I keep replaying shit in my head. I have for two days. I still don’t know exactly what happened. Now, this is nothing new when it comes to Faith, but never have I been more confused than I am right now. It seemed so simple. She signs the annulment papers, I turn them in and we both get on with our lives. I forgot one thing.

Nothing is ever simple when it comes to Faith.

I couldn’t go after her immediately, not since she conveniently had state police protection. It has taken me two days to catch up with her. I’m following her Jeep now down a back road somewhere close to the Oklahoma border. There’s no rhyme or reason to the roads that Faith keeps taking. Hell, I swear sometimes she manages to make a complete circle. She literally comes to a stop sign and turns right, goes to another one and turns left and ends up back at the original one. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. At first, I thought it was because she caught me tailing her. The more it happened, the more I’m sure this has something to do with Faith’s own brand of crazy.

It’s almost dark before she stops for the night. I’ve been following her for at least fourteen hours, watching her from a distance and getting gas when she goes inside to eat or at a station. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve done damn good at it. I’m starting to think I should have been a P.I. instead of a football player. Luckily, her Jeep gets horrible gas mileage compared to my Caddy. She pulls into a small motel that is literally called Highway 69 Motel. The road we are on is not Highway 69, not even close. That should be a warning sign to the woman that she should keep driving. But it doesn’t surprise me that she goes in to register. I pull into the parking lot only after she goes inside. Then I park my car and get out. Every bone and joint I have pops as I finally stand. Too many years of football have made trips like this painful. I lean against her hood and wait.

It doesn’t take long before she comes outside singing—singing—and doesn’t look up. When she gets just a foot away from me I figure if I don’t speak up she’s going to run straight into me. How this girl survives on her own, I have no idea.

“Hello, wife.”

She lets out a startled scream, jumps in place slightly and then stares at me. She’s got sunglasses on that hide her eyes from me. I frown, wishing they were gone. There’s no reason for her to have them. It’s nearly dark outside.

“Look what the cat drug in,” she mumbles. “I was wondering when you would show up.”

“You knew I would?” I can’t help but ask.

“Bad pennies usually do. How’s your fiancée?” she says, her voice full of sarcasm.

“Don’t know. Haven’t talked to her.”

“Haven’t… Is that normal?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s sad. She deserves better, but then maybe she should count her lucky stars. If she knew what a dick you were it might hurt her.”

“I doubt it, since we are just friends.”

“Just friends?”

“Pretty much. Not that I owe you a reason, but Jacey and I are marrying for business reasons only. Don’t know a hundred percent, and don’t care enough to ask, but I’m pretty sure Jacey would rather be marrying you and what you’re packing between your legs than what I have.”

She stands there and it takes her several minutes to come up with the correct answer. When it does her whole stance changes.

“You’re getting married for business reasons?”

“People have gotten married for less.” I shrug, the entire subject making me uncomfortable.

“That’s so… cold…” she whispers and her voice sounds like she’s in mourning.

“What do you care? You said you didn’t like marriage, remember?” I remind her of the night we met.

“I don’t. Still… Whatever. Listen, I’m not signing your papers. I’ve thought about it and I can’t.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because I can’t sign my name and swear what it wants me to,” she mumbles.

“Like what?”

“Well for one, we didn’t lie, so fraud is out.”

“Okay, then what else?”

“It mentioned force. Neither one of us can claim that,” she says logically and I try to keep from yelling at her, but it’s getting harder.

“And?”

“Incest. I think that one is out clearly. I mean you can look at us and tell that.”

“Jesus.” Her mind fucking scares me.

“And it said we qualify for an annulment if we’re previously married and didn’t get a legal divorce before. Titan, I’m not married—though I can’t say for sure if you are or not. I mean, you have a fiancée that I didn’t know about. Who’s to say you don’t go around collecting wives like other people collect stamps?”

“No one collects postage stamps anymore, Faith.”

“My Aunt Ida Sue does,” she defends.

“Your aunt is bonkers,” I say with a shrug.

“That’s not nice, Big Daddy. She likes you.”

“Yeah? I know my ass has still got the bruises from the way she kept pinching it.”

“Well, in her defense, you do have a nice ass.” Faith smiles and pulls her sunglasses off her face, holding them loosely in her hand. Even in the pale evening light and muted glow of the parking lot I can see her eyes sparkle. She’s beautiful… Damn it.

“Okay, so no on any of those reasons, but woman, you can’t deny we were both drunk off our asses and shouldn’t have made a big decision like getting married.”

“Maybe… But I can’t say I didn’t realize what we were doing.” She shrugs.

“Are you saying you wanted to get married?”

“No! Well… I don’t think so. It seemed like a good idea at the time,” she ends. And all of a sudden, I feel like I’ve been sucker punched.

“And I always thought an annulment was if you haven’t had sex, but when I read it said if we had kids, it would recognize them as being legitimate even if we get an annulment and…”

I feel like I can’t breathe.

“Are you fucking pregnant?” I bark and she jumps.

“No. I don’t think so… but I can’t be sure yet.”

“So we take you to the doctor. I don’t see how you can be pregnant. We used protection.”

“Except for that one time in the shower,” she reminds me and until that moment I hadn’t remembered the shower. At her words flashes come in my mind. Images of us standing in the shower, her back to my front. My hands full of her tits while my cock is pushing inside of her, me biting into her neck as her body pushes against me and I thrust deep…

Fuck.

“We’ll go get a test and find out.”

“I’m tired, Titan.”

“Tonight we’ll rest. We can do the test tomorrow.”

Her eyes narrow at me and I see the distrust there.

“You’re planning on staying in my room with me, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“You get those handcuffs near me, Titan, and I’m going to shove my foot so deep in your ass you will never walk right again,” she threatens.

For some reason, my lips spread into a half smile and I want to laugh.

“Point made, wife. Point made.”