The Fiancé (It's Just Us Here Book 6)

by Christopher X Sullivan

  “I’m sure they will,” I said neutrally.

  We stared over the Lake again as the boat rocked gently. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking about. I had no idea what my dad was thinking, either. My mind was blank and worried for my grandpa. How long had he planned this? Had it just popped into his head like most of his crazy ideas?

  I had worked with this man a lot and knew once he got on a course of action, there was no reasoning with him. His way was right... and that was it. Actually, my father was the same way. My cousins often teased our uncles and called them mini-Grandpas.

  It wasn’t the worst thing to take after the patriarch of our family, but damn did my uncles get mopey and stubborn and they could be so unreasonable.

  Grandpa had lived long enough to see his friends’ kids die. He had gone to funerals for his sons-in-law.

  He went to the same tired funeral home every time. We used that funeral home for my sister after she was killed by a drunk driver. It housed my cousin who died of opioid overdose. It housed my cousin who died in Afghanistan. It housed my uncle who died young of cancer. It had housed my grandma and it would also house my grandpa... when his time came.

  What could a man who had experienced so much possibly be thinking about in a moment like this? What could a man, whose mind was being scrambled like eggs, possibly be worrying about? Stewing over? He thoughts were likely flashing back to all the worst moments in his life, like how his favorite old car burned in the house fire and how he was so certain that he could have run into the garage and save it. (“You were with me, hun,” he had said to his eighty-year-old wife. “We could have gotten it out.”)

  That was the small town I came from, where my grandpa had lived his entire life—he had seen it grow with the auto industry after World War II and watched it die due to automation and jobs going overseas. He had seen the town that once flourished so beautifully, wither to nothing as his family suffered because of the lack of opportunities.

  Grandpa was a simple guy. All he wanted was to hold his family as close as possible. He was always worried about them spreading apart and never seeing each other. He dreaded what would happen after he was dead and gone. My grandpa was a worrier, just like me. My mother had some anxiety, too, so I inherited a double whammy on that front.

  DESPITE OUR SORE HEARTS, we somehow fired the engines up again. I pulled Grandpa out of the wind and my dad took a seat beside him. I drove the boat to the Wolff’s Lakehouse. My grandpa was too short and couldn’t stand with enough stability to drive his boat.

  I drove by the Lakehouse shore and pointed to the house. “That’s it,” I yelled, cutting the engine.

  “What?” my Grandpa asked, which was his default response to anything you ever said because he refused to buy a hearing aid. “Oh, that house? My goodness, would you look at that.”

  “Wow,” my dad agreed.

  Yep, you thought Mark had money... just you wait.

  I drove slowly into the marina because I wasn’t familiar with the bottom and had to rely on the depth-finder. We made it to the open dock safely.

  Mark was waiting for me. He grabbed the boat as I docked. “Good one, babe,” he encouraged.

  I’ve been docking boats since I was ten... a twin screw is like a piece of cake. Try a boat with a single motor and navigating through channels in a marina...

  I cut the engines and threw the buoys over the side. We tied the ropes.

  “Babe,” Mark said gently.

  I jumped because I didn’t realize he was beside me. I looked over and he hadn’t secured the front of the boat like he was supposed to. “Get the front of the boat,” I said harshly.

  “Chris, what’s wrong?” He touched my shoulder.

  “It’s just... sad.”

  “Yeah.” He draped his hand over my chest and tried to give me a hug. I walked past him stiffly and tied the front rope so the boat didn’t drift across the docking berth and into the fancy boat on the other side.

  “Chris? How are you holding up?”

  “Don’t hover around me.” I was agitated. “We’ll talk about it later, please?” I looked up at him for the first time since jumping off the boat and begged with my eyes. He pulled me into a hug and I settled my face so that it was against his neck. I kissed him softly. “I love you,” I whispered with a watery voice.

  “Love you, too.” He rubbed my shoulders. “Is everything okay?”

