by G. Benson
Hayden relaxed back against the counter. “You do?”
“He’s poked around work, and he even cornered Jon. But he’ll find nothing. We’re married. Everyone thinks we’re married, whether people think it was fast or not. I spoke with my lawyer yesterday, and he’s received absolutely no indication that the paperwork to start processing the fund is being blocked.”
That made something occur to Hayden.
She straightened, the hair on her arms almost standing on end. “Sam, what if he can see the money transfers in our accounts?”
Waving a hand airily, Sam looked far too relaxed at the thought that had Hayden panicking. “Their ability to do that is a fallacy. It’s completely illegal for him to do so.”
“Oh.”
“So don’t worry. And don’t change the subject.”
Hayden fiddled with the ring on her finger. It didn’t feel foreign to her anymore. She kind of liked it. Last night, their hands had been linked over Sam’s hip, and their bands had matched. “In my defense, changing the subject wasn’t what I set out to do.”
Sam pushed her plate aside and watched her, intent. “That money is yours. It was part of the deal.”
“Well, the deal’s changed now.” Hayden pushed forward, resting her hand on Sam’s forearm. “Sam, I don’t want to take your money. It feels weird and gross and uncomfortable.”
“But what else do I need it for? You have no idea the amount in that trust; it’s obscene. Jon will get half. I don’t need the other half. I’m donating most of it.”
“You are?”
Sam got a small, self-satisfied smirk on her lips, and Hayden liked it far more than she should. She was about to say something great; Hayden could feel it in the wicked glint in her eye. “Yes. To various LGBT organizations. My parents will love it.”
“That’s awesome.”
“I’m going to donate in their names so they get certificates thanking them.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Jon almost wet his pants laughing when I told him.”
Hayden laughed so loudly that Frank jumped where he was sitting on the kitchen floor, looking up at them, clearly waiting for more bacon.
“It’s genius.” It really was. Hayden could just imagine them opening up the letter and seeing the certificates. “Donate the two hundred thousand there too.”
“No. I want you to have it. You can use it to help your mother or study or whatever you wish.”
Sam was incredibly annoying. “I don’t need it. With the money I already have, and when we sell her house, we can—”
“But why sell it? Why make your family move when they don’t need to? Plus, if you sell the house, you’ll have to make sure they have a new place, smaller or not, so you lose some of the money there. This way, everyone is looked after. No new mortgages, and your mother can have the best care. You know for a fact that you may need to pay a nursing home for years.”
Hayden swallowed and shook her head. “I can’t take your money.”
“You would have before.”
“Yeah, and now it’s different.”
Sam huffed, throwing her hands up and straightening. “It’s in the prenup. I’m required to pay it. I’ll divorce you anyway, and pay it straight out.”
That just sounded harsh.
“I can refuse it. Dispute it in court.”
“You’ll go to court to say, ‘No, thank you. I don’t want the money my prenup promises me’?”
“Uh—yeah. Yes.”
“Hayden, stop being difficult.”
“I’m not being a stubborn child.”
“Yes, you are, a little.”
“Is this because I’m fifteen years younger than you?”
Sam laughed, even though her cheeks were pink with irritation. “Don’t be a smart-ass.”
“I thought you knew by now that’s impossible for me?”
Sam looked as if she didn’t know whether to laugh or throttle her. “Take the money. Use it for your mother. If you end up with some left, donate it. Give it away. Pay off any debt you have. I don’t care. But take the money, Hayden.” Sam paused. “Please.”
The look on her face was so sincere. “But my family thinks they have to sell the house.”
“What were you going to tell them before? Before you and I happened, and you knew you’d have the money?”
“I don’t know.” Hayden really needed to learn to plan better. “I thought it would be another year or two until Mom would need permanent care, and I could have just said I’d saved.”
“Okay.” Sam nodded slowly. “Tell them I’m helping. We’re married. It’s normal that I would. Exaggerate how much you’ve put aside waiting for this.”
