It was too soon. Rett knew what the others would say. But her parents only dated for nine months before they had a wedding. Miss Agatha married a man after a week of knowing him! Rett was certain there was no strict timeline for love and futures. After all, she had witnessed relationships falling apart after decades and relationships born with first meetings.
What she had with Calum was different. He wasn’t like anyone she’d ever known, and that thrill still hadn’t gone away. Sure, he had learned the way of talking around here, and his voice had picked up a slight drawl to mix with his own accent. But he was excitement and love and her forever wrapped in one. She wanted to marry him, and no one could convince her the desire was wrong.
She wasn’t wrong.
“How do we do it?” he asked.
“We pay for a license then wait. We can do it at the courthouse if we wanna do it sooner.”
“You don’t want a big, fancy wedding?”
Rett scoffed, shaking her head, and looped her arm through his. “Nah. I just wanna be Loretta Jean Wilson as soon as possible.”
“Then let’s go.”
“What?”
Calum chuckled and kissed her temple. Rett watched as he tugged a plain silver band off his finger—the ring he’d worn for as long as she’d known him. It had been his grandfather’s, he said when she’d asked back in the beginning of their friendship. He slipped it onto her index finger with a self-conscious laugh.
“It isn’t much. I’ll have to find you a real ring, but yeah, Rett. I think we should get married.”
“Good. Glad that’s settled. Only question is when.”
“We can go to the courthouse tomorrow after school,” he suggested before lighting up a cigarette. “How do you know so much about this, anyway?”
She shrugged and scuffed her toe on the riverbank. “I used to volunteer at the courthouse. Filin’ papers, fetchin’ water and coffee. Ya learn a thing or two.”
The two continued their trek along the water’s edge, silent but comfortable in it. Calum stubbed the cigarette out when it reached the end, tucking the used butt into the box, and laced his fingers with hers. Rett smiled up at the hot sun and made a wish on the wind—that what they had would last forever.
She wondered, however, how everyone would react. She could almost already hear the rumors. Would it destroy the trust the townspeople had in Calum? Would he become the outsider again?
Getting the license turned out to be the easy part. Even getting a ride into the next town was simple enough—Miss Margaret was on her way to get more fabric and loved the company. She dropped the teenagers off at the mall, disappearing with a jauntywave. Rett and Calum took a bus to downtown and held hands as they walked into the courthouse. The clerk wasn’t anyone from Oak Creek, so there was no concern for the news to reach everyone within seconds.
The waiting was the hardest. Rett counted down the days—hours—seconds until finally, she and Calum slipped through the doors of the courthouse in their Sunday best.
Anticlimactic was what it was, but Rett didn’t care as she kissed her new husband there on the steps. He was smiling just as widely as she was, hands tight around hers, and her ring sparkled in the sunlight. A simple band with the tiniest blue gem she had ever seen, it was perfect simply because Calum picked it out. He’d paid for it with his meager wages from Georgie’s. He wore a ring of his own.
“I’m proud of you,” she said apropos of nothing, and his brows drew together over bright brown eyes. “And I love you.”
“I love you. God, everyone is going to lose their minds.”
She agreed but didn’t let that thought ruin the joy that settled beneath her breastbone.
Calum was right: Rumors abounded, all revolving around the surprise wedding, and even Kellie Marie questioned whether Rett was pregnant. Rett expected it. After all, who got married so quickly if there was no reason for it?
Love was the reason, but Rett was certain they wouldn’t understand. Not yet.
She dropped to sit beside Sofia at the lunch table, her tray clattering on the tabletop, and blew out a breath. Sofia exchanged a look with Kellie Marie then leaned in. Biting her lower lip, she whispered the same question Rett heard all day: Was she pregnant?
“No. Gosh no.” Rett shrugged and peeled open her fruit cup; a heavy weight rested on her shoulders—the weight of scrutiny.Eavesdropping. “We’re too young for babies. That project for Child Development proved that.”
“So why did you getmarried?”
“Because I love Calum, duh.”
“I can’t believe you’re a wife now,” Kellie Marie sighed, hand holding up her sharp chin.
“Neither can I, but I’ve never been happier.”