  “We’ll talk about it later,” I promised. I looked at my dad and grandpa who were talking to Mark’s father and grandfather. “Wow,” I said. “Big welcoming committee.”

  “Yeah, I invited everyone. I want to introduce you to my family. Heads up, they’re crazy.”

  “I already know your family,” I stressed. I wiped my face and my mood lifted—the longer I was with Mark it was bound to happen. How could a guy be high-energy all the time?

  We joined the men talking about the boat. My grandpa kept giving the guys tips on how to make the engine run perfectly. “We’ll call you if we have any problems,” Grandpa Wolff assured him.

  “Chris knows how to do this stuff, don’t you, Chris?”

  “This isn’t my boat,” I said. “You’re the expert.”

  “If you have problems, give me a call. I’d love to come and visit. My wife always wanted to live on the Lake.” He looked around the property, but you couldn’t see much from the marina. “You live here?”

  “This is my wife’s house,” Grandpa Wolff explained. “I preferred a smaller cottage, but she doesn’t like to move, so this is our first and last home.”

  My grandpa grunted. “I’d love to see it up close,” he said. We wheeled him down the dock, but the yard wasn’t built for handicap accessibility. Grandpa demanded to get out of the chair and walk over the grass.

  “We’ll get the golf cart,” Mark offered. He pulled me ahead as the guys waited at the marina and chatted. “What’s going on?” Mark demanded when he got me alone.

  “I don’t want to talk about it until tonight.”

  “I thought maybe we could stay the night here...”

  “I’d love to. I love your family.” I squeezed his hand, which was unlike me. I had been holding his hand since we docked the boat, which was absolutely unlike me.

  Mark swung his arm like he was a small kid. We walked in front of the Lakehouse. My mother was out on the porch watching us. I waved. Keegan, Denise and their kids were in the group talking to my mother. “What’s Keegan doing here?”

  “I asked them to be here. I asked them all to be here.”

  “Oh, so dramatic,” I teased. “You’re forcing them upon me! You never asked my opinion.”

  “It’s not going to be like pulling teeth. I want them to get used to you and know that you’re with me for the foreseeable future.”

  “The foreseeable future?”

  “Ooops... that was a slip. I meant to say ‘forever’.” He tickled me and I giggled. “There’s my guy back,” he commented. “This is really hard on you. I know what to do tonight to make you feel better.”

  “If it’s your dick, I’m gonna be pissed.”

  He laughed. We opened the side garage with the yard equipment. He pulled me into an intimate bearhug and his hands clasped around the small of my back.

  My arms were around his neck and my face was directed up at him. “He spread Grandma’s ashes,” I whispered.

  “Hmm?”

  “Grandma’s ashes. Grandpa brought them with him...” I shuddered against his body and let the tears come out. Don’t leave me Mark! I want to be with you forever!

  “Hey,” he murmured, rocking me back and forth. “Babe...” he kissed my cheek.

  “They were always the last pair to dance at that stupid wedding song thing. You know, where they make you dance until they call the year you’ve been married?”

  Mark held me and said that he knew what I meant.

  “There was one year, back when they were married sixty years... they went against my cousin’s wife’s grandpar
ents. It was a battle royale.” I gave a bitter laugh. “You should have seen my grandpa, he was giving this other couple the stink eye. I don’t think they had that much competition since I was a boy.” I cried again. “And they would just dance and dance and dance until the announcer finally asked how long they had been married.”

  “How long?” Mark asked with a kiss.

  “Sixty-eight.”

  “Wow,” Mark said. He helped me snuggle into his body. “I’d be your husband for that long, if you let me.”

  “Bah.” I was dismissive—as I had been anytime he brought up a formal declaration of our love.

  “Would you marry me? If I asked, would you?”

  “No,” I pouted. “I told you before, a million times, no.” I clasped his body. “Don’t you feel like we already are?” I was weak. “I don’t need a stupid piece of paper. I know I’ve got you...” Right? I know I’m needy as shit, but just tell me I’m right.

