He unlatched the old-fashioned bolt and opened the door. He yanked the quilt over his head and mumbled “fuck off” to Boden Hicks, the idiot beating on his door. I know you’re in there.”ĭalton cracked one eyelid and cast a bleary eye at the alarm clock. I’m sorry.”ĭalton gave in to his flight instinct, shouldering his brothers aside as he left the altar and slipped out the side door of the church.īang bang bang. “Because you’re so great, in so many ways, but I can’t marry you. Or both.ĭalton released her hand and whispered, “I can’t.” Loving brown eyes that would soon lose the look of adoration and fill with disbelief or hatred. His brother Tell cleared his throat behind him.Īddie squeezed his hand and whispered, “Dalton? Here’s where you’re supposed to say I do.” Please God, forgive me, for what I’m about to do. In that moment he knew he fucking knew he couldn’t do this. He lifted his head and looked across the altar. Or was he really standing before a minister, in front of a church packed with his and her family members, about to pledge his life and eternal love to Addie Voorhees? The town sweetheart whom everybody loved?ĭalton tried to track the source of that phantom voice. Was he having a crazy booze dream after a night spent drinking too many Irish car bombs? The sunlight shining through the church’s stained glass window threw fragmented strobe-light effects across the far wall.Īnd Addie’s soft hand remained in his, awaiting the placement of the wedding band. The cloying scent of lilies caused his throat to swell, cutting off his air supply. He had been gazing at Addie’s face, but at some point…his unfocused gaze had landed on the Bible digging into his forearm like a painful burr.ĭalton heard the whisper of fabric as members of the wedding party shifted nervously. The other side, the side breaking out in hives at the very idea of forever, yelled at him to flee. One side screamed at him to just say I do and be done with it.

When that debilitating panic set in, his brain split into two warring camps. The flutter beneath his breastbone wasn’t from nerves, but the gut instinct that’d never failed to warn him to cut his losses in playing cards. Sweat beaded on his brow, dampening the collar of the white tuxedo shirt choking him like a noose. The minister’s final words would pronounce them husband and wife and he would be tied to this woman permanently. “Do you, Dalton Patrick McKay, take Addie Maureen Voorhees to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forward, until death do you part?”

Redneck Romeo by Lorelei James