Life was strange. Over a week ago, I’d been single, and if I was being honest, a complete sad sack. I hadn’t been able to get past my breakup with Nick. Every cell inside of my body had been screaming it was the most wrong thing that had ever happened.
I’d never felt that way about anyone. Not even Remy, after I’d backed out of the wedding.
But looking back on things from my present position—waiting for Nick, my fiancé, and his daughter Lexi to meet me at Cornerstone Tavern for Wednesday night trivia—it all made sense.
The heart wants what the heart wants, and my heart wanted Nick.
Hell, that little bitch had pretty much made my life a fucking mess after the breakup. But lucky for me, and thanks to Nick for taking that giant leap of faith and getting down on one knee in the middle of La Porro, my heart was happy. She’d get to keep the man of her dreams forever.
Yeah, life was definitely strange, but in this case, the weirdness was the best thing ever.
“Can I get you started with anything?” a female waitress with wild, curly red hair asked as she set down a bar menu and a fresh glass of water.
“There will be two more coming,” I updated. “And I’ll just have an iced tea while I wait for them. Thanks.”
“Here for the trivia?” she asked with a wink, and I nodded.
“Hell yeah.”
“May the odds ever be in your favor,” she teased with a grin, and I laughed. “I’ll be back in a few. My name is Patty, by the way. Don’t hesitate to let me know if you need anything.” She set a few more menus on the table before moving to the table beside mine.
A quick glance at the time on my phone, and I knew they’d be here any minute.
I fidgeted my fingers up and down my water glass, swiping off the condensation just to have something to do. Nerves fluttered up from my stomach and urged slight tremors to settle into my hands.
It was a big day—the very first time that I’d get to meet Lexi.
Normally, Nick only got time with her every other weekend, but Winnie had kindly made an exception to the rule and allowed an extra night this week so the center of Nick’s world and I could meet one another.
I was equal parts excited and terrified.
Meeting your significant other’s kid was no backwoods show at a resort in the Poconos. It was main stage, Broadway, New York fucking City, and if I couldn’t sing the songs and dance the choreography, little Lexi would be sending me for the fucking hills. And I’d be alone. Again.
She was special, I knew from the way Nick talked about her, from the insights he gave me into her life, and if she didn’t like me, I wasn’t worth liking.
Plus, she was Nick and Winnie’s kid. Nick was my present and future, and I loved him more than I’d ever loved someone. And Winnie, well, she had been an important part of my past. One of my closest friends, practically like a sister to me.
I had no doubts they’d made an equally amazing little human being.
But, she didn’t know me from Adam, and the stakes were discernibly high. I desperately wanted to make a good impression.
I wanted her to like me. I just wanted it all to go smoothly. And I wanted not to vomit in my freshly washed hair.
First impressions were everything, and I wasn’t quite sure how to make a good first impression on a nine-year-old girl who was smarter than most adults—though, I was fairly certain vomit hair wouldn’t help.
Entrance door in sight, I watched as Nick stepped inside, one toned arm back to keep a hold on his daughter as she followed. I forced myself to take a huge, calming breath as I lifted my hand and waved to grab his attention.
He smiled softly and offered a little nod as he led his daughter, her little hand encased in his big hand, through the crowd and toward me. As they reached the table, I stood, and Lexi’s big blue eyes looked at me curiously for a brief moment, before she reached out her little hand. “I’m Lexi Winslow,” she greeted. “You’re Charlotte Hollis. You work for CMI as a headhunter, and you’re going to be my dad’s wife soon.”
“That I am.” I smiled at her ability to get straight to the point—and forced myself not to bumble my own—and shook her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Hey,” Nick whispered into my ear and softly kissed my cheek. He ushered Lexi into one of the barstools, and we both sat down on either side of her.
She glanced around the room before quirking a brow in my direction. “Are you good at trivia?”
“Well…” I shrugged. “I’m not too bad.”
“She’s better than me,” Nick added with a grin.
“We have about twenty minutes before it starts,” I announced and pointed toward the menus. “So, first we need to choose a team name, and then we should probably get our food ordered.”
“A team name?” Lexi asked, and I nodded.
“Yep. We need a really good team name. Got any ideas?”
