A Wedding to Remember: Switched at Marriage Part 1 by Gina Robinson Read Free Book Online

in Reno? Didn't Johnny Cash shoot a man in Reno just to see him die? Right, that was just a song.
    The girl behind the counter laughed like I was joking with her. "Congratulations on marrying Justin Green! I can't believe you snagged the city's most eligible billionaire nerd. He's not much to look at. But who cares? With all that money, he's hot. Everyone wants to be you right now. I know what I'd do if I'd just married a billionaire—call in rich!"
    Crap, crap, crap! Behind me in line, the curious buzz escalated toward a celebrity-sighting fever pitch. My phone buzzed like it was about to stage a jailbreak from my purse.
    "You haven't seen Justin lately. He's totally gorgeous now." I don't know why I got defensive and protected his honor. Or maybe I was protecting mine. I chided myself for being vain and shallow. Like men who forever have insisted on having beautiful girls on their arms. Did I have to have a beautiful man on mine? Was that why I was hesitating about accepting Justin's proposal?
    I stuffed my dollar twenty in her tip jar on the counter, grabbed my cheesecake and credit card from her, and ran.
    I didn't stop until I reached Waterfront Park and lost myself in the crowd. The marauding gulls were circling, eyeing my cheesecake. I tucked the bag under my arm. The gulls were as bad as the news media.
    With trembling fingers, I pulled my phone out of my purse. I had texts and missed calls from friends, coworkers, and, most ominously, my mom.
    I scanned the texts. Someone had posted my "good news" to Facebook. My page was filled with best wishes and congrats. And a few snarky comments about marrying for money. People wanted to see the ring and wedding pictures. Someone else had hashtagged and tweeted it. My mom had resorted to sending me a furious text full of threatening exclamation points, demanding I call her now and explain myself. Was this true? Had I married that nerdy friend of Dex's? Had he been in on it and been at the wedding? How I could I elope and not tell her? Was my secret wedding Pinterest board just subterfuge?
    How did Mom know about my board?
    I ignored all the messages and punched Justin's number with a trembling finger, trying to dial him between incoming texts, emails, and calls. When I finally got through, I crossed my fingers.
    Pick up, pick up, pick up!
    "Kayla?" He sounded confused, and yes, almost ridiculously pleased, that I was calling so soon.
    I hated to dash his hopes.
    "How can you be so calm?" I rushed my words, tripping over them as I tried to talk. "Haven't you seen the news or checked your social media accounts in the last half-hour? We're all over it! I haven't even agreed to stay married to you yet and everyone knows about our 'marriage.' Everyone ."
    "Slow down." He sounded genuinely surprised.
    My mouth had gone completely dry, and my hands shook so badly I had trouble hanging on to the phone. I took a deep breath. "Our secret lasted, like, thirty seconds. Someone just announced our marriage. Everywhere. "
    "What?" He sounded as stunned as I felt.
    "Yeah." Where had he been? A cave? I took another deep breath, trying not to hyperventilate. It was too easy to breath shallowly and quickly when I was upset. "Even my mom knows. And she's ready to kill me."
    "What did you tell her?" Justin sounded worried now, too.
    "Nothing. I've been ignoring her, but I can't hold her off forever. We need to talk before I call her."
    "No shit," Justin said. "Where are you now? I hear gulls."
    "Waterfront Park."
    He swore beneath his breath. "Hang on. Stay there. I'll send a car for you. Can you meet it by Pier 59?"
    "A car? No way," I said. "I'll catch the bus home and call you from there."
    He cleared his throat. "Not a good idea, Kayla. People will recognize you." He paused. "And you can't go home. We need to talk first. In person. And make some decisions."
    He was absolutely right. But I hesitated.
    "Do you also want to be ambushed by a news crew? They'll be waiting for you, trust me." I heard