“More lies?”
“Well, me helping is not really one. And the other is an exaggeration.”
“A lie.”
“A very small one.”
“I hate lies.”
“I know. You told me that in the bar, and I thought for sure this was all going to fall apart.”
“Did you think, then, that we’d be having mind-blowing sex months later and arguing that I didn’t want your money?”
“Not even a little.”
Hayden reached over and wrapped her fingers in Sam’s shirt, beckoning her forward to kiss her. She rested her forehead on Sam’s. “Yet here we are.”
Sam’s laugh was disbelieving. “Yet here we are.”
~ ~ ~
Hands were up Hayden’s shirt, and she kicked the remote to the floor. Not that she cared. She and Sam had both had late nights and too much work the last few days.
Teeth grazed Hayden’s neck, and Sam’s hips were between her legs, rocking against her insistently. She felt like a teenager having a make out session, and it was positively awesome.
“Oh, my fucking hell.”
Sam froze. Hayden froze. They both turned their heads as one. Jon stood at the front door, gawking.
“My eyes!” He clapped a hand over them and turned around dramatically. Sam dropped her head on Hayden’s chest for a second, then pulled her hand out of Hayden’s shirt and sat up. Adjusting her shirt, Hayden did the same.
“You can uncover your fragile gaze now, Jon,” Hayden said.
Without dropping his hand, he turned around. “Are you sure?”
“Are you really that grossed out by two women?”
He dropped his hand and rolled his eyes, looking the spitting image of Sam. “I’m not that juvenile. That’s my sister you’re half-naked with.”
Hayden had once walked in on her sister and her boyfriend. She shuddered in commiseration. “Fair enough. Though my shirt riding up is hardly half-naked.”
Sam crossed her legs, perfectly poised except for the red of her neck. “Is there a reason you’re just letting yourself in, dear brother?”
“Dear sister, you told me to come round at eight.”
“I did?”
“You did. You were distracted by kissing, I think.”
Hayden grinned. “I am a good kisser.”
“Gross. I’d like to know,” Jon said, “since when did this thing become a thing.”
“Don’t act like you didn’t know.”
Jon scowled at Hayden’s comment and flopped into a chair.
Sam looked at him. “You knew?”
“It was so obvious that you two slept together after that dinner with our parents. You may as well have done it in the hall.”
Hayden wrinkled her nose. “Ew.”
“Yet you said nothing.” There was something strange in Sam’s voice, and she was looking at Jon like she looked at Hayden sometimes, as if trying to figure him out.
Across from them, he shifted uncomfortably. “Well. Yeah. We don’t, you know, do that—talk.” Sam kept watching him. “Our family doesn’t do that.”
“Our parents don’t. But perhaps we should.”
“Okay,” he shifted, as if uncomfortable, “so, you start.” He winked. “Are you two just banging, since your deal inv
olves not dating other people, and it’s been a while? Or are you together? Are you in lurve?”
“I retract my statement.” Sam stood up and walked past him to the kitchen, not looking at either of them. “We shouldn’t talk.”
Hayden chuckled and Jon smirked.
“Oh, come on, sis.” Jon watched her movements in the kitchen. Hayden buried her knuckles in her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. “Tell your dying-of-curiosity brother: are you two just going to stay married and have tiny children? And, years from now, will you tell them the charming story of how you fake-married, then met your soulmate?”
Hayden gave up and snickered. Sam’s sigh could be heard from the kitchen.
“Do either of you terrible people want a drink?” she called.
“What’s on offer?” Jon asked.
Sam had opened the fridge, and Hayden couldn’t really see her from her position. “You will have what you’re given,” she called from inside the fridge, her voice muffled.
Jon turned to Hayden. “Is that what she says to you?”
Hayden laughed. “Would you really like to know?”
He shook his head. “No, no. I take it back. I’ll be good.”
“Are you sure? I can tell you details. Lots of them. Right before you came in, I—”
He covered his ears. “Lalalalala.”
