It was just a short walk to work, but she was dragging from the exhaustion, and she knew this was the only way she was going to make it in after all their talking last night about going and doing wedding crap. Today, she just wasn’t in the mood. Cally was ten minutes early as she walked in the back door. When she went in the office, she asked, “What do you want me to do today?”
The assistant manager, Sara, just laughed as she instructed her, “We have two tills out now, so why don’t you start on stock? And if we need you to get a till later, you can get one.”
That worked for her. She was too tired to get stuck up behind the register to deal with whiny tourists, and being left alone to stock shelves was fine with her current mood. She walked into the dark store and headed down to the far end, where she grabbed the first box she came to and started working. She let muscle memory guide her this morning. Her mind was too far gone to work, let alone focus, and a mindless job like this was more than enough for her today.
The time had passed quickly. She had nearly finished all the boxes when her manager, Kim, walked up to her, smiling. Something started to twist inside her. Just then, she jumped as a set of strong arms wrapped around her from behind.
Kim smiled knowingly. “Congratulations. I talked to Ann, and she’s agreed to come in and cover the rest of your shift.”
Cally shook her head, not liking the sound of this. “I’m sorry. I told them I had to work today and that I couldn’t get off.”
The older woman just laughed. “If you would have said something, we would have found someone else to cover for you. Why didn’t you tell anyone? Your mother had to call me this morning when she couldn’t find you, and I told her we covered you last night when we talked.”
The downside of your mother being friends with your boss. She groaned inwardly, seeing where this was going.
* * * * *
Dakota looked down at her, saying, “We need to meet her at the courthouse in an hour.”
Cally just shook her head, not believing they would do this to her after she had told them not to. “I’ll get my things.”
As she walked to the back room, she looked at her watch. It was nearly ten, and she knew that she had to change her clothes before she left. It was one thing to wear pants to work in the middle of the summer, but it was something different to wear them out in hundred-degree temperatures. Taking her bag to change in the bathroom as fast as she could before someone else could stop her and start on all this stupid wedding stuff, Cally was rushing. Dakota was waiting for her near the stockroom door when she finally made an appearance.
His everlasting smile was pasted to his face like a ray of sunshine. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Why me?”
He laughed as they headed up the store. “Because, you’re so easy to love.”
She just shook her head, not able to believe that. “Great, now I’m marrying Prince Charming.”
He pulled her to a stop, just in front of the front door, before reaching down and kissing her full out in the front of the store. She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her go. When he decided to end the kiss, her face was beet-red from embarrassment, and she ran out the door as fast as she could. When she got next to the car, she demanded, “What was that for? Are you trying to get me fired?”
He backed her against the car and kissed her again, and this time, he took his time and didn’t care who saw them. When he pulled back, he said in a deep husky tone, “That was the first time you said that you are marrying me.”
“Really, you would let me get fired over that?” she demanded, shocked that he would do such a thing.
He brushed a quick featherlight kiss on her lips as he nodded, “Yes.”
She knew it sounded cold, but right now, he needed an icy shower before they did something else that wasn’t appropriate at her work. “Aren’t we supposed to be somewhere?”
He seemed to debate that for a few moments before he pulled the door open for her. This was going to be another very long day. She could see it coming now. She looked at him as they drove off. He was so damn happy that he was starting to unnerve her, which only angered her more at this point. She had spent the past three hours forming a million questions and trying to make sense of this, but the way he unsteadied her every time they were together wasn’t helping her nerves.
She tested the water with, “Why now?”
He glanced at her, then back to the road. “Because I don’t know when I’m going to be off again, and it’s just easier to get it done while I’m down here.”
Okay, that answered the “why are we getting the license today” question, but not the one she was trying to ask. So she tried again. “Why are we getting married now? Why not in a year or two or three or at least when I’ve graduated high school?”
“Because I don’t want to wait forever for us to be together, and this way, we can get a place sooner before the waiting list gets longer,” he answered, almost like it all made some sort of sense.
“So this is about base housing?” Cally looked at him like he was crazy. “You do remember that I can’t even get on the base because I’m too young and I don’t have an I.D. card, right?”
Two weeks ago, after they went to the state fair, he needed to stop and get some things from his room. The guards at the gate had refused to let her in because she didn’t have an I.D., and she wasn’t eighteen. Cally had to sit in the guardhouse and wait for him to get back. She had gotten the feeling that something had happened that night, but she had no idea what.
He seemed to shrug it off. “When we’re married, you’ll get a military I.D., so that won’t happen again.”
She shook her head at the irony of it. “So I can get a military I.D. to get on the base and I can get married, but I can’t even get my driver’s license?” She rolled her eyes and added, “What a backwards world.”
She was still looking out the window as she sulked, when he asked, “I thought you took driver’s Ed?”
“I did, but my mom won’t let me or Savannah get our licenses. She hates the idea that we could be independent and drive ourselves places, and there’s the whole insurance thing,” Cally groaned.
The rest of the ride was rather quiet, at least until they pulled up to the old courthouse. She saw her mother waiting and knew she wouldn’t be happy with them being late; her mother’s time was more valuable than her kids. Getting out of the car, she walked to where her angry mother was waiting for them.
She was surprised when Dakota was the one to say, “I think I have all the papers we need.”
It was almost like she wasn’t there. “I pulled her papers out this morning.”
They started inside as her mother thanked him. “Thanks for picking her up. I would have brought her if she hadn’t gone to work.”
“Yeah, thanks for that. It’s bad enough you know my boss, but you don’t have to go behind my back and call her like that,” Cally stammered flatly.
“We told you we were coming up here to do this today, which should have indicated that you shouldn’t have even gone in this morning. I had called Kim last night and told her you wouldn’t be in today,” her mother scolded.
Cally shook her head. “I want my life back, now.”
Her mother gave her an evil look as they walked into the office building next to the courthouse. Other than the staff,