The Perfect Husband by Lynn Dare
Cecilia
It was too early to be here, but I didn’t have a choice. I’d already put this off by not coming days ago. I hadn’t been able to make myself, preferring to pretend it hadn’t happened.
I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel as I stared at the large brick building from where I sat in the parking lot.
Cape Kismet was such a small town there was only a handful of people at the courthouse. We rarely had any court cases here. It was mostly used for noncriminal things like marriage licenses, divorce cases, death certificates, notaries… basically, the boring stuff. I was lucky to live in a town without much crime. Occasionally, if we did have a spate of break-ins or a murder like we’d had years ago, their trials always took place in Tampa.
Hank and Ginger walked hand in hand through the parking lot, looking like an annoyingly adorable old couple. Okay, they weren’t that old, but the story around here was they’d been married since they were eighteen.
How did a relationship last that long? I couldn’t stretch any of mine out past a few months. And now… well, I’d been in the shortest marriage known to man.
I slumped down in my seat so Hank and Ginger didn’t see me as they reached the front doors and unlocked the building. I didn’t know why I was being so ridiculous. They’d know I was here the moment I followed them in.
Checking the time on my phone, I realized I had about forty minutes before I had to be at work. First graders waited for no man or woman.
Smoothing back my hair, I drew in a deep breath to calm my nerves before I had to face the only two people in town who knew about my epically bad weekend.
I couldn’t wait any longer. Pushing open my car door, I stepped out. There was a morning chill to the air, but I knew it would hit sixty by noon. I went to college up north, and it made me appreciate Florida winters.
A handful of people hurried down the sidewalk in front of the courthouse, and I turned to conceal my face from them before yanking open the glass door and ducking inside.
Fluorescent lights glared overhead in the lobby. Ginger had her back to me as she settled into the desk. I made my way quietly across the marble floors and stopped at the edge of her mahogany countertop.
She turned, a bright smile on her face. “Cecilia, how wonderful to see you, dear.”
“Hi.” My voice lacked the usual confidence I prided myself on. “Erm…”
Ginger took pity on me. “Can I do something for you this morning?”
I checked the time again. Only five minutes had passed, and it had felt like five years. “I, uh, got married on Saturday.”
Ginger’s smile widened. “Yes, I do believe congratulations are in order. And that young man of yours is such a catch.” She winked. “You two looked so happy.”
I fiddled with the edge of my shirt. “I didn’t even know it was possible to have a legal wedding that quick.”
“Oh, well, technically it wasn’t legal.”
I perked up.
“Not until yesterday, anyway.” She looked proud of herself. “We aren’t normally open for such things late on Saturdays, but Hank had forgotten his favorite coffee mug here at the office. That man would forget his head if it wasn’t attached. I always tell him—”
“I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with making the wedding legal?”
Ginger laughed. “Oh, well, you two showed up right when Hank and I stopped by to get the mug and I was locking up to go home again. You just looked so happy; when you asked to be married, we couldn’t say no. It was some bit of luck you came when you did, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” I held back a sigh. “Luck.”
“A marriage license doesn’t go into effect for three days, so technically, you weren’t married when we did the little ceremony here.”
Three days. That meant… Yesterday. “You’re telling me I wouldn’t have been married if I changed my mind by yesterday?” Rage built up inside me, but not at anyone else, at myself.
Ginger’s smile faltered. “Well, yes, but we didn’t expect that to happen.”
A door opened down the hall at her back, and Hank emerged. His lined face lit up when he saw me. “Cecilia.” He stopped at his wife’s side. “How is married life treating you?” His arm slid around Ginger. “There isn’t much better, is there?”
I was going to throw up.
Not because they were sickening. The opposite. Hank and Ginger were so sweet, and here I was, having just tied myself to a man I didn’t know, one who was entirely off-limits.
“Excuse me.” I ran toward the sign for the ladies room, shoving open the door. My stomach emptied itself into a toilet as my back heaved.
Oh God. What had I done?
I’d spent the last three days pretending this hadn’t happened, wishing it away. But it was here.
And I had to deal with it. I flushed and went to the sink to splash water on my face, ignoring the fact that my makeup was now a wreck. I ripped a piece of paper towel free and dried myself before tossing it in the trash and squaring my shoulders.
I could do this. I could make it all go away.
I was Cecilia Freaking Cabot.
I marched back toward the desk. Hank had disappeared, but Ginger looked up at me as I approached. “Are you okay, dear?” She leaned in. “Not pregnant, are you?”
I could see she thought she knew what my answer to that would be. It would’ve explained a quick wedding to someone no one in town knew I’d been dating. But she couldn’t have been more wrong.
I shook my head. “I want an annulment.”
Ginger’s jaw dropped open. “Oh, Cecilia, what did he do to you?”
How could I explain this in a way that didn’t look as bad as it truly was?
When I didn’t answer her, Ginger went on, “A man that pretty… He had another woman, didn’t he? Don’t you worry, this town can make sure he never forgets his betrayal.”
