“There’s nothing left to finish,” Landon muttered, following behind me.
“Oh, yeah?” I snapped, once we were in the safety of his car where nobody could listen in. “What about the fact that I might be pregnant?”
His fingers clenched so tightly on the steering wheel that his knuckles turned white. “If we’re lucky enough for you to be pregnant, I’ll treat it like the blessing it is. A little part of you and me growing inside you.”
“Landon,” I sighed, reaching out to lay my palm over the hand that was nearest to me. “I’ve never been in a situation like this, obviously. And I’m not exactly certain how to think. Or feel. Or react.”
I laid my other palm over my belly, thinking about what he’d said. There really could be a little life growing inside me, half mine and half Landon’s. “But I do know one thing—even if there’s a morning after pill I can take this late, I don’t want to. I couldn’t. I’m sorry I brought it up as a possibility.”
“Thank fuck,” he breathed out.
“This doesn’t mean I’m not confused, Landon. I went into this marriage thinking it was temporary, and a baby is very permanent.”
“So is our marriage,” he growled.
“Don’t you think I should have a say in that as well?”
“Of course.” He made a sharp right turn, pulling into the parking lot of a local drug store. “But be honest with yourself, Blondie. Now that we’ve spent a week together as man and wife, can you honestly say you want to walk away from this? From us?”
My head shook from side to side instinctively.
“That’s what I thought.” He flashed me a smug grin and patted my leg. “Sit tight while I run inside and grab something really quick.”
It was a good thing he didn’t expect me to go with him because my knees were like rubber. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to make it more than a few steps from the car without help. Between learning that Landon wanted us to have a real, forever marriage, and that I might be pregnant, my head was spinning. Digging my phone out of my purse, I called the one person I always ran to when the going got tough.
“Zoe-baby,” my mom’s voice came through the line, half-way through the first ring. “I was just thinking about you, baby girl.”
“Oh, mom. I—I—I—“ I stuttered.
“Zoe? Are you okay? What’s going on?” Her happy tone quickly turned panicked.
“I’m married, and I might be pregnant.”
“Married and pregnant?” she gasped. “It’s been barely more than a week since I last spoke with you and you didn’t mention a man in your life.”
“Landon and I went to Vegas, and I thought it was only supposed to be temporary, but now I might be pregnant and he never said anything about it being permanent,” I babbled.
“Ah, Landon. I should have known,” she sighed. “Slow down, baby girl, and start from the beginning.”
I filled her in on everything that had happened over the last week. To say she was upset to learn her youngest daughter had run off to Vegas and gotten married without saying a word was a major understatement, but she settled down a little when I told her about the online streaming of the ceremony. I heard it playing in the background while I finished my explanation, and once I was done there was complete silence on the other end of the line. My mom was never quiet, but it seemed I’d managed to accomplish the impossible and stunned her silent.
“Mom? Say something, please.”
“Oh, baby girl,” she sniffed. “You look so happy. I can’t wait to meet him, and our new grandbaby if you are pregnant.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked down at the screen for a moment to make sure it really had been my mom who I’d called. “I’m sorry, Mom. You’re going to have to repeat that because I could have sworn you just said you’re excited about meeting Landon and me possibly being pregnant.”
“At least one of the women in your family is happy about it,” Landon grumbled as he climbed into the car again.
“Is that Landon?” my mom asked excitedly. “Can I talk to him?”
Feeling like I’d somehow slipped into another dimension, I handed the phone over to Landon and listened to his side of the conversation with my head leaned back and my eyes closed. My mom must have peppered him with questions about the ceremony and honeymoon because he told her all about the flowers, my dress, the rings, the house in Malibu—pretty much everything we’d done when we hadn’t been in bed together over the last week. When I opened my eyes again, we’d pulled into the parking lot in front of Heath Construction.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Elliott, but I need to let you go. I promise to have Zoe call again soon. Maybe we can do a video call next time, when your husband is available too.” After hanging up, he tucked my phone into my purse and helped me out of the car. “C’mon, baby. We’ve got to hurry up.”
“We do? Why?”
“Because Stephanie called while I was in the store. There’s a USCIS officer waiting inside for us.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “What are they doing here? I thought they wanted me to go to a field office next week? This can’t be good.”
