He raised his head at the sound of Kelly’s muffled voice through the door. “Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“It feels like you’re upset in there.”
“I’m not upset.”
“It feels like you are.”
“How can you tell what I’m thinking through the door?”
“I don’t know. It just feels like you are. And you’ve been in there a long time. Can I come in?”
“Yeah.”
She opened the door, wearing one of the hotel bathrobes. Her hair was still loose, and it was long and messy and beautiful, hanging down around her body. She’d put her glasses on, so she looked more Kelly-like.
Peter had never seen anything or anyone that he’d wanted more.
Kelly came over to sit beside him on the edge of the tub. “I’m sorry about this,” she murmured.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I’m the one who got us into this situation.”
“How did you get us into it? I was the one who was most wasted. It was my idea. Wasn’t it?”
He nodded, relieved at least that this was the truth. “But I should have stopped us. I shouldn’t have…I should have stopped us.”
“But you were drunk too.”
“Even so, if I’d been smarter, I would have known that you didn’t really want this.”
Her shoulders straightened, and she turned to frown at his face. “But you didn’t want it either, did you?”
He stared at her, his mouth slightly parted. Of course, he’d wanted it. He’d never wanted anything more. But how the hell could he tell her that now, when she looked so astonished and upset by the very idea? “Of course not,” he said gruffly, looking back down at his phone. “I’d had too much to drink.”
Her face and body relaxed. “We both had. It’s no big deal. We might have grounds for annulment. We should look into that right away.”
He didn’t want to have their marriage annulled, but he had no choice in the matter. “Right.”
She must have read something on his face because she reached out and put a hand on his thigh, over the towel. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
Maybe he should just admit the truth. Maybe he should just come out and let her see exactly how stupid he was. “Y—yeah.”
Her face twisted as she choked, “Peter, you don’t want to be…to be married to me, do you?”
His courage sank at the sight of her horrified face. “Of course not. It’s just that…” He suddenly remembered something. “It’s just that my mother left me a message.
“Your mom?”
Out of the blue, Peter was hit with a blinding inspiration. He knew exactly what he should do. There was no way he could admit the truth to her right now. It was too new, too unexpected. Kelly wouldn’t understand, and she wouldn’t like it. Their friendship might not survive.
But maybe he could delay their annulment to give himself some more time. After being married to him for a little while, maybe Kelly would realize it wasn’t so bad.
Maybe he’d have a chance to make this marriage more than an accident.
“Yeah,” he said, holding his phone out. “She already found out about the marriage.”
“What?”
“Heidi must have told her mom, who proceeded to tell everyone else in Savannah. Mom found out.”
Kelly gasped and closed her eyes. “Grandmama. Grandmama must know by now. Oh, God, she’ll never forgive me if I don’t stay married to a Blake.”
“My mom will be crushed too. She’s been wanting me to settle down. I’ve already disappointed her enough. I hate to add something more.”
Kelly was shaking her head. “I know it’s terrible, but we can’t stay married just so we don’t disappoint our families. I mean, that wouldn’t be right.”
“No. It wouldn’t be right. But maybe…” He didn’t need to trail off. He knew exactly what he was going to say. He just couldn’t sound too excited about saying it.
“Maybe what?”
“I think it would be worse if they knew it was just a stupid, drunken mistake. It will be easier to break it to them if they think we really tried to make the marriage work.”
Kelly was frowning. “Maybe.”
She wasn’t buying it. He had to make it more convincing. “I don’t know about your grandmother, but my mother takes marriage really seriously. She’ll never accept that I gave up on a marriage without even giving it a try for a little while.”
“So you think we should pretend to try for a little while?”