Read Online Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves - Free Book Online Page A

remembered driving up and down the Strip in the limousine. Lights flashing. Neon blaring. And champagne.

    Lots and
lots
of champagne.

    “I remember the stuff in the limo,” she said, hoping her face wasn’t as red as it felt.

    “How about after that?”

    Then they were standing on the seats, poking their heads out of the sunroof, waving to other cars, to people on the street, to stray dogs, to inanimate objects. And then they were back down in the seat together, and . . .

    Just thinking about what came next made her face heat up. She’d found out last night what it felt like to be with a man who was charming and sexy and really knew how to kiss, whose hands were gifts from God, whose smile shone brighter than the neon on the Sunset Strip.

    She closed her eyes. Like a film going from fuzzy to sharp focus, she saw an office of some kind. Bright lights. People at desks. She and Tony filling out forms. Then they were in the limousine again. There were stars and moons and little flying cherubs. What had been up with
that?

    “There was a courthouse,” she said, panic rising in her voice. “Then a wedding chapel. It’s all kinda vague, but . . .”

    Slowly the images coalesced. Came into focus. Organized themselves into a discernible timeline. And when they did, they led her to one horrible, undeniable conclusion. She put her hand to her throat, gasping out the words. “My God. We’re really married, aren’t we?”

    “Looks that way.”

    “But why did they let us do it? We were in no condition to know what we were doing!”

    “If they refused to let drunk people get married in this town, half the wedding chapels would be out of business.”

    Panic was setting in. Heather wasn’t used to panic. She hated the muscle tension. The crawly feeling in her stomach. Panic was for people whose lives were disorganized messes. Who didn’t know how to plan ahead. It was for people who were
spontaneous.

    Then she thought about those stars and moons and flying cherubs against a canopy of a night sky, and suddenly she realized where she’d seen that. She closed her eyes in humiliation. “Please tell me we didn’t actually do it at a drive-through wedding chapel.”

    “If I remember right,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “they called it ‘The Tunnel of Love.’”

    Good Lord. Not only had she gotten married in Vegas, but she’d done it in the most tasteless way imaginable.

    “This can’t be happening. This isn’t me. I’m the
sane
one in my family. I’ve never done anything like this before!”

    Tony shrugged. “I once woke up naked on a beach in Cancun. I still don’t remember the flight from Dallas to Mexico.”

    “Did you end up married?”

    “No.”

    “Then it’s not as crazy as this. Congratulations. You now have a new personal best.”

    She threw back the covers and started to get out of bed. He grabbed her arm. “Will you take it easy? This isn’t that big a deal.”

    “Not that big a deal?” she said, shaking loose. “We got
married!
”

    “But we can get unmarried. All we have to do is get an annulment.”

    She stopped short. An annulment?

    Yes. Of course. That was all they had to do. Nobody else even knew they’d gotten married. They could keep this to themselves, get a quiet annulment, and then get on with their lives as if last night had never happened. No one but the two of them would ever have to know.

    For the first time since she saw her name on that marriage license, Heather’s heart stopped hammering in her chest. It was just as Tony said. No big deal. Just a little paperwork to cancel out the wedding, a bottle of aspirin to cancel out her monumental hangover, and pretty soon this whole experience would be nothing but a bad memory.

    “You’re right,” she said, feeling so much better. “An annulment. That solves the problem. There can’t be much to one of those, right?”

    “Right.”

    “People do it all the time. How hard can it