Page 17 of Merry Fake Bride

She left without a word and I never got her real name or her number.

All of that points to her never wanting to see me again, but she’s here.

Somehow, she’s found her way back to me in such a quiet street that it has to be fate.

As she gets close, my pulse quickens and suddenly, my tongue won’t work.

Everything I can think to say just sounds creepy and weird. I’ve lost all ability to strike up a normal conversation.

What’s wrong with me?

I don’t get nervous.

Anxious, yes, but I’ve never been tongue-tied trying to talk to a woman.

She gets closer and closer with the boxes blocking her line of sight, so I step to the side to avoid her and clear my throat.

“Thanks!” she calls around the boxes, unable to see me.

“Adeline?” The word chokes out of me like dust and I suddenly feel like I’m a teenager again trying to get the attention of the hot cheerleader in school.

‘Adeline’ stumbles to a stop and then spins rapidly toward me, trying to find me on the other side of the boxes piled in her arms.

As she does, she steps back and her foot slips off the curb.

She squeaks in alarm, so I reach for her to catch her, intent on stopping her from falling.

A mistake, it seems.

As soon as my fingers close around her warm wrist, a sharper yelp of fright escapes her, and she wrenches herself away from me like some kind of knee-jerk reaction.

In doing so, she stumbles fully backward, unbalanced from falling off the curb, and trips into the street.

“No!”

In the same second, a car horn blares loudly like a deafening siren, and I’m frozen in place, watching in horror as a passing car slams on its brakes, but not before it slams into Adeline and throws her over the hood.

Her boxes fly up in the air, splitting open, and as she lands with a sickening thump, glittering toppers and decorations rain down from the sky.

“Adeline!”

5

DEVON

Ow.

Everything hurts.

My back aches.

My shoulder aches.

My tummy hurts.

My arm… wait.

The pain in my arm is like a distant thought, like a memory I know I can recall if I think hard enough, but it’s just not quite there yet.