The Bride — S. Doyle

Ellie

So here's the deal. I'm sixteen and I'm getting married. Super weird, I know.

My dad is a cattle rancher in Montana. Or he was, until he died suddenly, leaving me an orphan (which is still a thing). I'm sixteen months away from being a legal adult, so I have two choices.

Foster home, or married. To Jake Talley. The foreman of the ranch and my best friend.

It's legal. It solves all my problems. Except now I'm living with Riverbend's hottest cowboy - my husband (in name only of course) - and I'm still in high school. Trust me, no one wants to date Weird Married Ellie.

But it's cool. All we have to do is wait it out until I'm eighteen and we'll get a divorce. Then Jake and I will go back to being normal. We've got this.

Right?

Jake

I'm twenty-six, and I never saw this coming. Married. To a kid I've known her whole life. But there was no way in hell I was going to let her live at a foster home, instead of at the ranch where she belongs.

Sure we're married but it's not real. Just a piece of paper. My girlfriend is furious but I know I'm doing the right thing - for Ellie. For sixteen months, it's me and her against the world - until the divorce.

No big deal.

Or is it?

192 Pages