Page 82 of The Backup Groom

The crowd laughed, but it was far from funny.

I wanted to be the man to marry Amber.

This was what I had visualized, what I wanted more than anything.

In fact, I needed to say yes before she changed her mind!

“Nothing would make me happier,” I said, grinning. “Of course I will marry you.”

“Yes!” Amber screamed and lunged up toward me, knocking me to the sand, plastering her lips against mine as the crowd cheered.

My dream girl was on top of me, in the sand, kissing me.

Who was I to complain?

This was heaven.

“I changed my mind again.” I caressed the side of her face. “I want the rewind button, so you can kiss me again, just like that.”

Amber gave me a flirty smile. “We don’t need no stinkin’ button for that.” Then she kissed me again, even better than the first time, as if it came straight from her heart.

A jeep pulled up not too far from us, the flashing lights and blaring siren completely ruining our intimate moment.

“Please disperse!” said the cop on the bullhorn as he clambered out of the jeep. “Nothing to see here!” Before Amber could get off me, he stumbled toward us, kicking sand everywhere. “On your feet and keep your body parts where I can see them!”

Wonderful.

Mickey Mouse was on beach patrol.

It was the same overzealous volunteer community cop who’d found me fumbling with my ripped shorts at the park next to the tennis courts.

We stood and brushed the sand off our clothes.

“What seems to be the problem?” Amber asked, her bottom lip quivering, looking more amused than scared.

“This is a family beach—that’s the problem,” he stated in that very distinct, high-pitched Mickey squeak. He eyed us both from head to toe, then shook his head in disgust. “I got a call about a disturbance, someone fornicating in front of the children. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

I glanced around and threw up my hands. “There are no children here.”

“Not a surprise—you probably scarred them for life with your behavior, and they took off running. I probably would’ve done the same if I weren’t here to protect and serve.” He took a few steps closer, then jerked his head back. “You again.” The cop glanced down at my shorts. “You just can’t seem to keep your pants on.”

I glanced down at my shorts and got a surprise. They had happened to slide down my waist a couple of inches after Amber had tackled and kissed me, enough to reveal the top part of mySupermanboxers.

Amber smirked. “Cute.”

I pulled them back up and glanced back over at the cop.

“Not cute,” the cop squeaked. “Disgusting.”

“You did it!” Stella said, approaching. “Congratulations.”

“Yeah, congrats!” Dean said, grinning. “I got everything on video. Well, me and a few hundred other people.”

“Could you please keep the chit-chat to a minimum?” the overzealous cop said. “I’m conducting official business here.”

“Why?” Dean asked. “What happened?”

“He says we were fornicating.” I held up my hand to show the ring. “Come on—we just got engaged. All she did was kiss me.”