Fake Marriage Box Set

“I’ll talk to Karen about that,” I said. I wasn’t actually going to yell at Karen for letting mom sleep in, but it seemed as if Karen was just an easy target for mom’s frustration. “Do you have any plans today?”

“Really?” Mom looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Other than just sitting here and watching the rest of that comic book show, I think I’m free.”

“How about a trip to a museum then? That aviation one that you used to take me all the time?” I offered. Dad used to take the both of us to museums once a week growing up until he grew too busy with work. Mom took it up afterward.

“I think I’d like that,” she said. “Let me just get dressed and then we can leave.”

I waited in the living room for the better part of an hour until she was ready. I wasn’t upset; it was just a reminder of how much energy she had left in her body.

“No more than three hours,” Karen said before we left. “She needs to take her medicine and rest in three hours.”

“I think my son can take care of us,” she said.

“Thanks, Karen. I’ll have her back in time,” I said as mom followed me to my car. She walked with a slight limp and hump in her back, and it was a struggle getting her in the car without her falling over.

“I don’t remember it being this hard,” she said.

“What being hard?” I asked.

“Everything,” she said. “Just, everything.”

I frowned and started the ignition. “Just tell me if it’s too much, okay?” I asked.

“I will. I’m just so happy to be out in the cold air.” She rolled her window down and put her elbow out. It was barely 50 degrees outside, and I made sure she was wearing three coats and a thick pair of pants before leaving the house. I had a sweater beneath my faux leather coat with jeans.

“Maddie is such a darling,” she said. My fists clenched on the steering wheel. I was surprised that we had gotten this far before she mentioned her, but there was still hope in me that this outing could have remained Maddie-free.

“Yeah,” I said and turned onto the highway. The aviation museum wasn’t far, maybe a 20-minute drive, and I hoped she wouldn’t talk about Maddie the entire drive.

“She knows how to put you in your place.” Mom laughed. “That’s the type of woman you’d need. Your dad would have loved her. I think he did, actually. I remember she baked him a birthday cake one year, a little ugly yellow cake with weird blue frosting. She must have been only six or seven, but Charles loved it.”

“I remember that,” I said with a faint smile. “It was supposed to be lemon flavored, but it ended up tasting like sour heads. I didn’t even know that was a possible flavor for cakes.”

“We all had a good laugh,” mom said. “But I knew she was special. Granted, I thought she was going to end up with a good-looking senator. She sure has the look of a senator's wife.”

An image of her bent over my bar popped up, and I forced it away.

“She does,” I agreed. “I’m glad you like her.”

I parked the car toward the front of the aviation museum.

“Like? Gavin, I love her. She has the perfect sense of humor, she’s beautiful, your children would be beautiful, and do you see the way she looks at you?” mom asked.

“The way she looks at me?” I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Mom shrugged. “She just looks at you with such devotion. Like she can’t even believe she’s with you. Poor girl has no idea you’re the lucky one.”

I tried recalling a look from Maddie, but I realized that I barely even paid any attention to her face the entire night. I only bothered with her words and her body.

“You sound like you’re the one who wants to marry her,” I said with a chuckle and helped her out of the car. She leaned against me as we entered the museum.

“I just really think she might be the one,” mom said. “The woman for you.”

She was smiling so much that it pained me to keep the truth from her. I wanted nothing more than to tell her that I wasn’t in love and that Maddie wasn’t the one. But I wanted to keep her happy.

“She really might be, mom,” I said.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” she said. I purchased our entrance tickets at a booth in the middle of the giant museum. “Have you talked about children? Does she want any? Or maybe she wants one of each?”