“Shh,” he hushed me, placing his lips over mine to stop the flow of words. “You don’t know about that, remember? Since we were out of town when that letter arrived, we have to act like the only possible reason he’s here is the petition for alien relative I filed on Monday.”
“You filed the form already?”
He opened the glass door and ushered me inside. “Of course I did.”
“From our honeymoon?”
“Yeah, dummy, you probably should have waited until you at least got home before filing the paperwork,” Stephanie muttered as we walked past the receptionist desk where she was sitting. “Or at the very least, until after you’d told our parents since Dad almost blew your cover when that pesky immigration officer showed up asking to speak to you.”
“Shit,” Landon groaned. “Dad’s here?”
“Yuppers,” she chirped. “Lucky for you, I made sure he’s busy going over a bid so you can sneak into your office before you have to face him.”
“Is your dad going to be mad?” I whispered, feeling tears threaten. On top of everything else, knowing his parents were going to disapprove of our marriage was too much for me to handle.
“Not mad, baby. Just disappointed that he wasn’t in on the secret,” Landon reassured me. “He’ll be happy as hell to know I finally managed to get you to go out on a date with me, even if it was an elopement to Vegas.”
I giggled at the ridiculousness of his comment as he opened the door to his office, but my laughter died out when the young man waiting for us stood and turned around. He was a little shorter than Landon, with light brown hair and a serious look in his pale green eyes as he studied us.
“Mr. and Mrs. Heath, I presume?”
“Call me Landon, please.” Landon reached out to him, and then tugged me forward once they were done shaking hands. “And this is my wife, Zoe.”
“I’m Spencer Teagan. Sorry to barge in on you both like this, but we do like to utilize the element of surprise when investigating marriages such as yours.”
“Feel free to surprise us as much as you’d like,” Landon replied smoothly, rounding the desk to sit down and pulling me onto his lap before dropping the brown paper bag he’d been clutching onto his desk. “We have nothing to hide.”
“I was already in the area, so I thought I’d stop in to get a copy of your marriage certificate,” he requested. Then his gaze swung around Landon’s office, as he assessed his surroundings, before dropping to the ring on my finger and lingering there. “And your prenuptial agreement.”
“Pre-nup?” I echoed.
“The marriage certificate won’t be a problem.” Landon set me on my feet so he could stand up and yank his wallet out of his back pocket to pull out a copy of the certificate. “But we don’t have a prenuptial agreement, so I
can’t provide you with one.”
“No pre-nup?” Spencer asked, sounding surprised. “That’s certainly unusual considering the difference in your circumstances.”
“Not in my family,” Landon growled, slamming his fists down on his desk. “We don’t believe in divorce.”
Spencer’s gaze lowered, settling on the brown paper bag which had rolled over and opened. Several boxes had spilled out of it, in shades of pink, purple and blue. Pregnancy tests, every single one of them.
Chapter 8
Landon
All eyes seemed to be glued to the items now scattered on the desk. I couldn’t help the grin that slowly slid over my face when Spencer finally lifted his gaze to mine. “Honeymoon,” I smirked with a shrug.
His lips twitched, but then he pressed them together and schooled his features. “I see. Well, let’s get started. We received a tip—”
“What’s this I hear about an elop—” My dad stopped short after interrupting Spencer, as his large frame filled my office doorway. His hazel eyes, so much like mine, went to the pile of pregnancy tests. He stroked his graying beard and whistled slowly. “Damn, son. You work fast.” He looked at Zoe with a soft expression and a smile. “It’s wonderful to see you again, Zoe honey. Welcome to the family.” Then he looked at me and frowned. “Your mother is going to be pissed. First you run off and get married without telling anyone, and now she’s going to find out you knocked up your fiancée before the wedding?” He shook his head sympathetically. We both knew I was going to catch hell with my mom.
“You’re pregnant?” Stephanie squealed, clapping her hands excitedly as she came bouncing into the room. She’d clearly been eavesdropping just outside the door.
“No!” Zoe squeaked, jumping up from my lap. “He didn’t—um, we didn’t—that is, until the wedding—I was a”—she glanced at my dad, then Spencer, and the blush that was already starting quickly turned her face flaming red—“It’s too early to take a test.” Stephanie burst into laughter, and Zoe looked like she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her. I stifled my laughter, not wanting to add to her embarrassment, but damn, she was just too fucking cute. Grabbing her hand, I tugged her back down into my lap and buried my face in her hair to hide my smile.