  “I’m yours for always,” he promised with a kiss. “I will never let you spend another lonely night.” Kiss. “I will always be here to pick you up when you have a bad day. Always. And you can run... you can run as fast as you can, but I’ll always come after you.” He kissed me again. “You’re mine, little man.”

  “Stop with the ‘little man’ bullshit.”

  “Okay, you’re mine, little cheese. And I want everyone to know it.”

  “I think they get the picture. You’re always close to me. I’m surprised I get enough oxygen to my brain...”

  “Cute.” He slapped my butt. “If you aren’t careful, I’m gonna take you right here and now.”

  We hadn’t had sex since we got back together. “We can do it later,” I promised. “Just not today... please. I’m feeling... weird.”

  He touched my face. “Not today.” He hopped on the golf cart. “Let’s get your grandpa. They’re probably thinking we’re having a quickie in the shed.”

  “We were having a quickie,” I said, wiping my tears. “An emotional quickie.”

  “That’s all you know how to do,” Mark muttered. He said it in a joking voice, but I could tell he wasn’t kidding... and that made me laugh. I laughed at him so hard.

  “This week,” I promised. “How about on Wednesday, like usual? I’ll prepare myself and we’ll have some fun.”

  “Wanna try hypnosis?”

  “No.” Don’t make fun of me.

  “You are getting sleeeepy.”

  “No. Stop it.”

  “Sleeeepy.” He held his hands over me like I was a marionette and he controlled the strings. “Breathe in and out. Look at the gold coin spin in front of your face.”

  “Stop making fun of me!” I squeezed his crotch and growled about how I would ‘show him’.

  He laughed.

  And ever since, Mark has teased me mercilessly for my hypnosis fetish. I’ve learned the most effective comeback: “If you want to have sex with me again, drop it.” It works like a charm because he knows it’s a real threat. I’d be perfectly happy never having sex again in my life. I could probably force Mark do a lot of things by using that threat.

  Don’t worry. I don’t use my superpower for evil... much.

  A Perfect Proposal

  MARK WAS ON THE VERGE of an inexplicably bad mood, so I had to bring out the big ‘babe’. Of course my partner couldn’t let go of the idea of a perfect day with my ailing grandpa, but we were just going to have to make do without my family.

  “Babe, he has to go home,” I started with. “He can’t stay for lunch. He can’t eat that stuff, anyway.”

  “Chris, please, just... let him stay!” Mark nearly pulled out his hair in frustration. We were bottled up in a Lakehouse bedroom and having an urgent conversation. “I think it’ll be great for him to meet my family.”

  “He talked to most of your family already... but this is more like a Wolff family dinner. Right? He doesn’t need to be here.” Something seemed strange about that. Mark’s parents rarely did the ‘family’ things that came so naturally to the Sullivans. “All your brothers and sisters are here for the weekend.”

  “Not Kat. She was supposed to be here.”

  “I don’t have to be reintroduced to everyone. They all know me. I’ll be around on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ll talk to them then.”

  “She said she would be here.”

  Why are you so agitated? “Relax. Nothing is ever as perfect as it is in your head.” I touched his arm gently, then laid my hands on his chest. “What can I do to make you feel better... that doesn’t have anything to do with your cock?”

  “Mmm... nothing.”

  “Cute.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows and tickled me. Then he put me in a headlock and messed up my hair. He let go of me and I jumped towards the door.

  “You can’t leave looking like that,” he said, stalking after me and pressing me against the door. He straightened my shirt, then flattened my shorts by touching my crotch. “Gotta make everything look nice and even.” He kissed me. “I touched your big heart, now I need to touch your butt-brain.”

  “Where are you getting this from?” Dunce.

  He laughed. “Don’t you remember? The first time we got together and I had to slowly, slowly, slowly get closer to touching you... closer and closer.” His hand drifted nearer to my asshole as he repeated each word. “And you said that I should just replace the word ‘cock’ with ‘heart’ and everything would be perfect.” His voice was in my ear.

