Page 15 of Raging Fires

Asa was now bent over, wrapping his arms around his torso. “You’re killing me, J. I got bruised ribs, you know, from that game that was supposed to be touch football.” He turned to shoot a glare at one of the other players, who shrugged back at him.

“They taped them, right?” Jake asked.

“Seriously?” Kelli asked. “You’re going to stand there and have a conversation about football in the middle of the ceremony?”

Jake shrugged. “What ceremony? We haven’t even started.”

The justice of the peace cleared his throat loudly. His face was turning an alarming shade of red, and Kelli suspected he wished he had his gavel so he could pound on something. She certainly would like to do that herself.

“Silence!” The judge finally roared, and the voices died down obediently. Asa managed to straighten nearly all the way up, though he was still hugging his ribs, and his laughs had died to shallow breaths. Princess’ owner rolled down the flap above the mesh—to hide her from view, or, more likely, to hide Jake from Princess’ view—and even the dog finally stopped barking.

“Now.” The judge looked at Kelli and Jake with deep disapproval. “I assume you two have not written your own vows.”

Jake snorted, and Kelli said, “Just make it short, and let’s get this over with.”

Chapter Nine

The ceremony went pretty smoothly after the judge started his spiel—well, compared to how it started. That damn dog barked every three or four minutes, just to remind everyone that she hated him, and one time Aunt Lucy asked in her my-hearing-aid-batteries-are-dead voice, “What did he say?” Like she hadn’t heard wedding vows five hundred times. But Gran told the justice of the peace to speak up, and after that Aunt Lucy was quiet. Jake didn’t know if she could hear now or she just fell asleep. Either way, it worked.

He kept having weird flashes of their first wedding—how hot Kelli looked in that simple white gown and how his throat closed up watching her walk down the aisle toward him. Her cramming that stupid piece of cake in his mouth and how good it had tasted on his lips when she kissed him afterwards. He tried not to think about that because they were standing in front of a bunch of people and he already looked bad enough in his miniature t-shirt without also sporting a tent, but his brain was pretty persistent. Jake was so lost in memory-land that he didn’t hear the judge when he got to the I-do’s, and Kelli had to squeeze his hand to wake him up to the fact that he was supposed to participate. Okay, that wasn’t so smooth either.

She looked startled when he pulled out their wedding rings, and her fingers trembled a little as she picked up his gold wedding band to slide it on his finger. But they made it to the end, and the ‘Now you may kiss your bride’ moment. Awkward.

They had to do something so Jake bent down to give Kelli a peck on the lips, but she turned her face away so he hit her cheek instead. She had tears in her eyes. What the hell had he done now? That was one of the bad things about being in a relationship: not knowing what you’d done that pissed her off. Some things were easy to identify, like forgetting your anniversary or giving her a gag gift on her birthday, but most of the rest of them you were just floundering around, trying to figure it out, and the worst thing was you might come out with some sin that wasn’t even what she was talking about.

Well, thank God they weren’t in a relationship anymore—a marriage because your dead grandfather forced you didn’t count—and Jake didn’t have to worry about it. Still. . .why was she looking like she might cry? Because she was having to be connected to him, even if it was only legally? That kind of sucked.

They turned to face the room. There wasn’t any aisle to walk down this time, so they just stood there indecisively, until the J.P. poked Jake in the back, and they moved aside. Jake had already paid him the other day when they got the license, so the judge just murmured something and escaped out the front door.

“What did he say?” Kelli asked.

“I’m not sure. Maybe ‘good luck?’”

Asa came up and slapped Jake on the back. “That was one hell of a wedding, you guys.”

“Well, we’re always happy to entertain you.” Kelli’s tone was sarcastic, but she smiled at him. She’d always liked Asa. He was not only charming, but very sincere and authentic, too; it was a rare combination.

One of the bikers came up and hugged Kelli. He looked Jake up and down and said, “Nice suit, man.”

Jake started to tell him he didn’t need a fashion critique from a guy with a red bandanna wrapped around his head, but Gran was on them by then, and after that it was all hugs and her crying and Aunt Lucy coming up and doing the same. Next the whole family had to do the hugging and tears thing—what was it with all the crying today? He was the one who had a reason to be in tears, shackled to a woman who hated him. Again.

Kowalski and some of the guys shook his hand, and he introduced them to Kelli. They kept looking at the couple’s clothes and Kelli’s hair like they couldn’t decide if the two of them had seriously decided to look this way, but none of them had the nerve to ask.

Then, of course, Howard showed up, and the dog began to bark.

“Good thing that dog’s a girl so there’s no need to revisit the Toby discussion,” Jake aimed his comment at Kelli, knowing it would annoy Kelli. Their on-going joke about Toby being a dog’s name had always led to Kelli being the kind of annoyed that just made her look cute and huffy. As opposed to the kind of annoyed that made her want to heave a vase at his head.

“Toby discussion?” Howard asked, glancing from Jake’s cocky grin to Kelli’s crossed arms.

“Yeah, we should get Howard’s opinion on this since he’s such a dog connoisseur,” Jake went on.

“I wouldn’t say dog connoisseur. More like held captive by a dog,” Howard said.

“Either way, can’t you just see the name Toby emblazoned on one of those little collar tags that looks like a dog-bone?” Jake asked.

“Huh?” Howard responded.

“You don’t have to answer that.” Kelli rolled her eyes. “He just insists on pretending that the name Toby, which was the name of my very sweet high school boyfriend that I am still friends with, is not a name that humans have.”