threatened to rip off my boys once more. I tucked my hands firmly in my lap.

“You know, you didn’t say goodbye when you left the hotel,” I said. “I figured you knew then. That you’d regretted it and bolted.”

“Didn’t then. Do now.”

I shrugged. “But you hadn’t contacted me about an annulment, so I thought you had a change of heart and wanted to give it a go.”

“Give it a go?”

“Yeah. What do you say?”

“To what?”

“Staying married.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Elle stalked the living room, hands in her hair. “I’ve known you for three days, Lachlan. I’ve had leftover Chinese in my fridge for longer than that!”

I loved Chinese. “And now that we’re married, I’ll eat the leftovers before you have to throw them out. Everyone wins.”

Elle rubbed her temples. “This isn’t happening. It can’t be happening. What the hell would possess us to get married?”

“A pretty substantial drinking binge.” I winked. “I think it was your first one. You don’t handle your alcohol very well.”

“You think?” Elle’s voice shrilled. “I guess I’ll have to practice when we celebrate our divorce.”

“It was innocent, Elle. We were just having some fun.” Probably too much. “We met up at the bar after we talked at the combine. You had taken a photo of me at the—”

“Forty-yard dash.”

That she remembered. “We’d flirted there, and then we met at the bar. You were trying to decide on what drink to order to fix a bad mood. I suggested them all.”

“Remind me never to take your advice again.”

“You talked a lot about your father.”

That triggered it. Elle’s eyes widened. She sunk onto the couch, and I dove away from her wayward elbow as she collapsed into the cushions.

“I was mad because Daddy called me…” She pointed at me. “And I told you about him after I almost dumped my phone in the margarita pitcher.”

“You said it’d be funny if we made him mad by getting—”

“Married.” Elle gasped and leapt off the couch. “Oh my gosh, my father’s gonna kill me.”

“I didn’t totally understand the joke at the time…” I said. “But you were a beautiful girl who wanted me, so I wasn’t gonna kill our buzz.”

“I sent the marriage certificate home so he’d see it.” She paced again. “Jesus, he’s going to flip out.”

“Why?”

“Because when you run away from home at sixteen and deliberately get married just to piss him off, it doesn’t exactly reinforce his family values.”

I stared at her. “Jesus. You ran away? Why?”

Elle made a face. “Again, probably something my real husband should know!”

“Well, I am your real