  “You’re a huge brain,” I said. “We’ll deal with your heart later.”

  “Ooo, really?” His hands were on my waist, then slid over my abs and gently kneaded into me. “You can’t tease me about this stuff.”

  “We can do something together tonight.” Sure... why not? Throw him a bone. Also, my nerves were frayed and I just wanted to connect with my man. Seeing my grandfather spread the ashes like that... I just wanted to be as close to Mark as humanly possible. And if that involved his heart up my brain, then so be it. “But probably just masturbation. And maybe only touching yours.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” he growled. “I’ll suck you till you beg to get fucked.”

  I blinked and held in my wince. “How romantic.”

  The truth was that I was nervous because I hadn’t felt that sexual spark for him like I did in the first round of our relationship. Sure, it had taken me months to get to that point originally, so maybe I was expecting too much of myself too soon, but every time he brought up something sexual I kind of blocked it out. This weekend at his grandparents’ house was the first time he talked so openly about his desire and I couldn’t block it all.

  I pushed aside my unease. “Let’s go wish my grandpa goodbye.”

  “Can he please stay for lunch? Can’t we convince—”

  “He just said goodbye to his wife of almost seventy years. He—” My voice stopped unexpectedly and I had to swallow. Mark held me and I buried my head in his shoulder. “It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “I know. It hurts me, too. Just to think about it. When we get that old, I want you to go first.”

  “What!” He should be the one to go first. Why would Mark want to suffer?

  “You’ve been through so much as it is,” Mark explained.

  “I can handle more. You’re such a wimp. You’d be lost without me. No direction.”

  “That’s true enough,” he said with a sigh. “I’d like your parents to stay for lunch. I invited them.”

  “Your grandma invited them. This is her house.”

  “I invited them,” he said, as if he was trying to hint at something without revealing too much information. I wasn’t in the right headspace to deal with his mind games and just wanted to lie down and feel him around me and hear him breathing next to me. I wanted to be with my partner—not all these other people.

  “Fine. Let’s go do this,” I said, like I was being forced against my will.

  “Damn, dude. It’s not a punishment.”r />
  I hugged him again. “I need to be alone today. Alone with you and no one else and just... pretend like the world is a better place.”

  “It is better,” Mark said while lightly touching me. “Now that I’ve got you, it is a better place.”

  “You’re a fucking dunce,” I said, wiping my eyes. “Do people actually fall for that crap?”

  “Did you?”

  I grunted, then rolled my eyes and looked out the window. “The world is a better place,” I agreed sullenly. “Now that I have you back.”

  “Damn, that was like pulling teeth.”

  “I don’t see why I have to say anything. You should just know it!”

  “I know. But sometimes it’s nice to say silly things out loud, right?” He smiled.

  “You want me to do mushy?” I threatened. “I can do mushy. I am a writer after all.”

  “You haven’t written in almost a year,” he said without heat, but also without pulling punches.

  I blinked stupidly, then half-coughed to cover my discomfort.

  “Your grandpa lost all his pictures, isn’t that what you told me?” He waited for me to nod. “He didn’t write down any of his memories. When he’s gone, all that stuff will be gone.”

  I slapped his chest. “No shit.” Quit it.

  “Why can’t you write down your memories? Now, while they’re fresh. I’d love to read them.” He touched my sides. “I won’t laugh. I’ll do whatever you want, be whoever you need me to be. Do you want a cheerleader?”

  “You’re pretty enough to be one.”

  “Fuck you.” He pushed my face so it fell off his chest. “Do you want me to edit? Do you want me to count the words as you write them? I can be your publicist. Remember our book party? That went well.” He kissed me on the side of the head. “I want you to do what you were born to do. And you were born to tell stories.”

  “I’m not doing that now. I’m working in the tech industry.”

  He held me close for another moment. “Once upon a time, you told me a story of a young man who came home from work every day and wrote. He sat at his computer and wrote. He wrote little passages... that then became big passages. And he finished his first book, then his second, then his third.”