by Ali Parker
“You want me to come in with you?” I asked, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel as I drew to a halt next to a large metal gate. She looked over at me as though I was crazy.
“Of course, I do,” she replied. “You’re married to me, aren’t you? If we’re doing this for the next year, you’re going to need to be here a lot. You might as well meet her.”
“Right,” I muttered. This was more than I had signed up for. A man emerged from a small booth next to the gate and came over to the car, and she held out the laminated card she’d been clutching so hard.
“Here’s my pass.” She pushed it toward him. He took it and peered down at it for a moment and then back up at her, eyes screwed up and squinting. But then, seemingly satisfied, he shrugged and headed back inside his booth. Pressing a button, he opened the gate for us, and I began to roll the car up the driveway and toward the enormous, imposing building at the end of the road.
“Are you all right?” I asked, noticing that she was tensing up as we drew close. She didn’t reply for a moment, clearly too lost in her own thoughts.
“Amaya?”
“Mmm?” She turned to me and then managed to nod.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, even though I could tell she was talking shit. Her shoulders were drawn up to her ears, and her jaw was clenched tight.
“Hey, it’s going to be all right,” I offered, feeling a little useless, and when she turned to me, her eyes wide, I wished I could have meant what I was saying.
“Come on, let’s go.” She sighed deeply as the car pulled to a stop, and the two of us climbed out and headed into the facility to see her sister.
10
“Amaya.” The woman at the desk—Marjorie? I was pretty sure that was her name—greeted me with a sweet, broad smile. And then her eyes slid over to the man beside me.
“And this is …?”
“A guest of mine. Kristo,” I replied, glancing over at him. I could leave the husband explanation for later. “How’s Jolene doing today?”
“She’s good.” Marjorie nodded. “She missed you while you were away, though.”
“Yeah, I missed her too,” I replied with a broad smile. No matter how much I knew this was costing me, how much I was aware of the strain on the meager budget we already had, I loved Jolene too much to let that overtake me when I was thinking about spending time with her.
“You ready to head up?” she asked, and I nodded again.
“I’m ready to go when you are,” I replied. I glanced over at Kristo. “You?”
“Sure.” He nodded, and I wondered how this was going to go down. I had taken one guy to meet Jolene before, and I had been sure he’d been the one, that I had been in love with him, but then I had seen the way he looked at her, and I knew he wouldn’t be able to handle life with her.
Kristo followed me and Marjorie up the stairs, and I glanced at my watch. It was still early, and Jolene had always been a late riser. Would she even be up? Well, if she wasn’t, then I was going to wake her with the biggest news in the world.
I hesitated for a moment outside her door, glancing over to Kristo after Marjorie retreated back down to the desk.
“Would you mind waiting outside for a minute?” I asked. “I don’t want to overwhelm her so soon.”
“Whatever you want.” He held his hands up and leaned up against the wall next to the door as I opened it and walked in.
“Amaya!” Jolene exclaimed when I walked into the room. She was taking her first handful of pills of the day and knocked them back with a swig of water as I came over to give her a hug.
“Hey, sister,” I greeted her. “It’s good to see you. Feels like I’ve been away forever.”
“Oh, really?” she teased as I pulled back. “I didn’t even notice you were gone.”
“Oh, that’s enough out of you.” I swatted her lightly on the arm and bit my lip as I took a seat opposite her. How was I supposed to tell her what had happened? It was still so crazy to me, still so fresh, that my head hurt trying to wrap it around the truth of what had gone down. And now I had to come out and tell her about it too?
“How was the trip?” she asked cheerfully, wheeling herself over to the window and pulling up the blinds. “Damn, it’s a beautiful day out there.”
“It was fine.” I nodded carefully. I didn’t want to give too much away. But then, I would have to tell her sometime.
“I actually have something I need to tell you,” I admitted. I wished I had given more thought to how I was going to phrase this on the way over. As it was, my brain was rushing, trying to find a way to explain what the fuck had happened these last couple of days. He was standing outside the door, could probably hear us, and part of me just wanted to yank him inside and show her the rings on our fingers and hope she put the pieces together from there.
But before I could say another word, she leaned forward and grabbed my hand, yanking it on to her lap.
“Is this what I think it is?” she demanded, pointing to the silver band on my finger. I winced. It wasn’t exactly how I’d hoped it would go down.
“Actually, yeah, it is.” I nodded nervously. “I, uh, that was what I wanted to tell you. I got married when I was in Vegas.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” Her eyes widened as she raised them to meet mine again. “You got married? To who?”
“He’s actually here with me if you want to meet him?” I offered, my voice higher than normal, and she threw her hands in the air as though she couldn’t believe I had thought to hold back.
“Bring him in,” she ordered at once. “Holy shit, Amaya.”
“Langauge,” I scolded her, and she rolled her eyes. She might have felt older than thirteen, but as long as I was the one taking care of her, that didn’t mean she got to drop curses like they were common knowledge.