Sam walked back over, carrying a bottle of champagne in one hand and three glasses by the stems in the other.
“Champagne?” Because Hayden always liked to state the obvious.
Jon turned quickly, dropping his hands from his ears. “What have we done to deserve champagne?”
“You? Nothing,” Sam said.
“Are we toasting to your newfound love?” he asked.
Sam stopped and narrowed her eyes at him. It was actually slightly terrifying, and Hayden remembered the course she went to that Sam had spoken at years ago. Someone had asked what was, admittedly, a stupid question, and she’d leveled that exact same look on the poor guy, who had almost liquefied in his seat. Everyone there almost had.
Jon met the look without even a cringe. “No? What, then?”
Sam put the glasses down and unwrapped the foil over the cork, her fingers nimble. She untwisted the metal ring. “Well,” she started, the cork popping while Jon held up a glass to catch the overflowing bubbles. “I spoke with my lawyer today. The final paperwork was completed. The trust is in my name. It can’t be contested now.”
Jon handed Hayden a glass, who half sat up to take it. “Seriously?” he asked.
“Yes.” Sam poured another glass. “Seriously.” She passed the other to Jon and poured her own. “Half is already on its way to you.”
“Really?”
“Really. It’s yours.”
He stood up and held his glass out. Hayden quickly got to her feet and did the same. With bewildered smiles, they all clinked their glasses and took a sip. It fizzed all over Hayden’s tongue and down her throat.
“So… It’s done?” she asked.
“It’s done. And you,” she turned to Jon, “need to figure out what you’re doing.”
He shrugged. “I’m going back to school.”
Sam went very still. “You are?”
“Yes. I’ve been thinking a lot about everything. You’re right. I should use the opportunity and get my degree, then use what I have to help later somehow.”
“You’re going back to school?” Sam was grinning.
Jon held his hand up for a high five. “I really am.”
Sam blinked at his hand.
“Come on.” He waggled his fingers.
She raised her hand and he clapped his to hers, the slap ringing out in the room. She shook her hand. “You’re a brute.”
“Sometimes. So it’s done.” He looked at Hayden, who had sat back down, and to Sam. “That means you don’t really have to be married, except to carry it on for a couple of months. What the hell does that mean for you two now that you’re together?” He dropped back into his chair again, taking a jovial sip of his champagne. “I mean, you’ve lied to everyone about being married. I imagine if this hadn’t happened, you would have just gotten divorced, and that’d be that. But what do you do now? Tell everyone the truth? Get divorced? Though, that would be hard to explain if you’re together. Stay married?”
He looked from one to the other, a smile plastered on his face and far too comfortable in his chair.
Neither Hayden nor Sam said anything.
“Have you two just not talked about it?”
Hayden cleared her throat. “Well, we’ve been busy.”
“Sex is not an excuse.”
Sam sat gracefully next to Hayden. “Stop talking about my sex life, Jon, or I’ll talk to you about brain surgery.”
He paled. “No. Don’t do that. Also, don’t change the topic.”
Sam looked at Hayden. Hayden looked at Sam.
They looked at Jon, who sighed. “You’re both useless.”
~ ~ ~
It was hours later, on the balcony, and Hayden was shivering. The air had a bite to it, painfully cold, but it was so peaceful outside. Only the sound of traffic, muffled, and the lights flickering around the city. The door behind her slid open and closed again. There was no reason to turn around. She knew who was there.
Arms wrapped around her waist, encased in a blanket, and Hayden gave a contented hum, pushing back into the warmth of Sam’s body.
“Jon’s left,” Sam murmured in her ear, her chin on Hayden’s shoulder. The front of her body was entirely draped over Hayden’s back, and Hayden’s shivering finally eased. “What are you doing out here?”
Every word she said whispered over Hayden’s ear and cheek and sent an entirely different kind of shudder down her spine. “Enjoying the calm.”
“It’s nicer in summer.”
