Chapter Nine

"Do you, Madeline Taylor, take Drew McBride to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish and obey till death do you both part?” Judge Martins — who was unsurprisingly a friend of Drew's parents — looked up from the book of vows to smile at her.

Maddie paused, looking into Drew's eyes. On the way to Judge Martins' office, she and Drew got talking about what exactly this marriage would entail, and he mentioned that even though the marriage was not real in the true sense that a marriage should be, the vows were binding.

She pointed out the impossibility of that happening since they were not in love and she was not going to be wrapping her arms around him in a burst of affection, and told him point blank that if he had been nursing a hope for that to happen, he could forget about it.

He replied that even though there was no hope for romance ever developing betwee