“Did you say you’re sufferable?” she asked, her forehead creasing as she squinted at Adam. “What’s that even supposed to mean?”
“If you don’t know, I’m not going to take the time—”
“I’ll have to get another form,” the boy said, holding up the now-soggy ball of paper before turning on his heel to make his way back up to the front of the crowd.
“What was that about?” Adam asked.
“What was what about?” Nora said, folding her arms and looking around.
“Never mind, I was just wondering…” He waved it away and got back to berating her. “Where was I? Oh yes, I’m not going to take the time to explain myself to a complete hypocrite. I need to be on my way before…”
He stopped, apparently noticing that she was no longer arguing with him.
“You know, you could at least do me the courtesy of looking at me while I’m insulting you,” he said.
She ignored that, her brow creasing in a frown. “What was he trying to get us to sign?”
Adam frowned as well and looked around for the boy. And then he seemed to notice what she had…the crowd that surrounded them were mostly paired up. Couples. Who were now looking very pleased while others congratulated them.
A two-ton brick dropped in her stomach, and her mouth dried up. “Oh no,” she muttered.
“Oh no, what?” he asked.
“I think…I think…” She swallowed against the sudden upheaval in her panicked gut.
He raised a brow. “Thinking isn’t your strong suit, is it? Does it hurt?”
She scowled, too focused on keeping her breakfast down to give him a proper retort. “I think…we may have just gotten married.”
Chapter Three
“What…what do you mean, we just gotmarried?” Adam said, his mind sputtering to a halt.
She just stared at him, her face completely blank. Then she sighed. “Oh well.” She turned on her heel and started pushing her way through the crowd.
“What do you mean,oh well? Wait a minute. Miss…” Shit. He didn’t even know her name. “Miss!” he called after her before noticing that he was being noticed. He tried to draw his neck farther into the collar of his coat, but he kept following her shapely backside, conveniently displayed in a pair of men’s trousers, through the crowd. What the hell did she mean, they just got married?
A braid of thick chestnut hair swung across her back as she moved, and he had to stifle the urge to reach out and tug on it. Pulling hair was rude. Unless they were in bed, of course, and… Good God, what was wrong with him? He didn’t want to explore whythatthought had just popped into his head.
He would never willingly get married. Someone with his poor decision-making skills could not be trusted to choose a life mate. Something he’d proven on a semi-regular basis most of his life.
Hell, the last woman he’d been mixed up with had turned on him the moment she found out about the price on his head. He actually didn’t blame her. Much. The kind of money that damn lawman Spurlock was offering for him would have tempted his own mother.
Still, he’d be lying if he said it hadn’t hurt when she’d betrayed him. He’d damn near married the woman. Sure, he’d been drunk at the time, but it had still been the closest to matrimony he’d ever gotten. And would ever get again. Lesson learned. For real this time. The whole mess only solidified his determination to avoid any further entanglements with the fairer sex. This latest mistake had just been the last in a long line of romantic disappointments he should have known better than to get involved in.
He finally caught up enough that he could reach out and pull her to a stop. “Explain yourself. What do you mean, we’re married?”
She scowled at him again. “I mean, Mr. Madam, that—”
“Adam,” he said through clenched teeth. “And that’s my first name, not my last. Adam Brady.”
She squinted at him like she couldn’t figure out why he was telling her his name. “Fine. I’m Nora. In any case, Mr. Brady, we just—”
“Brady?” a voice bellowed.
Adam closed his eyes and blew out a breath, every prayer he’d ever heard whispering through his head. “Now you’ve done it,” he muttered to her.
“What?” she asked, eyes wide as she glanced back and forth between him and the sheriff, who now stood on the platform just feet away, gawking at him.