“I like it now. Everything is so still when it’s so cold.”
Sam kissed behind Hayden’s ear. “That’s true.”
Hayden’s fingers traced over Sam’s against her stomach, warm under the blanket. Her nose was cold against her cheek. They stood, the night closing around them.
“Are you okay?” Hayden asked.
She’d wanted to ask since Sam had announced the successful transfer of the money. Sam had been smiling, yes, but also distant, something about it not sitting right with Hayden.
Silence, and the feeling of Sam’s breath over her cheek, her fingers running over Hayden’s.
“I thought there’d be…something more from them. My parents, I mean. I thought there’d be a final challenge, some form of contact. But there’s been nothing.”
Hayden’s chest ached. To get nothing from your parents, to be turned away like that. Hayden couldn’t fathom it. Even after her father, her mother had done nothing but love her and Sofia fiercely. To be hated so viscerally by your own flesh and blood, for something you couldn’t change about yourself?
Hayden turned her head, her nose brushing over Sam’s cheek and her mouth pressing to her jaw.
“I’m sorry,” she said. Because what else could she offer?
Sam turned her head, her lips finding Hayden’s and Hayden turned completely, her back against the railing, Sam keeping the blanket around them both. Everything was warm. Comfortable. Sam moved closer against her, their thighs falling between each other’s, and Hayden gripped Sam’s sweater to bring her in tighter. There was something about kissing Sam, something she could happily lose herself in with no need to find her way out. She loved the way her hands cupped Hayden’s cheeks or her fingers ran through her hair, the way she’d give a small moan for Hayden to breathe in, to swallow.
Sam pulled away gradually, her forehead against Hayden’s. “We do kind of need to talk about the issues Jon brought up.”
Hayden kept her eyes closed and tilted her mouth toward Sam’s, their lips brushing by each other. Sam laughed, nothing more than a puff of air, and pulled back further. Hayden pouted at the sense of loss. “No distracting eac
h other with sex?” she asked.
Sam shook her head. “No.”
“Okay. Well. We’re married.”
“We are.”
Hayden still clutched fistfuls of Sam’s sweater, and she tugged her closer again. “And we’re together, but newly, not marriage-ready, type of together.”
“Yes.”
“Plus, I don’t really, you know, believe in marriage as a necessary thing to do.”
“You’ve mentioned that.”
“And yet we live together. And everyone thinks we’re married.”
“That they do.”
“What a weird predicament.”
“Unique, I’d say.” Sam brushed her lips over Hayden’s, simple, nothing much, but enough to leave Hayden wanting more.
“So… What do we do?” Hayden asked, honestly not caring, right then.
“I guess we make a plan.”
Plans. Right. That thing that Hayden had been telling herself she needed to get better at. “Any ideas?”
“One.”
“And that is?”
“Well, you don’t believe in marriage. So we simply get divorced, but not tell anyone else we’re divorced. If we ever break up, we’ll then pretend it’s a divorce.”
Hayden chuckled as Sam’s lips now grazed her neck. “So just…”
“Act like we have been all the time anyway.”
“Okay.”
And apparently, they were done talking, because when Hayden kissed her, Sam responded eagerly.
CHAPTER 28
“Want to get a coffee?”
Hayden grinned and turned around. Sam was against the break room door, hands in her pockets.
The sludge she’d resigned herself to drinking almost sloshed out of the coffee pot as Hayden put it down with too much enthusiasm. “Oh, yes.”
“That’s what you said last night.”
Hayden laughed, the sound spilling out of her. Discovering this side of Sam had been the best thing since starting their relationship. A giggle almost joined her laugh at that thought. Their relationship.
She was a giddy mess.
“I’m pretty sure you said something similar.”
She walked forward until they were standing in front of each other, Sam’s eyes alight. “I did. Though I was thinking.” She cocked her head, and Hayden was glad no one was around, because Sam was not looking at Hayden in any kind of platonic way. “You were right, months ago.”
