Now was totally the time to panic. "How could we not notice? We got there a-and you opened the door."
Married. She wasmarried?
“I know I did. All I can say is that I was totally distracted by you,” Everett said.
“You’re blaming me?”
“No. No, I meant—”
“Forget it. It apparently happened, which means we screwed up, but that's what we'll tell a judge. We'd had a few drinks, it was supposed to be a joke and we…we can get it annulled."
"You can't get an annulment when the marriage has been consummated."
Fire rushed through her body and up into her face, and even though she'd turned thirty-two on her last birthday and was hardly a schoolgirl, the fact they'd mostdefinitelyconsummated things left her blushing. "D-divorce then," she added in a small voice while avoiding his gaze.
It would be impossible to keep such a thing from her family but maybe, somehow, she could?
Everett inhaled and looked decidedly uncomfortable. So much so a knot formed in the pit of her stomach. "What?Whaaaat?" she asked when he didn't immediately respond.
He glanced over his shoulder into the window where the Babes’ and Amelia's muffled voices could be heard through the glass panes. She'd closed the door for privacy, but given the number of women lingering post-party and the spiked punch that had been consumed, the party continued through cleanup if the giggling and laughter heard outside of the house was any indication.
"We have to talk about that."
"What's to talk about? Everett, this was a prank on my cousin that backfired big-time. We didn't intend for it to be real, so of course we're getting divorced."
"I hear what you're saying."
The way he said the words made her think of some sort of conflict negotiation crap no doubt learned in a boardroom somewhere. But there was nothing to negotiate here. It wasn’t like they could stay married!
"And what you're saying is true, but I think we should wait before we rush into a divorce as quickly as we rushed into the marriage."
She blinked. Then blinked again while absorbing his words. "We didn't rush into anything. We didn't mean to actually… I knew you what? Four or five hours before we went to that chapel because I won the bet? Everett, this isn't a reality show. We have to take care of this."
"You’re right. It isn’t. But we’re waiting.”
"Oh, I beg to differ,” she said with a rush of exasperation.
"Isabel, please. Hear me out. We need to slow down and consider all the possibilities and the ramifications before we move forward with anything."
Possibilities and ramifications? "Like what? What could make this worse?"
"What if you're pregnant?"
Gobsmacked, she nearly stumbled even though she stood still. "Pregnant?"
She'd been so focused on forgetting about him and Vegas that…
"We were both very much caught up in the moment, and while I’ve never done such a thing, conception is a possibility."
The air left her lungs in a rush, and even though she'd realized after the fact that theremighta chance, slim though it was given the timing, hearing it spelled out in no uncertain terms just, well, sucked. And made her question her thinking.
She'd come home so exhausted by the trip and all the ideas for her new projects, getting ready for the baby shower andavoidingthoughts of Everett and Vegas, that by the time she considered a trip to the pharmacy, she’d then reconsidered.
Because even though Plan B was meant to prevent conception, a part of her brain couldn't get over the fact thatifit had already happened in the short time span… She couldn't do that. Not after watching Amelia and Lincoln try so hard to conceive the baby she carried.
She was thirty-two, after all. And maybe she didn't make a normal living like everyone else, but she did okay, and what if this was her chance for a baby with someone strong and handsome, intelligent? A good guy? Regardless of whether or not he decided to take part in the baby's life.
But that wasn't something she could admit to a stranger. "Fine. So...I suppose we can wait until we know. I'll take a pregnancy test as soon as…soon," she muttered.