Kelly finished taking one last curler out of her hair and looked in the mirror. Her eyes were bright, with black eyeliner around them making them pop. Eyeliner wasn’t generally in her everyday routine, but it wasn’t just another day.

Kelly Martin was going to get married in an hour or two. She kept pinching herself, trying to wake up from the dream her life had become.

Running her fingers through her bouncy hair, she decided she was done getting ready. As she stood up from the seat in front of the vanity, her white chiffon dress drifted to the floor. She’d been worried about sitting on it, but she was worried about getting in it after doing her hair and makeup.

The dress had a halter-top that had a thin metal hoop that was barely visible around her neck holding it up. It looked almost magical that it was staying in place when she turned to look at a full-length mirror she’d set up in her bedroom. Twirling to get the full effect of the long dress, the two slits up the front of her legs let plenty of air in to allow the skirt to float up as she spun.

Much like when she’d seen a photo of herself on Jake’s phone, Kelly barely recognized the woman in the mirror. It wasn’t just the fact that she still wasn’t used to her honey locks being a light chocolate color. Her normally frail frame looked fuller. She was still on the unhealthy side of the scale, but over the last three months, she’d managed to gain seven pounds.

The thought of that made her take in a deep breath. It was a lot of weight, enough that at one point of her life, she would’ve thought her life was over because of it. She couldn’t even remember with any kind of clarity the last time she was over a hundred and ten pounds.

It felt good. She felt good. She was stronger than she’d ever been in her life, and she was about to marry a man, who even though the timing of the wedding was rushed, loved her.

That was probably why she kept needing to pinch herself. The sexy beast waiting downstairs to become her husband actually loved Kelly. She’d dated her previous boyfriend for over four months, and there hadn’t been any hints of love on the table. No one, not even Simon’s father, who she’d been in sort of a relationship for years, had ever uttered those words to her and meant them. Occasionally, in the throes of passion the L word was thrown out, but it wasn’t something that stuck.

Jake stuck. From the moment they met at Nina and Brady’s wedding, he stuck. No matter how hard Kelly tried to shake him off or what new drama was thrown in her life, he was there to hold her when the world threatened to come crashing down.

He was already talking about adopting both Fiona and Simon once they got through her guardianship issues. They still had two weeks before she had to stand in front of a judge and tell him or her how much she loved the kids and prove she was fit to take care of them.

When she called to tell Holcomb their latest news, he’d sounded hopeful. With the way the adoption went, she couldn’t easily get back her parental rights, but having all the facts could work in their favor. He hadn’t explained exactly what that meant, leaving Kelly a little confused, but he was the lawyer, so she hoped he knew what he was doing.

A knock at the door broke her from her thoughts. So much had happened that it was hard not to get lost in them.

“You decent, yet? We should probably get going. I know it’s just a wedding at City Hall, but we said we’d meet at nine and some of the people in the wedding party have an issue with being kept waiting.”

Kelly laughed at her soon-to-be husband’s words. He was sure to be talking about Nina, who along with her husband, Hannah, Curtis, their kids, Fiona and Simon were all supposed to meet them at City Hall. Kelly had thought she, Jake and the kids could ride together to the wedding, but since they were leaving afterwards on a mini honeymoon, a one-night stay at a fancy hotel, Hannah thought it was best they just travel with the Powers.

Even though Jake had asked if she was decent, and had gone to the trouble of knocking, he opened the door to find her still staring in the mirror. She looked over her shoulder as he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

His tuxedo molded to his body, like almost every piece of clothing he owned. It was traditional black, with a white shirt, black cummerbund and a black bow tie. Both of them were probably a little overdressed for City Hall, but it was their wedding, and Jake evidently had ideas of how it should be. Sadly, his family couldn’t make it with the short notice, but they planned to have a bigger wedding later, which was why they’d settled for City Hall instead of a fancy location.

“You don’t think they’d mind if we’re an hour late, do you?” Jake asked, completely changing his tune as he pulled Kelly hard against his body. “I know we’ve been taking things relatively slow, but I don’t think I can wait for the honeymoon to take this dress off you.”

