Married By Mistake

everything. And I do mean everything.”
    And that was it. Mission accomplished.
    * * *
    “Y OUR WIFE WAS TELLING ME — ” Sam’s gaze slid away from Adam’s “—I should show Eloise the real me.”
    “Casey said that?” Adam drummed his fingers on his desk. It was only Tuesday, but already he wanted this week to be over so he could spend two days with Casey. Which made no sense after what he’d said on Sunday.
    “She’s the only wife you have, isn’t she? Or is this about to get more complicated?” The lawyer grinned. All through the meeting he’d been as chipper as Adam was sour.
    Adam ignored Sam’s joke. “If the way you groped Eloise in front of everyone was the real you, I’m not sure the world’s ready for it.”
    Sam frowned and cleared his throat. “You may not have realized, but I am, er, very fond of Eloise.”
    “For Pete’s sake, Sam, you all but ate her for lunch on Sunday,” Adam snapped, not interested in hearing about other people’s love lives when his own was such a mess.
    Sam huffed. “I just want to warn you I intend to pursue Eloise with romantic intentions.”
    “Isn’t she the one you should be warning? Assuming she hasn’t figured it out already?”
    “I intend to do that, too,” Sam said.
    “Okay, I consider myself warned.” Adam let out a breath, and abandoned his churlish attitude. “Good luck with that.”
    The lawyer nodded, then switched the subject smoothly. “Judge Skelton is back from vacation.
I presented our annulment petition to him this
morning.”
    Adam stilled. “Good.” His voice sounded thin.
    “If you’re at all interested in making this marriage a permanent thing, I can ask him to hold off on his decision,” Sam offered.
    A rushing in Adam’s ears left him dizzy. “There’s no point,” he said. “Even if Casey stays, Anna May told me she’s going to argue in court that our marriage is fake, based on the TV wedding and the media coverage.”
    “I still think we can win our original argument that the will’s not legal,” Sam said. “What I’m saying is, if you and Casey do want to stay married, now’s the time to say so. Then if Anna May gets somewhere with her new complaint, we can ask the court to allow a couple of years to demonstrate that your marriage is lasting and committed. If you and Casey stay married, we win no matter what.”
    “How do we prove our marriage is genuine, without inviting Anna May into our bedroom?”
    Sam gnawed on his lip. “You have a baby.”
    A baby! Adam felt as if he’d been socked in the chest. He’d never thought about having children, but he did know he wasn’t about to have a kid just to prove a point in court.
    “It might be your best bet,” Sam said. “We’ll still challenge the will, saying your father can’t force you to get married. But a lot of judges don’t take kindly to that kind of thing. Most of them are within a decade or two of dying themselves. They don’t like the idea of someone tampering with a man’s final wishes.”
    “Casey and I aren’t going to stay married.” Adam was suddenly adamant on that point.
    The decision weighed on him like a ton of that stodgy cornbread Eloise was so certain he liked. He looked at his watch. “It’s nearly lunchtime. You must need a cigar by now.”
    The lawyer stood. “I’ve given them up.”
    Adam clamped his mouth shut to keep his jaw from dropping. “You love those things.” Sam didn’t smoke during working hours, but at the end of most evenings there were four or five cigar stubs in his ashtray.
    Sam shrugged. “Eloise doesn’t like it.”
    “Did she ask you to quit?”
    “She’s a lady, she’d never ask that. I wanted to do something for her.”
    Sam took his leave. Adam scowled at the door as it closed behind the lawyer. How did Eloise do that? Have men falling over themselves to do things for her without her having to ask? As far as Adam knew, she’d never asked anything of Sam. Adam realized now she’d probably never asked anything of his father, either. James had wanted to do things for his wife. Because he loved her.
    “Love, schmove,” Adam said.
    He yielded to the irritation that had been pricking at him all morning. Instead of enjoying his work, all he could think about was his wife.
    When had staying home with Casey started to outweigh the appeal of Carmichael Broadcasting?
    Staring unseeing at his computer, Adam realized it was before Casey had spent last Saturday night in his arms. The