“What the hell did you do?” Jason demanded, looking pissed as he shoved past Trevor and put his arm around Zoe, who simply stood there, silently crying, adding a pathetic sniffle here and there while every man in his family glared at him like they were dying to kick his ass.
“What is wrong with you?” Uncle Jared demanded as he took Zoe by the hand and led her over to the bench by the front doors, giving her a warm smile that only seemed to make her cry harder.
Jason followed after his father, pausing long enough to slam Trevor in the shoulder and send him a glare before he sat down on Zoe’s other side, taking her small hand in his and trying to comfort the frustrating woman, who couldn’t seem to stop crying.
“H-he t-tossed the c-clothes to me and told me to get d-dressed,” she managed to get out with a sniffle that for some reason had every one of his relatives shifting their glares back on him.
“H-he didn’t even tell me where we were going,” she said, pausing to add another one of those sniffles that he was starting to blame the hormones for. “H-he wouldn’t even let me eat. He just told me to get dressed, dragged me down here and said that we were getting married.”
“That’s more than most women get in our family,” he pointed out with a mumble, expecting some support from the men in his family, but all he ended up getting were more glares, a few more shoulder shoves and a, “Better watch your back, bitch,” from his Great Uncle Theo.
“I-I understand that I didn’t have much of a choice, b-but I would have liked to have worn something pretty on my wedding day,” she said with a sniffle, further inciting the rage filled glares being shot his way as his mind latched on something she said.
“Wait, what do you mean that you didn’t have a choice?” he demanded, even though he had to admit, she really didn’t have much of a choice. She was his and that’s all that mattered, but the way she’d said it rubbed him the wrong way.
“Well,” she said with a sniffle that had his eyes narrowing to slits, “it’s just that I really never thought that I’d end up settling.”
“Settling?” he repeated back slowly, sure that he’d misheard her.
She nodded solemnly as he stood there, seething.
“I know, sweetheart,” Uncle Jason said, giving her hand a comforting pat. “I know.”
“I know that I don’t have a choice anymore, not with the babies on the way,” she said with a little heartfelt sigh as she placed her hand over her soft stomach, reminding every Bradford in the room that she was carrying two of them and bringing their animosity towards him up another notch and seriously fucking him over. “This just isn’t how I’d pictured my wedding day I guess, pregnant, wearing sweatpants and hungry.”
“He didn’t feed you?” Jason asked, shifting a glare towards him that should have rightfully killed him on the spot.
“I made her five goddamn plates of waffles!” he snapped, sick and tired of the fickle bastards screwing him over because of a few sniffles and lip trembles.
This was a fucking Bradford elopement and they damn well better start remembering that!
“I-I was still hungry,” she admitted with a beautiful blush and another one of those damn lip trembles that had his eyes narrowing impossibly further.
“Is the Justice of the Peace ready?” he asked, keeping his eyes locked on the woman that was obviously enjoying screwing him over for her own entertainment.
“They’re still trying to talk him off the ledge,” one of his cousins said around a yawn even as he continued to glare at Trevor like he was Satan himself.
“Someone get him down here so that we can get this over with,” he said, forcing himself to bite back a smile when he saw Zoe do the same, clearly enjoying herself, which was fine with him.
Just as long as she was legally obligated to put up with all his bullshit by the end of the day, she could screw him over however she wanted.
*-*-*-*
“Look, you don’t have to do this,” Uncle Jared said, licking his lips nervously as he shifted an anxious glance towards the double doors leading to the courtroom where Trevor stood, arguing with a group of his cousins and uncles, trying to convince them that he wasn’t neglecting their poor little Zoe.
“We can get her out through the back,” Jason said, gesturing towards the back doors where only two Bradfords stood guard, but something about the way that they were glaring at Trevor told her that if she really wanted to leave, that they would not only step aside, but they would probably also give her a ride somewhere and buy her breakfast to make sure that she was really okay.
This really was a sweet family, she thought, biting back another pleased smile as she did her best to look upset about this forced elopement. Never in a million years could she have ever hoped to become part of a family like this, one that enjoyed screwing each other over, but in that same breath would die for one another. They were devoted, loyal and genuinely loved each other. It was more than she could have ever hoped for and she couldn’t wait to be one of them.
She especially couldn’t wait to belong to the man ignoring his cousins and uncles bitching at him about how he had to take better care of her as he continued to send her smoldering looks that told her that he knew exactly what she was up to and that it was more than fine with him just as long as she left this courthouse knowing exactly who she belonged with.
Chapter 3
He. Was. Going. To. Fucking. Throttle. Her.
The Justice of the Peace looked like he was seconds away from a panic attack.
Most of his uncles and cousins looked torn between frustration and amusement.
His Uncle Jared stood there by Zoe’s side, determined to make sure that his “special girl” wasn’t forced to rush into something that she might regret. Since she’d asked him through a teary-eyed smile to stand up for her, the betraying bastard had somehow forgotten that he’d orchestrated a forced trip to the JP of his own, taken part in more than a dozen of these and had been at his house at five this morning with coffee and donuts, explaining the best way to kidnap Zoe and get her to the courthouse on time without her killing him.
Now the bastard was determined to make sure that Zoe wasn’t rushed into doing something that she might regret later. So, thanks to his asshole uncle’s meddling ways, they were still standing here, waiting for Zoe to answer the damn question!
“M-miss?” the Justice of the Peace asked with a hesitant stammer as he risked a glance up to find Zoe standing there, worrying her bottom lip as she “thought over her options,” as she’d explained thirty minutes ago to the amusement of his uncles and cousins.
Narrowing his eyes on his soon-to-be wife, and she would damn well be leaving this court house as his wife, he bit out, “Zoe,” putting everything into that one word.
Blinking innocently at him, she admitted, “I just wan
t to make sure that I’ve reviewed all my options before I settle.”
Lips twitching, he asked, “And?”
She released a long-suffering sigh as she reluctantly nodded. “I guess we could see where this goes.”
“You…guess….,” he repeated back dryly, still stunned that a woman like Zoe was able to not only knock him on his ass, but to make him love it.
She was short, plump, feisty, sarcastic, loved to tease and torment him, couldn’t cook to save her life and he couldn’t wait