Kelly swatted his hands away as they reached down and pulled on the side of the dress’ skirt to reveal her legs almost all the way up to her hips. She’d rubbed a little tanning lotion on her skin to make her usually pale skin standout against the white fabric.

“If you don’t behave, I may just spend all the honeymoon down in the hotel pool.”

“You wouldn’t,” Jake dared.

Shrugging, Kelly turned around in his arms and faced her groom. Butterflies had been trying to form in her stomach all morning, but it wasn’t until she looked in his eyes that they seemed to take flight. She’d never get tired of looking in his brown eyes. No other person had ever looked at her the way he did. There was so much love and compassion in his eyes that, even though, she didn’t want to look away, it sometimes hurt to stare too long. She didn’t deserve what he was offering her.

“You’re right. I don’t think I’d spend all day and night in the pool, but if you think I’m going to let you mess up this hair and makeup, you have another thing coming.”

“Oh, I’m sure there will be plenty of coming, but I’ll be a good boy and wait for it. You ready?”

Kelly shook her head and rolled her eyes. Ever since they started having sex, the immature sixteen-year-old in Jake had come out. If she’d known the floodgates she’d be opening, she may have thought twice before suggesting they have sex. Scoffing mentally, she held back a laugh. Evidently, jokes weren’t out of her repertoire.

“What were you just thinking,” he asked as he held out his hand.

She took it and let him lead her out of the room. It had been a while since she’d worn thin heels, so her step was a little wobbly. She did her best to hide it as she leaned against Jake’s side.

“It was nothing, just a little wedding day humor, I guess. So, this is probably your last chance to back out. You absolutely sure you want to marry this mess?”

Kelly was referring to herself, but she figured walking through her sister’s house was a good reminder of how screwed up a marriage could get. There were still so many unanswered questions when it came to Kirsten’s life. Questions Kelly would never find answers to, like how her sister had ended up with her son.

“You’re not going to talk me out of this, so you might as well work on saving your breath for saying ‘I do.’”

They’d made it down the stairs. Kelly looked around quickly, trying to think of anything they were forgetting. Jake had all their identification and paperwork, since she decided not to carry a purse or bag. There was nothing she needed to worry about, but she still sought something to delay them getting in the car. Maybe taking him up on his offer for a pre-wedding sexscapade wasn’t such a bad idea.

“You’re trying to overthink this.”

His voice was quiet as he leaned down to whisper in her ear. She smiled, realizing he knew exactly what she was doing.

“Why do you think that?”

Looking up at him, she tried to look innocent, but he read her way too well for her to get away with it. It would take years to get used to that.

“Because we’re standing here instead of getting in the car. At this point, there’s nothing left to think about. Between Fiona and Nina, if we decide to cancel the wedding, we’re both going to be skewered.”

Kelly laughed and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his lips. How could he be more perfect?

“That sounds painful. We better go.”

He pulled on her arm and led her to his car. After making sure she was settled, he made his way around the other side and drove them to City Hall. The ride was mostly without words. Jake turned on the radio to some classic rock station, a little odd for their wedding day, but both of them hummed along to the songs they knew.

Kelly imagined they were just going out for dinner or something, anything to help calm her nerves. It worked to some extent, at least enough that she didn’t think she’d throw up on the black leather interior of the car.

When they got to their destination and parked, the nerves kicked up to a whole new level. Each step they took towards the imposing building, up the front steps and then to where their friends and family waited for them, caused Kelly’s stomach to turn.

“Just breathe, okay?” Jake said. “Hopefully since we’re here early it won’t be too long before we can get in.”

“There you two are,” Nina said barely before Jake could finish trying to soothe Kelly.

Hearing her cousin’s brisk voice didn’t help matters. Nina came to a stop about five feet away from them and looked the pair up and down.

“You really should think about keeping your skin tanned, Kelly. You look absolutely radiant.”

Kelly’s jaw dropped open at the compliment. If she hadn’t seen Nina’s lips move, she would’ve sworn someone else said the words.

