Matched in Minnesota (At the Altar Book 22) Read online

  Marissa grinned at her friend. “And now you know why I brought you along.” She’d desperately needed at least one person to hold her hand and be her cheering section.

  “What’s your mother going to say when she finds out that you’re married?” Janelle knew that Marissa hadn’t told her parents for fear they would convince her not to go through with it.

  “She’ll be annoyed that I can’t run her errands anymore.” Marissa sighed. “That’s not fair. I just need to be away from that little town. As much as I love it, it was stifling me.”

  “And you think this place will be better?” Janelle shrugged. “Where are we anyway?”

  “Coon Rapids, Minnesota. It’s a northern suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. And that’s all I know about it.”

  “And you think your problems will magically disappear by leaving everyone you’ve ever loved and everything you’ve ever known?”

  Marissa frowned. “No, I really don’t. But I think I’ll get out of the rut I’ve been in for so long.” She was sure there would be problems with moving in with a total stranger, but she was willing to try anything to change her life.

  Janelle nodded slowly. “I sure hope you’re right. And you’ll FaceTime me every single week, right?”

  “On Wednesday evening at seven. That’s when we always got together, so that’s when we’ll FaceTime now.”

  “I guess that’ll work.” Janelle shrugged. “I still can’t believe Jackson let me leave for five days, and he stayed home with the twins.” They’d made a slow car trip of it, and they’d gotten there the previous evening. Janelle would take an Uber to the airport the following morning.

  “I don’t know if I’m ready for you to go home. Does Jackson have to have you back?” Marissa would miss her friend a great deal.

  Janelle laughed. “I’m not sure the twins are even still alive. As I was walking out the door, Jodi yelled out, ‘Mommy! Who’s going to feed us?’ I laughed and Jackson mentioned McDonalds and all was fixed immediately.”

  Marissa shook her head. “Those girls are rotten.” She was their honorary aunt, so she knew them well.

  “They are. But I’m sure they’re eating high on the M.”

  “High on the M?” Marissa asked.

  “Well, I’d have said high on the hog, but we both know they’re eating at the Golden Arches for every meal. It’s not like Jackson is going to crack open a box of Kraft mac and cheese.” Janelle rolled her eyes. “It’s a good thing I’m a stay-at-home mom, because if he had to help with cooking or housework, we’d starve and be covered in trash.”

  Marissa laughed softly. “They are living high on the M!” She turned as the door opened. They’d been alone in there for an hour, so it was startling. “Dr. Lachele!”

  “How’s my little bride to be?” Dr. Lachele asked, walking over and grabbing Marissa in a bear hug. “Introduce me to your friend, and tell her she has to boobie bump. None of those weak hugs will do for me.”

  “Janelle, this is Dr. Lachele, the matchmaker who is setting up this whole thing. Dr. Lachele, my best friend Janelle. And Janelle, you need to go in for a boobie bump, please.”

  Janelle looked a little stunned, but she did as she was told. Marissa realized that after spending hours with Dr. Lachele, she’d come to see her as a professional, and hadn’t thought much more about her eccentricities.

  “Did the groom make it?” Marissa asked, trying to dispel her worst fear. She worried the groom wouldn’t bother to show up for the wedding.

  “He’s here. I came to see you first, but I saw his car outside. He’s probably pacing a rut in the floor over in the other back room.”

  “Well, go make sure it’s really him, please. This is nerve-wracking enough.”

  “Fine, I’ll go check on him, but I promise, he’s here. He’s not the kind of man who wouldn’t fulfill his obligations.” Dr. Lachele headed for the door, nodding to Janelle on her way out. “It’s your job to make sure the bride doesn’t run away screaming into the night.”

  “It’s daytime,” Janelle protested.

  “Well, don’t let her run away screaming into the daylight then!” Dr. Lachele closed the door firmly behind her, and Marissa grinned at Janelle.

  “Nuts, huh?”

  “In the very best way.”

