Bought For Marriage

We had made arrangements to spend the day with her brother this weekend, and I figured she was just nervous about introducing us and making sure we appeared in love to him.

She certainly had nothing to be worried about on my end. I was fucking head over heels for her. However, she didn’t know that, because I hadn’t had the courage to tell her about my emotional revelations yet. My goal was to sweep her off her feet and make sure she had fallen madly in love with me before admitting to her that I felt the same.

“Are you ready?” I asked her as our car pulled up to the rehab facility.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded, and I took her hand and placed a kiss on the back. Her blue eyes snapped up to mine, and I was shocked to see them swimming with tears.

“Kinsley? What the fuck is wrong?”

Another damn smile and kiss. “Nothing, I promise. Everything is all right. I’m just emotional. The two most important men in my life are about to meet.”

The driver opened the door, and before I could object, Kinsley was out of the car and waiting for me on the sidewalk.

I hopped out, and she slipped her arm through mine before leading me through the sliding glass doors. We stopped at a large desk where a young woman in scrubs had us fill out some paperwork, then handed us both badges.

“He’s having a good day,” she told Kinsley quietly. The nurse’s eyes darted to me briefly before settling back on my wife. “How are you doing?”

“Um, good,” Kinsley mumbled, her expression oddly wary. “Patty, this is my husband, Sullivan. Sullivan, Patty is one of Graham’s nurses.”

“Very nice to meet you,” I said congenially, shaking her hand. She blushed deeply and scurried around the counter.

“It’s time for Graham’s vitals, so I’ll walk you to his room.” As we started down the hall, she sidled up to Kinsley and whispered, “Holy cow, girl. He’s smoking hot. No wonder you’re—”

“Patty!” Kinsley’s face filled with panic as she glanced at me to see if I’d heard. I laughed and slipped my arm around her waist, pulling her into my side.

“You think I’m hot, huh?” I asked her smugly.

Her expression smoothed out, but her cheeks turned bright pink and she blew out an unsteady breath. “Maybe,” she snipped playfully.

“Any man would look good with you on his arm, gorgeous,” I told her as we approached the open door to a patient room. Patty sighed dreamily and waved us in ahead of her.

“While I don’t disagree, comments like that make me think you’ve already screwed up with my sister or you’re banking brownie points for the next time,” a dark-haired, blue-eyed man said as he smirked at me from his bed on the right side of the room. His resemblance to Kinsley was undeniable, and with the way he looked me up and down in assessment, I had no doubt this was her older brother, Graham.

Kinsley rushed over to give him a hug and he mock-whispered, “Need me to kick his ass?”

“Like you could take him,” she scoffed and cuffed his shoulder before stepping back so Patty could start her tests.

“Hey,” he pouted. “I’m trying to keep up appearances over here. Husbands should fear the older brother.”

Kinsley threw her head back and laughed. Her face was filled with so much warmth and love, it made my chest squeeze with emotion. I wanted to see her look at me like that. Sometimes, I thought I caught a glimpse, but she was very adept at keeping her thoughts and emotions shuttered. It was driving me fucking crazy. But now wasn’t the time to focus on that.

“I’m sufficiently terrified that one day, you’ll be able to put me in the ground,” I assured him with a grin. “So I’m just banking those brownie points while I can.”

“As long as we have an understanding, bro.”

I nodded and stepped forward to formally shake his hand and introduce myself. Once that was done and Patty had left, Graham got out of bed and we all sat around a little table by the large picture window in his room. There was a small kitchenette, and Kinsley made us each a cup of coffee for while we visited.

“So, Sullivan, what was the big rush to get married? You didn’t knock up my sister, did you?”

Kinsley had just taken a sip of her drink, and at Graham’s question she did a movie-worthy spit take. Her brother laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair, whipping Kinsley up into a worried frenzy and a five-minute lecture on taking better care of himself.

Graham took it in stride and let her go until she ran out of steam. He’d clearly heard it all before, but he was patient and understanding. It was obvious these two had been through a lot together and they shared a deep bond.