“What about me? Do I pass inspection?”

Jake let go of Kelly’s hand, so he could straighten his jacket. Nina gave him a second look and shrugged. Kelly’s cousin was in a formal red dress that was about five times fancier than Kelly’s simple dress. She looked elegant and beautiful, like she did in pretty much everything she wore.

“You could have done a little more than run your fingers through your untamable long hair. Don’t you think it’s about time you cut it?”

Kelly scoffed and started laughing. She loved Jake’s long hair, so she didn’t want to hear anything about it being cut. It was just funny to hear Nina’s tone change so quickly.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing you and I aren’t getting married, because the hair isn’t going anywhere. How long’s the wait?”

“Only about two minutes, so you two better be ready. There were five other couples in line when we got here. You guys took so long that one has already come and gone, and the second one is just finishing up. Hurry up,” she commanded as she turned and walked back towards the door she’d come from.

Jake looked down at Kelly and shrugged before he grabbed her hand and followed Nina. Kelly worked on the math in her head, and while it was not her strong suit, she knew two and five somehow didn’t add up.

“You said there were five couples. How in the world does that work out into us getting married in two minutes?” Kelly asked.

Nina shook her head, giving Kelly the feeling it was a stupid question. Jake leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“I bet she paid them off. She probably walked in, saw the crowd and started throwing out hundred-dollar bills.”

The idea would’ve made Kelly laugh if it didn’t ring true. Nina tended to know how to get her way, and money, more often than not, was her way of doing business.

“Just get in here and get married. I have no plans of sitting around here all day waiting for you two to say ‘I do.’”

She held the door as the pair walked in to see a full room waiting. Most of the people weren’t waiting on them. Fiona and Simon were quick to run over and hug Kelly’s legs. At first, Simon followed Fiona a little too closely, and they both tried to grab onto one leg, but Fiona pushed him over to the other.

“You wook pretty, mommy,” Simon mumbled into her leg.

“Shh, we weren’t going to call her that until after they get married.”

Fiona poked her brother and stepped away from her aunt, smiling like she was up to something. She’d already let it slip that Kelly was her new mom, but neither kid had called her mom. Fiona’s scolding didn’t do anything to stop the tears that instantly welled in Kelly’s eyes.

“Well, I guess that means we should hurry up and get this show on the road, shouldn’t we?” Jake said as he swooped Fiona up in his arms and kissed her cheek.

“We’re ready for you,” a woman said.

Kelly was still busy processing her son calling her mom, so she just went along when someone pulled on her arm. She hurried to pick Simon up, not wanting to leave him behind. He smiled, showing off all his little teeth as he wrapped his arms around her and held on.

She and Jake had decided they weren’t going to tell the kids they weren’t brother and sister. There was no reason to change their worlds even more, spelling out how crazy all of their parents were.

Things kind of happened on autopilot after that point. A man told them what to say, they said it, rings were put on fingers and they were husband and wife. After the kiss, Kelly just stood there, trying to catch her breath. For something she’d been so tied up in knots about, she couldn’t believe it was already over.

“Congratulations, you guys. I’m glad that I was wrong about how right you two are for each other. You guys have fun tonight, and we’ll take care of these two troublemakers.”

Kelly registered Hannah’s words, but just nodded and smiled. There were only four people around to give congratulations, so somehow, before she knew it, Kelly was standing outside on the steps alone, waiting for Jake to bring the car around. Apparently, she could walk all the way from it to the building, but the reverse path wasn’t in her wheelhouse.

Since she was walking around in a daze, she couldn’t really complain. She was married. How crazy was that? Even knowing it was going to happen for weeks, it didn’t make it seem more real in her head.

Kelly’s bliss was interrupted when she felt a small sting on her left arm. She looked down but didn’t see anything biting her.

“Say hi to your sister for me.”

Kelly barely heard the words before a warm sensation spread through her whole body. She tried to turn to see who was talking to her, but things went black and it was hard to take a breath. Anything that happened after that didn’t matter as Kelly dropped to the ground.