Obviously, Fleetwood Mac’s Sex Pants wouldn’t cut it tonight. Not that she didn’t know about sex. According to Nick, she probably knew more about it than I did, and I liked to think I knew a good deal.
“Hmmm…” She tapped her index finger to her chin. “Dumbledore’s Quizards.”
Nick sighed, and I smiled wide and proud. “I love Harry Potter.”
“Me too,” Lexi agreed. “What house are you?”
“Gryffindor,” I answered and then added, “I bet I know which house you’re in.”
“Well, statistically speaking, you have a one-in-four shot, but I’m curious if you’ll be able to guess it.”
“Ravenclaw.”
Her eyes lit up in surprise. “That’s right! How’d you know?”
“Because only the smartest people are in Ravenclaw.”
“Do what is wise,” she repeated her house’s motto, and I nodded.
“Exactly.”
“How many minutes do we have until trivia starts?” she asked, and Nick glanced at his watch.
“Fifteen minutes.”
Immediately, she picked up her menu and scrolled through the options. “I’m going to get the chicken tenders with fries. No sauce. And a lemonade to drink.”
“Do you know what you want?” I asked Nick, and he shrugged.
“Feel like sharing a few bar apps again?”
“Sounds perfect,” I answered and glanced toward the center of the room to find our waitress Patty taking orders from the twelve-top in the center of the room. No way she’d get to us before trivia night started up. Hell, she hadn’t even had time to bring me my iced tea.
From what I knew of Lexi, she was a girl who liked to keep a schedule. So, I hopped off my barstool and grabbed my purse. “You stay with Lexi, and I’ll give the MC our team name and put in our orders at the bar.”
He nodded, and I walked to the front of the room where the MC was all set up with pens and blank sheets of paper. Once Dumbledore’s Quizards was one of the official teams of this Wednesday night’s trivia, I gave the bartender our order and headed back to the table.
By the time I sat down, Lexi was giving Nick her own version of trivia night.
“According to the New York Times, those were the ten most common trivia questions, Dad,” she said with a little furrow to her brow. “And you only got one right.”
Nick chuckled. “I already told you, trivia isn’t my strong suit, Lex.”
God, she was cute and insanely smart. The girl was a walking, talking encyclopedia. And silently, I prayed she didn’t start quizzing me. No doubt, I’d probably be an epic disappointment.
“All right, trivia buffs!” the MC shouted into the mic. It squealed in protest, and nearly half the bar covered their ears and grimaced. He leaned down to the speaker and fiddled with it a few times before standing straight up. “Whoops! Sorry about that. I guess I had it a bit too loud. Anyhoo, who’s ready to get trivial?”
The crowd cheered their approval, and just in the nick of time, Patty dropped off our drinks and food. She offered me a quiet apology about the missing iced tea, and I waved her off. “No worries, girl. Wednesday nights are crazy busy, and I saw you had that twelve-top.”
“Thank you,” she mouthed before heading to another table full of fresh faces and most likely, hungry bellies.
Lexi ate a few fries and half of a chicken tender before sliding the pen and paper in front of her. “I’ll write our answers,” she announced and then pointed toward Nick. “I hope you brought your A game, Dad.”
He laughed and glanced at me. “I swear to God, I’ve heard those words before.”
He was right. I’d said those exact words to him the first trivia night I’d ever brought him to.
My heart warmed at the thought and damn near grew three sizes inside of my chest.
All I’d wanted was for Lex to like me, to feel comfortable spending time with me, and so far, it had been nothing but smooth sailing.
“Okay!” the MC called out. “Question number one! Who was the Vice President of the United States when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated?”
Shit… Uh… I racked my brain for the answer. One I most definitely should have known, but when I looked across the table, Lexi was already writing something down in our number one spot.
1. Andrew Johnson
"It’s Andrew Johnson,” she whispered. “He became America’s seventeenth President when he took over in 1865.”
Damn. This girl was good.
I looked at Nick and then back at his daughter, before meeting his amused gaze again. “I think I want Lexi to be my new partner. She’s way better at trivia than you.”
He just laughed it off and took a bite of a mozzarella stick.
“Question number two! Who painted the Sistine Chapel?”
Lexi looked up, and I whispered, “Michelangelo.”
