“Must be oldies night,” Owen winked. “Nope. Some things never change.”

  Owen’s face darkened and Amy followed his line of sight to the front entrance. It didn’t take long for her to see why his mood suddenly shifted. Tucker strode in through the front door with a date on his arm.

  “Well, that’s the problem with small towns, I guess,” Owen sighed, finishing his water.

  Amy’s eyes narrowed at the sight of Tucker. Just looking at him made her blood boil. She still felt a bit of guilt for driving a wedge between Owen and his friend. It was nice for Owen to have her back and take her side on the matter just the same.

  “We can get out of here if he’s bothering you,” Amy said, turning away from the entrance. “I don’t want to be too trashed for tomorrow anyway.”

  “No,” Owen said, slamming his cup on the counter. “I’m not leaving just because he’s here. Besides, you need your bull ride first.”

  Owen looped arms with her and before she could protest, they were two-stepping their way to the corner of the bar that housed the mechanical bull.

  “And you can’t get out of it because you’re wearing some dress!” Owen shouted over the music.

  “You go first!” she shouted back.

  Owen made a face at her and tipped his hat forward.

  “Not a chance.”

  Amy watched as a familiar shock of red hair swirled in time with the mechanical bull, a fist raised triumphantly in the air. Her mouth opened in a wide, smiling outburst of laughter as she saw Katie mounted high, riding the mechanical bull in her tea time dress like a true pro.

  “See,” he shrugged, crossing his arms. “You can do it in a dress.”

  Katie’s ride ended with her flushed and laughing hysterically. Nick appeared out of nowhere to help her dismount the mechanical steed like some kind of cartoon princess. Katie spotted them and waved.

  “Hey are you going to go?” she yelled out to Amy.

  Amy winced and looked back over at Owen, who was positively beaming. He looked like his old, happy self again.

  “I’ll give it a try,” she shrugged.

  Owen handed the mechanical bull operator a five-dollar bill and nudged his sister as their impromptu combination bachelor/bachelorette party looked on. Amy ignored the itchy, hot prickling sensation that was creeping up her neck as she carefully placed a foot in the stirrup and slung her leg over the padded saddle. She said a silent prayer of thanks to her earlier self for choosing flats instead of heels that day. With one sweaty palm wrapped firmly around the reins and the other in the air, the bull rocked forward, slowly at first and then faster.

  “Heeya!”

  A loud, exuberant cry escaped her lips as she bucked too and fro, the blurred faces of her friends and soon-to-be sort of family watching on. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a minute, the bull slowed and Owen was at her side helping her dismount. Amy caught her breath and watched as Owen went next, showing off and waving his hat in the air as he rode the bucking mechanical bull. Once everyone had taken their turn, the party returned to the bar for one last round of shots.

  “Good to see you can still hold your own, girl,” Dominic chided, playfully jabbing Amy in the ribs. “I was worried you were too citified for us anymore.”

  “Aw, come on,” she said. “I’m not really all that different, am I?”

  “No,” Owen said, smiling down at her with soft eyes. “No you’re not.”

  “To Owen and Amy!” Katie said, raising her shot glass. “Kiss!”

  Amy’s eyes grew wide as Dominic, Nick, and Katie all chanted kiss, kiss, kiss as they held their shot glasses high. She looked at Owen who was still smiling down at her.

  “Guess we have to,” she shrugged, her eyes fluttering back up at him.

  “Guess so.”

  Owen leaned in and planted a soft, sweet kiss on her lips as if no one else was there. Amy closed her eyes, determined to remember every moment this time. It seemed like the entire bar around them was cheering, though she barely noticed. All she could think about was how good it felt to be in his arms. How familiar and new he felt all at once, and how she didn’t want it to stop. Whether it was the tequila, the dancing, the mechanical bull ride, or just a really good kiss, Owen pulled away and the room spun.

  “Wooo!” Dominic called out, patting his brother on the back.

  Amy opened her eyes to a dazed looking Owen.

