How to Lose a Groom in 10 Days by Catherine Mann and Joanne Rock Page A

single, and flirting wildly with her.
    Ten weeks later, she could still hardly believe it. Or that she’d just married him.
    “Official?” she squeaked, her voice a breathless rasp with panic and form-fitting shapewear squeezing the ever-loving life out of her.
    “You make a better Mrs. Hollis than I could have ever hoped for.” His blue eyes went darker. Serious.
    Any other woman on the planet would have swooned at the declaration. She felt her throat close. Her skin itched like she might be getting hives. Had she really just married a man she’d known for the extent of one spring training season? Yesterday, she kept thinking he’d back out of it before they really said “I do.” She’d counted on it even, not packing up all her old apartment, certain he wasn’t really serious.
    How many pro ballplayers had she seen come and go from Kissimmee, flirting with the local girls for a few weeks before heading back to their real lives?
    “I—” She couldn’t breathe. Or think. Or even begin to imagine how she could carve out a life at his side when major leaguers lived on the road for the better part of eight months each year.
    Had she used this marriage and this great guy as a means to finally escape Kissimmee? Her troubled family that she hadn’t even invited to the wedding? She clutched her little bouquet of peonies tighter. They’d cost more than her dress, but Grady had surprised her with the flowers. Insisted.
    Guilt surged faster than Grady’s fans after a win.
    “You deserve much more,” she rasp-whispered, an underwire support jabbing her left breast like an accusing finger. “I’m so sorry.”
    He frowned. His hands lifted to cup her shoulders.
    “What are you talking about?”
    Wasn’t it obvious? One of baseball’s hottest rising stars had just eloped with a glorified temp worker who was so deep in a panic attack she couldn’t draw a full breath.
    Her eyes stung as she thought about all the ways she was about to hurt him. But wasn’t it better for him to find out now what a mess she was inside than later? The marriage could be annulled. Right?
    Behind them, the judge cleared his throat.
    “Your paperwork?” Craggy Face lifted the certificate off his desk and waved it meaningfully in their direction. “And tell the next couple they may step forward, please.”
    Melanie didn’t bother answering. As soon as Grady turned to retrieve the papers, she sprinted out of the Wedding Room as fast as her pink high heels would take her.
    *
    Everything else in Grady Hollis’s life had come easily enough.
    Hits. RBIs. Walk off homeruns. He’d made every team he’d ever tried out for. Impressed scouts with his skills defensively as much as with his bat.
    So maybe this moment was the universe’s way of reminding him to stay humble. Because it sure as hell was humiliating to watch his bride speed away from him like a base runner trying to avoid the tag. He’d be damned if he would chase Melanie through the Orange County courthouse building past other newlyweds snapping pictures of their nuptials. Those other brides were gazing longingly up into their grooms’ eyes. Melanie hit the massive stone steps with so much speed she broke the heel on her shoe. She’d just pulled them off and ran faster.
    The sports media would have a field day with this if anyone found out, damn it. He’d been so careful lining up this time off with the team’s press secretary, arranging it so he could drive to Atlanta instead of taking the plane back. Couldn’t Melanie have waited to freak out about their wedding until they were safely back in his truck? Or home in his apartment they’d shared for the last month, where they’d planned to celebrate their honeymoon before for at least a few hours?
    Then again, if they’d made it to a bed, she wouldn’t have run in the first place. The chemistry they shared was too off the charts.
    “Grady Hollis?” a woman shouted to him from the base of the stone staircase as he started