She nodded, wrote the answer down, and then stared at her father. “You know, statistically speaking, as a brain surgeon, most people would probably think you were a lot better at trivia. But considering the mental capacity that is needed for neurosurgeons to compete and exceed in their highly competitive field, those assumptions would be wrong. While normal people, without careers that have such a demanding and rigorous course and intern schedule, are able to absorb various facts, most neurosurgeons are solely focused on the human brain. So, I guess I do understand why you’re not very good at trivia, Dad.”
“Finally,” Nick announced with a grin. “Somebody understands me!”
Lexi and I both laughed.
“Question number three!” the MC shouted. “In the play now called ‘The Miracle in Motown,’ how many yards was the completed pass that Aaron Rodgers threw into the end zone, giving the Packers the victory over the Lions?”
Eeek. No way I was getting this one. I glanced at Nick, who was obviously zero help, but by the time my gaze made it to Lexi, she was already scribbling something down.
3. 66 yards
"You even know sports trivia?” I questioned in surprise, and she just shrugged.
“Wes has shown clips of that play to the Mavericks’ offense at least ten times,” she explained. “Plus, numbers and statistics are my favorite.”
Her brain was an anomaly, filled with an extensive amount of knowledge that most adults would never achieve in their lifetime. One day, when she was older, she’d be doing something amazing with that brain like trailblazing research to cure diseases or working for NASA or some other job I didn’t even know existed because it was too highly advanced for normal people like myself.
Lexi Winslow was a gifted little girl. There was no doubt about it. The only doubt I had was whether I was making the actual cut or not. She had to tolerate me while I was on her trivia team, but what about when I wasn’t? All bets would be off.
“Question number four! A little bit of Friends trivia!” the MC added with a grin. “What is the ‘Joey special’?”
Hell yes. My strong suit. I held in the urge to fist pump the air.
Lexi’s big blue eyes met mine. “Do you know this one?”
“Ordering two pizzas at one time.”
“Awesome,” she muttered as she jotted the answer down.
“Yeah, next time,” I whispered toward Lexi, “we’ll just leave your dad at home, and we’ll come to trivia night by ourselves.”
“Deal.” She smiled, wide, happy, and big enough to melt my heart.
I swallowed back the relieved emotion clogging my throat as Nick reached across the table to gently tap the top of my hand. When our gazes locked, no words needed to be said. His smile was tender, knowing, and filled with love, and I knew my expression mimicked the same.
Somehow, someway, we’d reached this pivotal moment, me meeting his daughter, and it couldn’t have gone better.
Well, it actually did end up going better.
Mostly thanks to Lexi, and maybe a little bit from me, Dumbledore’s Quizards swept all twenty-five questions of the night, and took home the Cornerstone Tavern Trivia Night trophy.
Yeah, life was good.
No, life was perfect.
Two months later…
“Good night, Lexi,” I whispered into the top of her head, strands of her soft, blond hair tickling my nose. A few snores left her lips, but other than that, she was out like a light. I took Moby Dick from her hands, put her favorite bookmark in where she left off, and set it on her nightstand. “Sweet dreams, pretty girl.” I said quietly into her room as I got off the bed and turned out the light.
I made my way into the hallway, past the kitchen, and toward the opposite end of the apartment where Nick sat on our bed. Usually, he always made a point to put Lex to bed on the weekends she was with us, but he still had a lot of work to finish up before the night was through, and I pretty much adored lying in bed with Lex and reading books. Often times, we stuck to Harry Potter, but tonight, she’d been insistent on Herman Melville.
Nick had been putting in long hours at work on a difficult case, one involving a rare type of brain tumor that no other physician in the city wanted to take on. The boy was seventeen, and my fiancé was determined to save him.
It took a good and courageous man to do what he did day in and day out. Not all of his cases ended successfully, not every patient could have a good outcome, and when you had the tenacity to take on the biggest mountains, most of the battles were fought uphill the entire time.
But somehow, Nick always managed. And if anything ever put fear in his gut, he did a damn good job of hiding it.
God, I admired him. Medicine wasn’t just a paycheck to him. His patients weren’t just a number. They were living, breathing humans that he truly cared about. It showed in everything he did, including taking on a teenager’s rare brain tumor case pro bono.