  “Shoot, you two,” Dominic laughed. “That was some kiss!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Owen didn’t sleep a wink the night before the wedding.

  He didn’t know why he thought this whole scheme would work in the first place. He should have known how his family would react. He should have known how he would react. He just didn’t count on Amy.

  Nursing his third straight hangover in a row, Owen rose on the morning of Valentine’s Day with two options: hop on his ATV and disappear into the wilderness forever or marry Amy Grimes. At a quarter past seven, his mother entered his room, opened the blinds, and put a pin in any plans he might have had to escape.

  “It’s the big day,” she said in her no-nonsense voice. “The officiant is going to be here at a quarter to ten. The caterers already dropped off the luncheon and your cake. Did you get your boutonniere from Amy yet?”

  Debbie Durant leaned down and planted a kiss on Owen’s forehead.

  “Woof, you need a shower. Hurry up,” she said, patting his knee. “I hung your suit in the closet.”

  Owen pulled the covers back over his head and groaned. As he laid in bed watching sun stream in through his window, Owen could only think about how soon, he would be kissing Amy again, but this time, as her lawfully wedded husband. And then what? Then he would have to endure a three-day honeymoon in New Orleans trying to pretend the whole time that he didn’t want to be with her? Owen didn’t even want to think about what would happen after.

  It wasn’t supposed to go this way, he thought to himself, finally getting out of bed. I wasn’t supposed to feel like this.

  Still, with the prospect of his future plans for Camp Durant on the line, Owen resigned himself to the mess he had made. He knew there was nothing he could do now but shower, shave, get dressed, and hope he wasn’t about to make the biggest mistake of his entire life.

  ***

  Amy didn’t sleep a wink the night before the wedding.

  Her hives returned full-force after her Watering Trough kiss with Owen and she was all out of antihistamines. As the sun finally rose, Amy escaped her parents’ house to the only twenty-four hour pharmacy in River Ranch and procured a new supply of allergy medicine. As she stared out into the still, chilly Valentine’s Day morning, Amy realized that all she had to do was get in her car and drive back to Vero Beach. Sure, she would be a runaway bride, but she would also be free of the neverending lies and guilt. She would be free from the way she felt about Owen. The way she really felt.

  Still, as her allergy meds kicked in, Amy began to relax and was able to think straight again. This was the end. After today, she and Owen would celebrate at Mardi Gras and forget the whole thing. He would have the access to the funds he needed to start his non-profit, and she would… well, what would she do?

  Owen had been right about one thing; she did want to travel more. Selling ViruSmart and retiring early would make her adventures even more enjoyable. She was getting sick of being tied to her work email all the time. But even for someone as independent as Amy had been for so long, traveling alone can get boring and lonely after a while. She had long thought it would be nice to have someone to travel with and a place to set down roots. She had been convinced for so long that being in a long-term, committed relationship could never make her happy. Somehow, Owen Durant had rattled her brain and dredged enough feelings to the surface to make her reconsider everything she used to think about relationships and herself.

  Amy pushed aside her wedding day jitters and decided not to run away after all. She had a hair and makeup appointment in just a few hours and still needed to pick up her flowers and get dressed. Her father would be wearing a suit and tie for the first time since she could remember, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine how much money the Durant family had spent for their small affair. Running away would disappoint far too many people now, not least of all, Owen. If she really did love him — and after their kiss the night before she was pretty positive that she did — leaving him at the altar, fake wedding or not, would be a horrible thing to do.

  As Amy headed back toward home, she reminisced about the last couple of weeks she had spent with Owen. Despite all the time that had passed and their opposing lifestyles, deep down, their bond was still intact. There was something between them that she had never experienced with anyone else; something intangible and unnamed. That special something was never more obvious than when they were together, and for the past two weeks, it almost felt like those summers long ago. Owen made her feel happy and free. He made her feel like a kid again. And that was a feeling Amy wasn’t ready to let go of just yet.