“Kristo?” I called, and a moment later, he appeared in the doorway. Jolene wheeled herself over there to greet him, looking him up and down.
“Well, give me a hug,” she ordered playfully. “You’re my brother-in-law now. Better start acting like family.”
“As reserved as your sister, I see,” he joked, but he leaned down to hug her at once. I looked closely for any flicker of disgust or disapproval, but I couldn’t find it. So that was a good start. So many people, when confronted with someone in Jolene’s condition, just had no idea how to react to it, but he was cool and calm in the face of it.
“Come, sit.” She moved back over to join me, and he took a seat in the chair next to me. To my surprise, he reached over to take my hand. The feel of his warm skin against mine was a balm on my stressed-out mind, as Jolene looked between us expectantly.
“So?” she prompted, and he glanced at me.
“So?”
“So, tell me about how the two of you met.” She raised her eyebrows at the two of us. “And how you got married.”
“Uh.” I looked over at Kristo, but he slid in quickly with a story about meeting at the gala and running off together on a whim. Which was basically true, but she didn’t have to hear about everything else that had come afterward. I had a feeling she would freak out if she knew I had agreed to stick with this for money over anything else.
“It’s so good of you to come and visit,” she sighed at Kristo, and I could practically see the cartoon love hearts pumping in her eyes as she stared at him. I was glad she was so taken with him. She had always been a better judge of character than I was, or perhaps it was as simple as the fact that she managed to swiftly draw out the truth in people, thanks to her conditions.
And more to the point, he seemed to like her. And not in that polite, self-aggrandizing way the guys I had introduced her to before had liked her. No, he was actually talking to her, laughing with her, smiling along with her jokes and cracking them straight back in her direction. He wasn’t beating around the bush and finding ways to shimmy out of the responsibility of being related to her. No, he actually wanted to get to know her, and for that, I cou
ld only gaze at him in relief. If we were going to be in this for a full year, then it was good to know he at least got along with my sister. I just had to hope my time with his family went as well.
“We should do lunch.” Jolene clapped her hands together. I couldn’t help but giggle. Sometimes, I knew she went out of her way to sound grown-up, especially when she was around new people, but she was still my baby sister more than anything else, and it was cute to hear her speaking in such an adult fashion.
“That sounds great.” He glanced down at her chair. “Does this place have a way to get the chair out of here, or how does this work?“
“Yeah, we can’t fit it in the car,” I reminded her, and she waved her hand, ever the optimist.
“Yeah, I know that,” she replied, shooting me a look. “But they have a van we can use to take the chair out and about in. We could do something next week if you want.”
She was glancing up at Kristo nervously, and I could tell this meant a lot to her. She was playing it cool, but it was clear to anyone paying attention that she was a little nervous at the notion of him turning her down. But he nodded at once.
“I’ll need to call up work and make sure I can get the time away, but I don’t see that being a problem,” he replied smoothly, confident as ever. She grinned.
“In that case, I’ll pencil you in for Wednesday,” she replied, casually, and I smiled at her. She was getting to be so grown-up. It was easy to forget once in a while that she was still as much my baby sister as she’d ever been. I couldn’t believe how easily she was accepting all of this, taking it into her stride like it was nothing. But then, the two of us had been through enough that I assumed she was used to accepting what would have been odd for someone else at face value. Maybe I would even tell her one day why I’d done it, the truth behind Kristo and me, but for the time being, I was happy to keep that under wraps. It was for the best.
“I guess we should be going.” I glanced down at my watch again, reluctant to bring this to a close but knowing damn well it was time to get a move on if we wanted to see his family in time. Jolene’s face dropped, and I felt that familiar twist of guilt, the one that came every time I left her all over again.
“You’ll be back soon, though, won’t you?” she asked, and Kristo nodded before I could jump in.
“Of course, we will,” he assured her. “I want to get to know my sister-in-law, right?”
“Good.” Her face cleared and brightened into a smile. “I can’t wait.”
“I’ll see you before you know it, Jo.” I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight, some part of me not wanting to let go. When I stood up, Kristo touched my arm to draw my attention.
“Where can I speak to someone about payment?” he asked quietly so Jolene couldn’t hear.
“At the desk downstairs,” I replied at once, and then went back to hugging my sister. If only she knew how much easier things had just gotten for us.
“I really like him.” She nodded to the door after he left. “I think you got a good one there.”
“I barely know him,” I confessed without thinking. “We’ll see.”
“Call it sister’s intuition.” She tapped her nose, and I laughed.
“I should be going.” I looked at the door and made a face. “But I’ll be back to see you as soon as I can, all right?”
“All right.” She waved me toward the door. “I’ll catch you later. And congratulations!”
I grinned as I headed downstairs, and I found him leaning on the desk waiting for me.
“It’s taken care of,” he announced casually, and I blinked at him, taking a moment to figure out what he was saying.
“The money?” I blurted out stupidly. He nodded.
“A year in advance,” he replied. “Paid up.”