His back rested against the headboard, and his gaze was focused on the laptop on top of his thighs. He looked good. Well, he always looked good, but it was times like these, when his attention was completely preoccupied, that I savored the short little bursts of time when I could just look at him without him realizing he had his own personal Peeping Tom.
With my shoulder leaning against the doorframe, I took him in. His deep brown gaze, the way his brow furrowed ever so slightly when he was questioning something he was reading, the way his long, dark lashes fanned over his face with each blink. And his lips, goodness gracious, those lips, no matter what they were doing—smirking, laughing, firm with focus—I was a fan.
And don’t even get me started on his body, currently sporting only a pair of navy boxer briefs, nearly every square inch on display. Every time his fingers tapped across the keyboard, his forearms and biceps flexed ever so slightly, leaving me with the delicious promise of more.
I smiled softly and ran my index finger across my bottom lip. Hot damn, he really was the most magnificent man I’d ever known.
I guessed I was biased, but when it came to love, wasn’t being biased a good thing?
It meant that you only had eyes for that person and you loved every little piece of them, even their flaws. Through your eyes, they were everything.
Eventually, my little speck of time to gawk at my fiancé ended, and Nick looked up from his laptop and met my gaze.
“You look like you’re up to something,” he said with a tiny smirk. “Should I be worried?”
“Nah.” I waved him off with a hand as I walked into the bedroom and started undressing. “I was just standing there, watching you like a little creeper. No big deal.”
“Well, that’s a relief because you looked like either you were head over heels in love with me or plotting my murder.”
I laughed outright at that. “It was the former. Promise.”
“Is Lexi asleep?” he asked, and I nodded.
“After she read two chapters of Moby Dick to me, she was out like a light,” I answered with a soft smile and tossed on my favorite sleep shirt before sliding into bed beside him. “Her brain should be considered the eighth wonder of the world. I can guarantee I wasn’t reading novels that most adults have a hard time comprehending at her age. Hell, as she was reading it to me, there were a few words in there I was happy she knew how to pronounce because I sure as fuck didn’t.”
He grinned. “Thanks for tucking in her tonight.”
“No thanks necessary. You know I jump at the opportunity to spend time with her.”
“She likes you, you know,” he said and shut his laptop. “This afternoon, when you were at the grocery store, she made me promise that I would marry you and that we’d stay together like her mother and Wes.”
I held up my engagement ring and winked. “Well, good thing marriage is the plan, huh?”
“Damn straight.” Nick smirked and pulled me on top of his big body. His lips brushed mine, once, twice, and on the third time, he kissed me deep, his tongue sliding into my mouth and dancing with mine.
I moaned at the feeling, and he smiled against my lips.
“I’m going to marry you so hard, Charlotte Hollis,” he whispered.
“I bet I’ll marry you harder.”
“Impossible.” He rolled his eyes and tickled my ribs.
I giggled until he stopped.
“We need to start planning soon,” he said quietly, and I leaned back to meet his eyes. “Do you have any ideas about what kind of wedding you want?”
“Something small,” I answered immediately. “Something that doesn’t involve us inviting a hundred people that we barely know.”
I didn’t think I’d run again—this time, the marriage was right—but I couldn’t help but picture Runaway Bride and cringe. Give me the small wedding now. I’ll skip the four engagements in between, thank you very much.
“Location?”
“City Hall,” I said with a teasing grin.
“Date?”
“Tomorrow.” At first, I’d said it as a joke, but once the words had left my lips, it didn’t feel like I’d said it in jest. It just felt right. Tomorrow was Saturday. Lex was with us this weekend. And Nick didn’t have any surgeries or office hours scheduled.
The more I thought about it, the more perfect it really was. Maybe a little crazy, sure, but God, it felt so so right. It felt like us, starting our lives together the exact way we should, without any big, extravagant wedding or giant cake or five-course meal, but just the three of us.
“Just me, you, and Lex?” he asked, and I searched his eyes for the rebuttal in his words. But it wasn’t there.
“You’re not disagreeing with this?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“It feels right. Intimate. With the only people there who really matter.”
Tears filled my eyes, and I smiled bigger than I’d probably smiled my entire life.
“So, you’re going to marry me tomorrow?” I asked, and my voice rose three octaves higher. “Like, you’re really going to marry me tomorrow?”