  ***

  “Well, don’t you look sharp as a tack?”

  Dominic slapped Owen on the back as he stood under the giant oak in the backyard of his family estate just on the outskirts of their hundreds of acres of property. Two dozen white folding chairs encircled the spot; seats that would soon be filled with smiling, familiar faces looking up at him expectantly. It was five minutes past eleven and the Justice of the Peace he had hired only the week before stared at her watch with a twinge of worry. Owen hadn’t heard from Amy since 8:00 a.m. when she said she was going to get her hair done and he was starting to worry himself.

  “I just saw Amy and her mother in the kitchen,” Dom said, readjusting his belt buckle. “Apparently there was some kinda issue with the flowers. Katie had to run and pick a bouquet of flowers from the garden right quick.”

  “Oh,” Owen said, exhaling deeply. He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath. “Okay.”

  Just then, Amy’s father emerged from the back door of the house in step with his own father. The two men smiled at each other and shook hands as they took their seats under the shade of the oak tree and Owen felt his heart sink once again. In just a few minutes he was going to lie in front of both of them. It was a lie he was going to have to live with for the rest of his life.

  Katie hurried out the back door of the estate, followed by Rhonda and Martin. The poolhouse surround sound system kicked in and the first chords of the traditional bridal march echoed throughout the Durant family property, signaling that the wedding was about to begin.

  And that’s when he saw her.

  Amy Grimes, the girl he used to scamper through the woods behind his house with. The girl who fell out of the very tree he was standing under. The girl who had grown to be the smartest, most independent, most beautiful woman he had ever met, was walking his way. She was an angel in cream-colored lace, clutching a haphazard bouquet of his mother’s pink tea roses. It was an image he would remember forever. An image that stabbed him deep in the heart; a pain that hurt and felt so good all at once.

  As she neared the seated guests, Amy’s father rose to greet her and took her by the arm. They made the last leg of the journey to the end of the aisle together as father and daughter, Owen grinning and holding back the urge to cry all the way. But before Owen could gather his thoughts, Amy was at his side, her hands were in his, warm and solid and real. He could feel the cold, hard weight of his grandmother’s engagement band beneath his fingers as he looked into Amy’s eyes.

  She had that look again. It was a look he didn’t see often in her eyes, but he had seen it before, in that very same spot in fact, some twenty years ago. It was the same look that was in her eyes when she fell out of the tree and couldn’t breathe for what felt like an eternity. It was the look of fear.

  “Amy,” he said, squeezing her hand.

  But before Owen could say another word, the officiant began and their wedding ceremony was officially underway.

  ***

  “Is my hair too high?”

  Amy regarded herself in the hall mirror adjacent to the great room at the Durant estate, not one bit happy with the person looking back. It was the morning of her wedding and anything that could go wrong, had. She should have taken it as a sign; that getting married the day after Friday the Thirteenth, on Valentine’s Day, without her best friend and under false pretenses was just a no good, very bad idea. But Amy continued to not listen to her instincts like she usually did. She was going against every grain of good sense in her body and she was doing it for Owen. And now, she was going to be late for her own fake wedding.

  “There’s no such thing as hair that’s too high,” her mother said, kissing her on the cheek. “You look beautiful.”

  Amy’s shoulders fell. She fussed with her veil again.

  “Got ‘em!”

  Katie burst through the back door, breathless with a bouquet of pink tea roses in her hand. She let out a big “phew!” and handed the flowers to Amy.

  “I am so sorry that Cookie ate your calla lilies,” Amy’s mother cringed.

  “Oh, it’s alright,” Amy said, admiring the quickie bouquet. “I almost like these better.”

  “We are running late. Do you have everything you need?” Katie asked, checking the time on her phone.

  “Yes, I think I’m ready,” Amy said, poking at the bobby pins that attached the veil to her head.

  “You stand at the back door and wait,” Owen’s mother instructed. “I’ll start the music and you just walk down toward the old oak. That’s where we’ve got everything set up.”

