A warm feeling spread through her. “It’s okay. I really don’t. But thank you.”
He picked up his phone and typed something. “Says here you can marry in as quickly as forty-eight hours in Maryland. We have to file for the marriage license first, though. It requires you and me and our identification at the courthouse. We’ll have to wait until Monday. We can marry anytime after Wednesday, but we’ll have to find someone to marry us. If we want to marry at the courthouse, we have to make an appointment after we have the license. That could take another couple of days.”
“I can get the morning off on Monday.”
“Next question. How do you want to do this? Get married at the courthouse or plan something our friends can attend? We only need an ordained minister and a location if we don’t want to marry at the courthouse.”
“I’d rather do the courthouse. I don’t want to take away from Bailey’s wedding by planning my own.”
He studied her. “If you were getting married for the usual reason, what kind of ceremony would you want?”
She didn’t have to think about it. “When I was a little girl, I wanted the white dress with a long train, lots of attendants, and a giant church wedding. Like a princess. But I was a kid with an active imagination back then.” And such a shitty home life that she’d needed things to dream about. She sighed. “Now, quite honestly, I like simplicity. I imagine a garden wedding with a view like Cash and Ella have in the background. A simple ceremony with a friend doing the officiating after they’ve gotten ordained online. I’d wear a flowing cotton dress, maybe white, maybe yellow.”
“No wedding dress?”
She shrugged. “They’re expensive, and you wear them once. Probably not.”
He nodded. “Okay. And what does the groom wear?”
“Easy. If he’s you he wears his Navy dress uniform. If he’s not in the military, he wears a nice suit.” Though now that she was talking about getting married for real, she could only picture Zach in the role of groom.
“Dress uniform, huh? With Navy SEAL trident and everything. Got it.”
“In an ideal world. But Zach, don’t worry about it. All we need to do is get married. It doesn’t matter how.” A thought occurred to her then. “What about your sister? Or your parents? Will they be upset if they aren’t invited?”
She didn’t know anything about Zach’s parents, but she knew he had a younger sister named Lesley who’d had a shitty husband that’d left her and their three kids for another woman. She also knew that Zach adored and admired Lesley very much.
“My sister couldn’t get away even if we did invite her. She works two jobs.” He frowned. “My parents have been divorced for years. My mom’s a classic narcissist who’d make it all about her, and my dad has a new wife who’d also have to be invited. She and my mom hate each other. They used to be best friends.”
“Oh boy.”
“It’s a mess and I don’t like either one of my parents enough to have them here. So no, we’re not inviting them, even if we were planning a wedding for six months from now. They’ll get over it. I’ll call Lesley. She’ll be sorry she missed it, but she’ll understand.”
She hated hearing about his parents, but she understood too. Her parents were both dead now, but even if they’d been alive she wouldn’t want them at her wedding. They’d been two drug-addled disasters who should have never had children. Bailey had been the one to raise Kayla, the one who showed Kayla the meaning of hard work and dedication. Bailey had done everything for Kayla, and Kayla had fucked it all up by getting involved with James Dunn and the Kings of Doom. She was still paying for that mistake, but she was determined that her daughter wasn’t going to.
“I’m sorry, Zach. I know what it’s like to have a messy family. Or did.”
“I know, beautiful. I didn’t forget.”
She’d thought he might’ve since they hadn’t talked about it in a long time. Clearly, she’d been wrong. She dropped her gaze to her lap, uncertain what to say next.
He tipped her chin up with his fingers. “Whether or not we invite anyone to the ceremony, we probably ought to start working on the part where we convince them we’re in love.”
Her belly flipped. “What do you suggest?”
“You go home and I’ll come over. Camel and Bailey will see my car.”
Kayla swallowed. She hadn’t expected to launch into this so soon. No, strike that. She hadn’t known what to expect because deep down she didn’t think he would agree to her proposal. Not really.
But he had. Because he was the kind of man who wasn’t going to let anyone threaten her baby.
“They have Ana, so I’ll leave her with them. I don’t know what they’ll think, but they won’t knock on the door.” She got to her feet. “I’d better head that way then.”
“Hang on while I lock up. I’ll follow you.”
Once Zach had turned off the television and grabbed his keys, they left the house. He walked her to her car and held the door for her. It wasn’t a fancy car, but she’d bought it with her own money after she’d started working and saved up enough to put a down payment on it. Alexei had gone to the used car dealer with her and made sure she didn’t get fleeced. She was proud of the car because it represented hard work, even if it was old enough that it didn’t have bluetooth. Thankfully, Alexei had installed an aftermarket bluetooth device for her that meant she could use her phone handsfree.
Zach leaned down as she started the car. “Don’t worry, Kayla, we’ll make this work. We’ll get Bailey through her wedding, if that’s what you want. But then she needs to know the truth.”
She looked up at him, her heart flooding with gratitude. “Thank you. She deserves her happiness, and I want her to have the perfect wedding before subjecting her to my drama.”
“It’s not your fault, beautiful.”
“It feels like it is,” she said, her throat tight.
He skimmed his fingers over her cheek and her skin tingled in response. “There are a lot of assholes in this world. You had the misfortune to get involved with a group of them. Doesn’t make what they do your fault. They’d be assholes regardless.” He straightened. “I’ll be right behind you, Kayla. All the way.”
Neo followed Kayla back to her place, thinking about what it was he’d agreed to. Marriage.
And not just marriage, but instant fatherhood. He knew how not to be a father, thanks to personal experience, but he wasn’t sure that meant he’d get it right. He hoped he did. He’d try like hell to get it right, that’s for sure. Ana deserved that. Every kid did.
He thought of what Kayla had said about her caller threatening Ana, and a hot darkness filled him the same way it had when she’d first said it. He would kill anyone who tried to harm that little girl. Rip their fucking heart out and stomp on it without a shred of regret.
He didn’t know what his teammates would think when they found out about his marriage, but he couldn’t say no to Kayla. Not when she’d stopped pretending it was all about his benefits and told him what was really happening. About the threats.