I placed my hand on his forearm. “There’s something you need to know.”
He fixed me with that striking blue stare, giving me his undivided attention.
“When you showed up at my bedroom door today, I was halfway to becoming a runaway bride without your help.”
Tripp’s eyebrows shot so high they disappeared beneath the brim of his hat. “You were?”
There was no point in hiding the truth anymore. “It hit me all of a sudden that he wasn’t you.” I shook my head. “And I just couldn’t go through with it.”
“I don’t understand. I watched you walk down that aisle after that.”
“Honestly, I blanked out after you left my bedroom. So it’s a damn good thing you spoke up when you did, or I would have made a terrible mistake.”
Tugging on the back of his neck, he asked, “Then why were you with him in the first place?”
“Does it really matter anymore? I’m here withyouright now. I’m fixin’ to marryyoutoday instead.” I tapped on the smooth screen of his phone. “Well, that is, if you give me a minute to figure out where we need to go to make that happen.”
Confusion filled his eyes. “What do you mean, where we need to go?”
My head dropped back against the seat. “As far as the great state of Oklahoma is concerned, they’ve given me a license to marry Jake.” Tripp’s lips curled at the mention of my ex-fiancé’s name. “So they’re not going to issue me a new one until that one expires or is returned. That means we need to find the closest neighboring state where they don’t enforce a waiting period. I’ve waited long enough already. I’m not putting this off another day.”
Tripp cleared his throat. “All right. Figure it out and tell me where to go.”
Running through our closest neighbors, I struck out a few times before finally hitting paydirt. “Got it!”
“And . . .” He looked at me expectantly.
“Colorado by way of Wichita,” I declared.
“Why Wichita?”
A smile formed on my face. “Need a new dress.”
A bell tolled above our heads as we pushed through the door of the chain bridal store located in a strip mall in Wichita.
Immediately, a saleswoman scurried in our direction, eager to earn a commission. But when she caught a good look at the pair of us, already dressed for a wedding, she stopped short, a crease forming between her eyebrows. “Um, can I help you?”
Tripp’s hand was firm at the small of my back as he replied, “My fiancée needs a dress.”
As much as I loved hearing him refer to me as his fiancée, a thrill shot through me, knowing that title would be replaced by an even better one—a more permanent one—before the day was through.
The woman eyed me up and down. “Is there something wrong with the one you’re wearing now?”
I gave a firm nod. “Everything.”
“All right,” she said slowly, her confusion evident.
“And I want to walk out of here with it. Today,” I added.
Her mouth popped open, and a noise of disbelief escaped. “Today?”
“Will that be a problem?” Tripp pressed.
Shaking out of her surprise, her professional mask slipped back into place, and she aimed a calm smile in our direction as she clasped both hands in front of her waist. “Of course not.” Gesturing an arm toward a rack of white dresses, she said, “If you’ll follow me, I’m sure we have something in stock to suit your needs.”
Tripp’s hand slid to my hip, where he gave a gentle squeeze, his mouth coming to rest beside my ear. “You good here? I’m gonna pop into the jewelry store I saw down the way.”
The teenage girl inside of me wanted to squeal at the idea of him running out to buy me a ring. My every fantasy was coming to life.