“Stop.” I didn’t mean to say it as forcefully as I did, but it got her to freeze. “Harley didn’t do anything to me. We aren’t…” I sucked in a breath. “We just don’t want to be married.”
Sympathy entered her gaze. “An annulment isn’t easy to get in Florida. I’m guessing Harley doesn’t practice bigamy. I can’t see his brother accepting that.”
I couldn’t hold back a laugh at that. “Uh, no, I don’t think so.” Though, I didn’t know if he had another wife. It had been months since he and Kennedy broke up, and for all I knew he married drunken strangers all the time.
“Well,” Ginger continued, “you aren’t underage, so that reason is out. Was the marriage a joke? Did he defraud you?”
I shook my head.
She dropped her voice. “It’s that his little guy doesn’t work, isn’t it?”
“Little guy…” Oh my God. My face reddened. “I have no idea.”
“So, if he’s not impotent, the only other way to get you that annulment is if both of you were intoxicated. But if Hank and I suspected that had been the case, we wouldn’t have—”
“Yes,” I practically cried. “That’s it. That’s the one. I was drunk as a skunk.” My voice echoed off the marble floors, and I glanced behind me to make sure we were still alone.
Ginger set her pen down and folded her hands on her desk. “I can certainly begin that paperwork for you, but I’m not the person who processes annulments.”
“Then, who?” There was only one other person who worked full time at the courthouse. “No. Karen.”
Karen Palmer was a woman I liked to avoid at all cost. We’d gone to high school together, and since then, she’d taken to becoming the town’s biggest gossip—which was ironic for someone who spent her days with such sensitive information about people’s lives.
Karen was how the entire town knew the Michaels’ divorce was because Mitch Michaels had affairs with three different women, all much younger than him.
She told everyone when Uma Rivers got an annulment after learning her new husband had another family.
Now I understood the hesitation in Ginger’s eyes. “If I get this annulment, everyone will know.”
She nodded. “I wish I had a way to keep it quiet, but we’ve never been able to officially prove she is the reason leaks occur. And Hank is so softhearted, I don’t think he’d fire her if we did.”
This was a disaster. I rubbed a hand across my face and glanced at the massive golden clock hanging on the wall to my right. I was going to be late for work if I didn’t leave soon.
“Cecilia, can I give you some advice?”
“Please.”
She smiled softly. “The news that you married Harley Hardwick will come out.”
I waited for her advice.
“I get the feeling what you’re really worried about is the perception of that marriage.”
“Ginger.” I looked to the ceiling as I admitted what I hadn’t told anyone. “I’d never even met him before that night.” When I met her eyes again, there was no judgment, only concern.
“You young people don’t think us oldies get you, but we know how hard it is to be young these days, how hard it is to create the kind of lives we’ve taken for granted. And now, you don’t want this mistake known.”
“It would be all I was known for.” My family would never forget it. My friends. This town. “They already think I’m a joke here.”
“That’s not true, but I can see your reasoning.”
“What would you do?”
“If you get an annulment right away, it’ll be pretty obvious what happened. But that option won’t go away with a bit of time. Stay married, and then, when the time is right, you can tell everyone it just didn’t work out.”
“You think we should pretend to be married?”
Ginger laughed. “It’s not pretend. Legally, you are married.”
Would Harley go for this? Did he even care about his reputation? He was a guy. This scandal would slide right off his back. But as a woman… things stuck to us.
I cursed as I saw the time again. “I need to get to work.” I paused. “I’ll think about it.”
Ginger gave me one final smile before I booked it out of there and jumped in my car. By the time I got to the school, students had started arriving for the day. I popped in a couple mints, took a swig from the coffee in my cupholder, and stepped out of my car.
Rushing across the lot, I ran inside, only to collide with a solid figure I knew too well.
Nathan Greene.
The fellow teacher I’d dated before he decided I was not the kind of woman he saw himself with. Too opinionated, too independent, and loud.
His large hands steadied me, but I shrugged them off.
“You okay, Celia?”
“The name is Miss Cabot.” I glanced left and right, looking for an escape. Nathan didn’t get to call me by my family’s nickname.
His brow furrowed. “You look frazzled.” He reached for me again.
As his fingertips grazed my arm, a shiver raced up my spine, and not the good kind. The last man who’d touched me I ended up marrying, but this was different. I’d never missed Nathan’s touch after we’d ended.
But Harley… I could still feel him, his skin, hot against mine.
“Have a good day, Mr. Greene.” I dodged him, losing myself in the stream of kids heading toward their classrooms.
It wasn’t until I reached my room that I felt good for the first time all day.
My aide, Tammy, smiled at me as I walked in.
A chorus of excited chatter rang out around me as my kids came to tell me tall tales of the evening before. I gave each of them my full attention, letting the rest of this horrid morning drift away.
I loved my job. My kids were the best, and I got to spend my time being a kid with them, nurturing their curiosity, their artistic sides, their intelligence.
It was the one part of my life that never felt like it was falling apart.