  Aaron sat in the room he’d been delegated to at the back of the church, reading another Oregon Trail journal. It seemed that everyone who had gone in one wagon train had kept journals, and he was determined to piece together a perfect picture of that particular group’s journey. All of their good times, and all of the bad. He was taking notes on a pad of paper, when the door opened.

  He glanced over to see the crazy matchmaker he’d been hesitant to trust. “Dr. Lachele.” He had no idea why Dirk had said nice things about her. She seemed insane to him.

  “Hey there, Aaron. Your bride begged me to come in here and find out if you’d really made it or if you’d skipped town.”

  “I didn’t skip town. I’m here working.”

  “Working?” Dr. Lachele frowned at him. “Why are you working just minutes before your wedding?”

  “Why is my wedding in the middle of my research project?” he retorted. He really hated that getting his tux and driving to the church had taken so much time away from his research. Whoever his bride was, he hoped he really could set her on a shelf in his spare room and only take her out as needed. She’d better not interfere with his work.

  Dr. Lachele shook her head. “I hope you’ll give her the attention she requires as a wife.”

  “Oh, sure. I will. Do you happen to know if she takes dictation?” He was too busy concentrating on his research to really even think about a bride. He hoped Dr. Lachele really had matched him with the right person—someone who wouldn’t be frustrated with his constant need to work.

  Dr. Lachele shook her head. “That’s not something I ask during the psychological testing. You do know you’re going to have to talk to her. That you can’t just ignore her when you don’t want her around, right?”

  He shrugged, jotting down another bit about Mary Mitchell, the oldest daughter of Joseph and Caroline Mitchell. She was accompanying her parents on the Oregon Trail in the wagon train he’d been studying so intensely. “I guess.” Really, he was blocking out her voice. It was a superpower he possessed. He could be in a room full of people and ignore them all with no problem.

  “I’ll see you at the reception.”

  “Reception? Was I supposed to plan a reception?” Those words came through for him loud and clear.

  Dr. Lachele shook her head. “If you’re trying to prove that the stereotype of an absent-minded professor is real, you’re doing a great job. I planned the reception. I didn’t want your bride to miss out because of your lack of forethought.”

  “Sounds good,” Aaron said, happy to see her leave the room. Now he could write a few more notes about Mary and her relationship with her parents. The young girl was in charge of her younger siblings, all except the babe her mother was still nursing. It was a hard life to walk alongside the wagons and keep six children rounded up. Mary was also supposed to help them learn. Her father usually drove the wagon, but a few times her younger brother was given the task of driving the oxen. Mary had seemed bothered by it, but she understood her role as a girl in the 1850s, and she’d done as she was told.

  There was a knock on the door, and Aaron looked up, as always a little surprised to find himself in the twenty-first century and not the 1850s. “It’s time,” the woman who had appeared told him. He wondered if he knew her, but he didn’t care enough to think about it.

  “All right.” He wanted desperately to take the journal he was reading with him, but he knew it wasn’t a good idea. No bride would be pleased to see her groom reading a historical journal as she walked up the aisle.

  He got to his feet, and glanced in a mirror. His tux looked neat and wasn’t all dusty. He didn’t really care about anything else. Walking to the front of the church, he stood
for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time beside the preacher. The church looked empty to him, but he remembered he’d forgotten to invite anyone but his department head. Bob needed to see that he was finally married.

  He’d even forgotten to invite his parents, but they’d understand and forgive him. He really was a bit of an absent-minded professor as long as he wasn’t trying to remember historical facts. Those he had down to a science.

  He was staring straight ahead when his bride started down the aisle, and he was a little stunned by how pretty she was. Why would a pretty woman marry a stranger? It didn’t really make sense to him.

  But then he thought about some of the marriages that happened on the trail. Women would lose their husbands and marry strangers all the time. Or…well just about anything could happen.