“Yes, Charlotte Hollis.” Nick grinned at my enthusiasm. “Tomorrow, I’m going to make you Mrs. Charlotte Raines.”
I squealed and hopped off the bed. “Oh my God! What am I going to wear?”
“First, you’re going to get your ass back in bed, and we’re going to get some sleep,” he said with nothing but love in his eyes. “And then, when we wake up tomorrow, we’ll both be thankful that I’m extremely close friends with Judge Miller and he owes me a favor. Otherwise, making a marriage license and a marriage appear on a Saturday in NYC would be impossible.”
I hopped back into the bed and climbed my way back onto his big, muscular body. “And then what are we going to do?” I asked and waggled my brows.
He grinned, humoring me. “Then, we’re going to get married.”
I squealed again in response, and Nick laughed and kissed me softly.
Before my brain could start panicking again about coming up with a wedding dress last minute, Nick flipped off the lights. He gently slid me to my side and wrapped his arms around my body, cuddling me close to his chest.
“Ugh. I’m too excited to sleep,” I whispered, and I could literally hear his smile form in the stillness of our bedroom.
“Just close your eyes,” he whispered and started gently running his fingers through my hair. “Tomorrow, you’re going to make me the luckiest man in the world.”
I wanted to refute his statement, or at least give an add-on, acknowledging the fact that he was making me the luckiest woman in the world, but his fingers, and my hair, and goodness gracious, a girl could only stay awake so long when they were being gently stroked like a cat.
Tomorrow, I’d get to marry my best friend.
At exactly three in the afternoon, after Judge Miller had pulled through, we were inside the otherwise closed building of City Hall on a Saturday. I had no idea how Nick had managed to pull it all off, but somehow, someway, he did.
Not only had he made it possible for us to get married, but besides our most important guest, Lexi—who’d enthusiastically dressed herself in a pink, sparkly dress with a pair of Converse—he’d also managed to invite a few other guests along. Doreen and Harry—who were still living comfortably in my house—my parents—whom he’d somehow managed to fly in from Boca Raton on short notice—his parents, my bitches, Harper and Ivy, and surprisingly, and with nothing but love and support in their eyes, Wes and Winnie.
The instant they’d stepped through City Hall’s doors, both Nick and I had been shocked to say the least, but Winnie had been the one to make things feel nothing less than normal. She’d given us her heartfelt congratulations, even telling me that she couldn’t have been happier that I would be a permanent fixture in Lex’s life.
All of the bad blood I’d thought had been between us was nonexistent.
My past with her brother Remy was just that. The past. I didn’t expect we’d receive a wedding gift from him anytime soon, but he hadn’t left any bags of burning shit on our doorstep either. As far as Nick and I were concerned, that was good enough.
And now, Nick was my future. The man I’d spend the rest of my days with, laughing, loving, and just living in our own little bubble of happiness.
I stood across from Nick, hand in hand, with the minister standing in front of us and an opened Bible in his hands. “Are you ready to start?” he asked.
“I couldn’t be readier,” my soon-to-be husband answered, and I smiled.
And then, at exactly 3:15 p.m. with the bride wearing a cute little cream dress and the groom dressed in gray dress slacks and baby blue dress shirt, and with everyone who was most important in our lives near, we said our vows and exchanged our rings.
“I promise to support you in good times and in bad, at sheriff’s auctions, and kitschy diners, and to be nothing more than a solid foundation of moral support for you and Lexi at trivia nights,” Nick had promised.
“I promise to stay with you forever, long past the short-term window of your reality show fame, well into the days where you’re not nearly as cute and are even more dense. Though, I suspect part of that will be because you’re hard of hearing,” I had vowed.
The small crowd laughed.
We promised our love.
And most importantly, we promised each other our future.
“By the power vested in me by the great state of New York,” the minister announced with a soft smile etched across his lips. “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Nick grasped both of my cheeks into his palms and whispered, “I love you,” against my lips before pressing his mouth to mine. The kiss was soft, sweet, gentle, and filled with nothing but love and adoration.
And all I could think the entire time was, He’s my husband. I’m kissing my husband!
I was officially Mrs. Charlotte Raines.
It sure has a nice ring to it, huh?