Deklan

Kathy is the single person I have kept in constant contact with since I started home-schooling. Though she was ahead of me in school, we played together on the playground in elementary school and even had some of the same classes my first year of high school. Despite her moving off to college a few years ago, we talked almost daily, and she was my best friend in the world. I feel instantly guilty for being so preoccupied with Deklan that I hadn’t even thought to call her. I quickly type out a reply.

Bookwhore72: I am SO SORRY! Crazy few days and way too much to type. Having coffee now. Call if you can!

My phone rings about twelve seconds later.

“For the love of God, woman!” Kathy screams loud enough that I have to pull the phone away from my ear. “Where the hell have you been? I was about to hire a dude in a fedora to go look for you!”

“I’m so sorry. Really, I am. The past few days have been nuts.”

“Spill it! The last I heard, you weren’t marrying that Foley guy but some other dude on steroids.”

“He’s not on steroids.” I roll my eyes and sip a bit of my coffee. “He is built like one of those large, earth-moving machines, but I’m pretty sure it’s all natural. His name is Deklan.”

“And?”

“And, he’s…well, he’s quite nice.” I pause.

“Nice?” Kathy snorts into the phone. “I don’t hear from you in almost a week, and all you got is ‘nice’?”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Try the beginning, bitch.”

“Ugh!” I sigh loudly, but I can’t stop smiling. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed Kathy, and it feels good to hear her voice. “Okay, here’s the short version. I didn’t even know his last name until the middle of the ceremony. He’s got dark hair and blue eyes. He’s about a foot taller than I am, and his hands are huge. When he’s around other people, he looks like he’s four seconds away from literally ripping people’s arms off, but at home, he’s quite different.”

“Different how?”

“He’s…sweet. He’s gentle. He likes my cooking and draws me baths—candles and everything. I conked myself on the head, and he insisted on taking me to the hospital to get checked out. He’s got some strict rules, which is why I didn’t message you back, but he says...he says he’s going to take care of me. He says he wants to be a good husband.”

“Whoa.”

“Whoa what?”

“Are you falling for this guy? Already?”

“I don’t know if I’m falling for him,” I say, “but he’s a lot better than I thought he would be. I thought things were going to be a lot worse.”

I consider telling her about how I thought he was going to kill me but decide to keep that tidbit to myself.

“I’d laugh my ass off otherwise,” Kathy says. “All those times you’ve bitched about ‘instalove’ in romance books—I’d give you serious shit if it happened to you.”

We both laugh.

“So…tell me about the wedding night! Did you go through with it?”

“Yeah.” I’m pretty sure she can see my blush through the phone, but Kathy doesn’t squeal or cheer or anything. That’s not her way, and I love her for it.

“And?” she says simply, prompting me to continue.

“And it was kinda incredible.”

“Hold on.” I hear a click and realize she’s lighting a cigarette.

“Are you at work?”

“Yeah, just taking a break.”

“I thought you were going to quit smoking.”