  “The old oak!”

  Amy gathered her lace mermaid skirt and walked over to the back window overlooking the wide expanse of Durant property. Sure enough, there was Owen, dressed in a smart black tux with no hat in sight standing under the tree. Their tree. Her lower lip jutted out as she pursed her lips together. Hot, salty tears began to well up around her perfectly applied mascara despite her efforts to hold them back.

  “Oh, don’t you start blubberin’ now,” her mother said, coming to her aid with a Kleenex. “We didn’t pay Bobbie Sue seventy-five dollars to fix your makeup so you can cry it all off.”

  Rhonda Grimes dabbed her own eyes and gave her daughter a hug.

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  Amy sniffed and nodded.

  “Your dad will be waiting for you at the end of the aisle. Good luck, Sweetie.”

  With that, her mother slipped out the back door, still sniffling, leaving Amy alone for her last moment as an unmarried woman in the quiet, empty estate. Amy looked down at the ring on her finger and wondered what Owen’s grandmother would have thought of all this. She laughed through her nose, wondering what Uncle LeRoy would have thought. She stared out the window again, past her waiting groom, past the oak tree, past the treeline to the rooftop of her grandparents’ house. She wondered what they would have thought of this whole thing.

  A blast of organ music from the outdoor stereo system jarred her from her thoughts. There was no more time to consider the what-ifs. No more time to worry. It was time for her to do the thing she promised she would do all along. It was time for her to marry Owen Durant.

  The bridal march blasted in her ears as she clutched her quickie bouquet. Two dozen pairs of eyes stared up at her expectantly as she tried to smile and not trip over her long, lacy train. It was a beautiful, crisp February morning; the prettiest Valentine’s Day she could remember in a long time. It would have been a perfect day to get married if the nuptials were real.

  Amy trained her eyes on Owen as she made her way down the aisle. His chosen wedding attire was much different than she had imagined; no hat, no jeans. No boots even. In his slick rented tux and shiny black shoes, Owen Durant looked more like a double agent than a cowhand-turned-IT-professional. Seeing him so dressed up — so grown-up looking — made her smile. He had come a long way from the skinny kid she used to know, and the cocky teen that once turned her away. But underneath the expensive rented tux, everything that made him Owen still shined through like a beacon, pointed straight at her. In that moment, Amy knew that no matter what happened after that day, he would always and forever be in her life. How could he not be?

  Jeff Grimes hoisted himself from the foldout chair at the back of the aisle as she approached, looking sharper than he had in years. Her father had even shaved for the occasion, and Amy smiled as she took his arm. This moment was one of the reasons she had refused to allow herself to run that morning. Even if the moment wasn’t going to last, even if the wedding wasn’t real, Amy was able to share this one special memory with her father. Nothing could take that away. Even a little white lie.

  Amy’s cheeks began to sting with permagrin as her father delivered her in front of the officiant and a now visibly worried Owen. In the time it had taken her to take her father’s arm and walk the two dozen or so steps to the altar, Owen’s demeanor had changed from exuberant to downright anxious. Amy could tell something was wrong, but Owen took her hand and the officiant began the ceremony just the same.

  Are you okay? she mouthed to him, but he wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were open wide, darting wildly to the wedding guests and the officiant and then back at Amy again. A thin sheen of sweat started to form on his forehead. He looked how she felt inside.

  “Amy,” he said, clearing his throat. He squeezed her hands harder. Amy’s stomach did a somersault as the officiant droned on.

  “Amy, I don’t want to marry you.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Amy’s legs went numb and a shot of adrenaline raced up her spine as the words “I don’t want to marry you” fell from her faux financé’s lips. She and Owen hadn’t exactly planned what they were going to say at the altar; the Justice of the Peace brought a generic set of vows for them to read, so she hadn’t bothered practicing anything. But there was one thing that was for sure; what Owen just said out loud in front of everyone was not on the script.

  “What?” she whispered.

 

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