  He took the hand she offered him and turned with her to face the pastor. He hadn’t caught her name, but he decided it didn’t matter too terribly much. Maybe he could just call her wife? Nah, the pastor would give her name. He hoped.

  “Marissa Salchel, do you take this man, Aaron Christiansen, to be your lawfully wedded husband. To love, honor, and cherish as long as you both shall live?”

  Or until one of us files for divorce. Marissa nodded, worried about how good-looking the man she was marrying was. Good-looking men tended to be players, in her opinion. She hoped she wasn’t attaching herself to a player. “I do.”

  When the pastor pronounced them man and wife, she froze for a second. They were supposed to kiss, and he was a stranger. This was much more awkward than she’d thought it would be. She turned to Aaron and lifted her lips for his kiss.

  Aaron wondered if kissing her was the right thing to do, but Bob was watching, and he had no choice. He leaned down and gently brushed her lips with his, quickly straightening.

  The two of them turned together and looked at the five or six people there. Marissa wondered if he was from another part of the country as well, but if he was, why did he want to get married there? It didn’t really make sense to her.

  With her hand tucked into his arm, the two of them walked back down the aisle and went into a small room at the back of the church. She had no idea where he was taking her, but she assumed it was somewhere to talk.

  Instead, as soon as she let go of his arm, he walked to a file full of papers and sat down, picking up a notebook. He jotted something down, and then started reading.

  “You don’t want to talk?” Marissa asked, wondering what kind of man Dr. Lachele had found for her. He seemed…disinterested was too mild of a word. Uncaring?

  He glanced up at her. “Oh, yes, of course. I’m sorry. I was engaged in research when I was told it was time for the ceremony, and I needed to jot down some notes about something I’d just read before I forgot.” He hoped she’d believe him. He really didn’t want to offend his brand-new wife, whom he’d just met.

  “I see.” Marissa frowned at him for a moment. “What kind of research?”

  “I’m a history professor at a local college. I specialize in the Oregon Trail.” Aaron hoped she wasn’t at all interested. It would be so much easier to keep her in her place that way.

  “Really? I know very little about the Oregon Trail. I mean, I know what it is, of course, but I couldn’t even give you the years it was active.”

  He smiled. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not something you need to know.” He shrugged. “Now, we should probably go out to the reception, right?”

  Marissa shook her head. “I thought it would be good if we spent a little while getting to know each other first. Five or ten minutes should be enough, but all I know about you is that your name is Aaron.”

  “I guess we can do that. As I said, I’m a history professor at a local college. I grew up in Burnsville, which is about a forty-five minute drive from here. It’s on the south side of Minneapolis. I live in an apartment near the college where I work.” He did have a spare room, though, which he almost told her would be hers. It might be better to wait and tell her that later, though. “What about you?”

  “I’m a Disney travel agent. I plan out entire itineraries for families who plan to go to Disney World, meals, resort, everything. I make sure they’re in all the parks and having fun.”

  “That’s a job?” he asked, a little flummoxed. Why wouldn’t people just plan their own vacation? Why pay someone else when you were already paying through the nose to go to a giant tourist trap anyway?

  She frowned. “It is a job, and it’s one I love.” She walked over and sat down beside him. “Why did you decide to go to Dr. Lachele?”

  He shrugged. “It was the only way I knew of to get married without having to put a lot of time into courting someone.”

  “So, you didn’t really want to marry?” Marissa had no idea what she was doing married to the man, but she really hoped Dr. Lachele hadn’t made a huge mistake.

  “I wanted to be married. I didn’t want to have to figure out how to get there. Now I’m married, so all is good.”

  “Most people enjoy dating.”

  Aaron blinked a few times. “Most people are crazy then.” He didn’t want to offend her though. “Where are you from? That accent doesn’t say Minnesota.”

  “I don’t have an accent. You do. I’m from Arkansas, but Dr. Lachele told me I’d be moving here with you, since my job is mobile, and yours isn’t.” Marissa wasn’t going to let the topic go. “Why did you want to be married?”