“Oh my god, that’s amazing,” I sighed, feeling a weight I didn’t know had been there lift off my shoulders. “Thank you, Kristo.”
“It’s what we agreed,” he replied, nearly neutral, and he stood up and marched toward the door as I hurried to keep up. All that money. Craziness. I knew the job I would be starting soon would have just covered her fees here, but it would have been tight as hell. Besides, a whole year in advance couldn’t be bad. That was a relief. If something happened, I could stockpile some cash to make sure the blow wasn’t too rough on me.
“So, your family now, huh?” I remarked as I slid into the car next to him, feeling lighter than before. He nodded, and I thought I saw the hint of a grimace on his face as he pulled away.
“Yep,” he replied at last. “My family.”
“So where do they stay?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“A little out of town, but we need to make a stop-off first,” he replied. I wrinkled up my nose.
“Why?”
“You’ll see,” he responded, suddenly shutting down, so far removed from the charming, talkative guy who had just been shooting the shit with my sister.
We drove back into town in silence, and I wondered what was bugging him. And then, he drew the car to a stop outside a small shop, some boutique place with a couple of dresses that probably cost more than my rent in the window.
“What are we doing here?” I wondered as he climbed out, and he offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet.
“You need a new dress,” he replied simply, and my heart flipped.
“You don’t think this one is okay?” I asked, my voice tiny. He turned to me and shook his head.
“It’s not that,” he sighed deeply, and I could tell his frustration was aimed at something far removed from me. It was just that I was the one there in front of him, the one who had to deal with it.
“So?”
“So, I know what my nonna needs from my women, and this isn’t it,” he replied, gesturing to me. “Come on, let’s go inside. I know the owner.”
I hung back for a moment before I followed. I tried to tell myself that this could be fun, dress shopping with my billionaire husband, but something ugly was nagging at the back of my mind, and the rush of joy I’d been feeling was already starting to sour in my stomach.
11
“You’re sure this is the dress you want me to wear?” she asked, plucking at the dark green fabric clinging to her hips. I nodded.
“Trust me. You look perfect,” I assured her. She had before, as well. That wrap dress had been stunning, and I loved the way it had caressed her curves as though it didn’t want me to forget about them. But she looked like a teacher. Hell, for all I knew, she actually had been a teacher at some point—she had talked about studying at the university, and she could have covered classes as part of that. My family, though, would want something a little more impressive. And it was easier to sculpt her into the vision of what my family would want from my wife than to argue with Amaya, so I picked out the dress from the boutique, and she gamely changed into it in the back room. I tried not to linger on the thought of her stripping down in there, forcing the image out of my brain, but as soon as she reemerged it was replaced.
She looked good. She had looked amazing before, but now she looked more like she did on the night of the gala when we’d first met, like some luxuriating socialite, the fabric outlining her curves in a way that would have made any man proud to have her on his arm. I tried not to stare at her as she twisted this way and that in the dress, checking herself out.
“It’s all right?” she asked, and I nodded.
“It’s perfect,” I replied, and I paid the man behind the counter quickly so we could start the journey down to my family’s place. Oh, and so I didn’t have to fight my urge to push my tongue into her mouth and run my hands all over her absurdly perfect body.
We took off in the car, and I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She looked the part now, more than she had before, like a socialite, someone my little sister might have headed out on the town with. I wasn’t sure why, but that thought unsettled me a little, and I pushed it to the back of my mind.
“So, wh
at do I need to know?” She turned to me.
“I honestly don’t think there’s anything I can say to prepare you for this,” I admitted. “Just go with the flow and try not to get too stressed out if things don’t go entirely your way. They’re just going to be a little mad that they didn’t get to bless the union before we were married.”
“Bless the union?” she muttered to herself, shaking her head. “Kind of old-fashioned.”
“Oh, just you wait,” I replied, ominously. She shot me a look out of the corner of her eye.
“Care to elaborate?”
“Better to show than tell,” I replied, and the two of us made the rest of the drive there in relative silence. I still didn’t know what to say to this woman. I knew I should have been able to come up with something by now, but I was too nervous about the thought of her meeting my family. I was picking apart every little thing in my head I was sure they would go after, trying to come up with defenses, but I knew it was useless. We would just have to take it as it came.
We drew to a halt outside a house with enormous, ornate pillars outside that seemed to stretch up into the slightly cloudy gray sky for miles. I rolled my eyes as I did every time I laid eyes on them. They were ridiculous, but then Nonna had never been one for subtlety.
“Is this their place?” she gasped as she looked up at it. I nodded.
“Come on, they’re expecting us.” I hurried her out of the car. I wanted to rip this Band-Aid off already. She followed me, and I paused for a moment outside the door as I waited for her to catch up. I could do this. We could do this.
“This place is incredible.” She shook her head, mouth hanging open as she took it in. I would have called it over the top, but whatever floated her boat, I guessed.
“Do we have to do this now?” Amaya crossed her arms over her chest, and I had the doomed feeling she was about to run on me.
