Page 29 of The Silent Note

Dutch scowls harder than I’ve ever seen him scowl. “How often are you going to cram the words ‘my wife’ into the same sentence?”

“My wife? You meanmywife? Grace Elizabeth Jamieson? My first and only wife in this lifetime? That wife?”

Dutch pretends to gag.

I grin at my brothers. “Haven’t decided yet.”

Finn points at him without raising his eyes from the book. “Don’t act like you were any better when you got married.”

I laugh at Dutch’s sputtering face.

Just then, I get a text.

Grey: I’m ready.

Pleased, I text back:coming.

I’d make a joke, but there isn’t anything funny about what’ll unfold tonight. I just hope Grey is ready for what’s about to happen.

Hell…

I hope we both are.

Chapter Eight

GREY

I don’t have sexy lingerie.

I didn’t think I’d need it because, like most sane twenty-four year old women, I didn’t assume that my eighteen year old student was going to barge into my hospital room, demand my hand in marriage and then drive me to our honeymoon suite when I woke up this morning.

But maybe this is all my fault.

Maybe Ishouldhave anticipated that something this insane would happen.

Was there something I could have done to stop this stone from rolling down the hill and becoming a boulder?

I picture myself telling Zane no this morning.

Telling Cadey no when she brought in my wedding dress.

Telling Viola to put away her makeup brushes.

Calling mom and letting her talk me out of this madness.

No, I should have stopped myself that night.

The night I looked into Zane’s hypnotic blue eyes and stepped into the darkness.

I’m an idiot.

A married idiot.

I can’t believe I’m in this mess.

Oh, shut up with the whining. You complain way too much, babes.

My eyes widen, fluttering abruptly when I see Sloane sitting in the passenger seat next to the driver. Her blonde hair is pulled up in a ponytail and she’s wearing the Redwood Prep blazer over a white blouse and a plaid red skirt.