  “Oh, there’s no way I’ll get tenure until I marry. I know it’s silly and old-fashioned, but my female students follow me around campus, and they cause problems. We’re hoping when they learn of my marriage, they’ll leave me alone.”

  Marissa felt her heart sink. “I’m not sure me marrying you is a good idea.”

  “We signed a contract, remember?” Aaron clung to the hope she wouldn’t be willing to back out of the contract and pay a great deal of money.

  She sighed. “We did, didn’t we? I really think Dr. Lachele made a mistake with the two of us. I want romance. I want a husband who will sweep me off my feet and make me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.”

  “Well, I do find you quite beautiful if that helps.” Aaron was not a romantic man. He had never even cared to be a romantic man. He’d rarely dated, because he was always so much more interested in research than in the girls he knew.

  “I guess it helps a little.” Marissa had no idea what she was supposed to do with this man. None at all.

  “Well, let’s go to the reception. Dr. Lachele said she planned one.”

  “Why are there so few people here? Didn’t you have people you wanted to come to the wedding?” she asked softly. It was the last thing she’d ask, but it was something she really wanted to know.

  He sighed. “Honestly? I forgot to invite people. My boss is here, so he could know I was married. I didn’t think to ask anyone else.”

  “Not even your parents?” she asked, shocked. The man was…different than she’d expected.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to invite them.” He knew it was weird, but it was just how he was. A big wedding wasn’t something he’d ever wanted. He would have preferred standing in front of a justice of the peace, but Dr. Lachele had insisted his bride would want a wedding.

  Marissa nodded. “All right. Let’s go out to the reception.”

  “Oh, it’s here in the building?” he asked, surprised.

  “Dr. Lachele told me it was.” She got to her feet and headed for the door, wanting to be anywhere in the world but in a room alone with him. Sure, he was handsome, but he was a basket case as far as she was concerned. Dr. Lachele was about to get a piece of her mind.

  Aaron got up and followed her from the room, not surprised that she went straight to Dr. Lachele. He followed her, not wanting anything said behind his back. He realized quickly that was a mistake.

  “You have lost your mind!” Marissa said loudly. “Why would you match me up with a man who doesn’t even know what century h
e lives in, let alone that he has a wife! He forgot to invite people to his wedding. He didn’t even invite his parents.”

  “Are your parents here?” Dr. Lachele asked.

  “Well, no, but you know why they’re not here. He just forgot!”

  “Well, I didn’t promise you a man who was perfect when you signed up. I promised you the man who was right for you. It may not seem like it now, but that man is just right for you in every way!”

  Marissa rolled her eyes. “I think you’ve lost your mind.”

  “Maybe I have. Time will tell.”

  Three

  After the short reception, Marissa followed Aaron back to his apartment, still in her wedding dress. When they arrived, she realized just how beautiful the campus and the area where he lived were. The Mississippi River ran right behind the college. She parked and got out of the car, looking back at him. “Let’s go walk down by the river.”

  “Seriously?” he asked. “I was planning on doing some research.” He hoped she wouldn’t always insist on taking up his time.

  She shook her head. “I’ll go alone then. I was just thinking we could get some pictures to commemorate our wedding day. No big deal, though.” It wasn’t a big deal because their marriage wouldn’t last longer than the contract, which was in place for one year. As soon as her year was up, she was out of there. It served her right for letting a crazy woman match her up with a stranger, though.

  “No, wait. I’ll go with you.” He didn’t want to, but he could tell it was important to her. He watched as her face lit up, and she lifted her skirt just enough so she could walk quickly and comfortably. As they walked past the campus, he pointed out the window to his office.

  “I’ll remember that,” she told him, and she knew she would. She had a sense of direction like few people she’d ever met. She could go back anywhere after only being there once. Just glancing at a map had her able to make a thousand plus mile drive with no atlas or GPS.

  He smiled. “The next time I forget my lunch, we’ll test that.”