Fiance Next Door

My mother nods. “And I’m glad you’re home. Finally. I didn’t think you would be.”

I did consider not coming back. I never thought I would. But it’s Giselle’s wedding.

I shrug. “Giselle’s the only sister I have.”

“But not your only sibling,” my mom reminds me.

“I know that,” I tell her. “When Leander arrives, I’ll be good to him, I swear.”

Maybe I haven’t always been the best little brother, but I don’t really hate him. I just hated that everyone had him on a pedestal. I’m past that now.

“Good.” My mother smiles. “Get some rest. If you get hungry, you know where the kitchen is.”

“I do.”

She leaves the room. I slip my hands into my pockets and go back to the window. As I look out, I notice that the one in Aster’s room still has the curtains closed. I let out another sigh.

So much for a warm welcome home.

~

“Mason, is that really you?” Giselle exclaims with her hands on her cheeks after letting out a loud gasp.

At least she seems thrilled to see me.

“Nope,” I answer before drinking water from a blue, ribbed glass, the same glass I used to drink from.

Once it’s empty, I set it down by the sink.

“I’m just a hologram made by Mason Burke.”

“Ha.” She puts her hands on her hips in a familiar pose. “And here I thought my brother had turned into a saint and only uses technology to save lives now.”

“Well, his sister only gets married once.” I lean on the counter. “At least, the first time once.”

Giselle walks over to me and punches me playfully in the side of my stomach.

“Ow,” I complain.

She might be playing, but her knuckles are still hard.

“Yes, ow.” She rubs them. “Hologram my ass. That was a solid six-pack.”

“This hologram works out.” I lift the hem of my shirt to give her a glimpse of what’s underneath. “Genius, right?”

She snorts. “Showoff.”

“What? Not happy with the hologram? Because I can just type in a code and disappear.”

“Don’t.” My sister puts her arms around me. “I’m glad you’re here. Thank you for coming.”

The first warm words I’ve heard since I arrived make me smile. I guess it isn’t so bad to be here.

I pat her back. “Of course I’m here. Like you said, I’m a saint.”

“No.” She shakes her head as she looks up at me. “Just my badass big brother who’s going to hack the church’s computer and put up hilarious cat pictures on the projector if I start to cry.”

My eyebrows crease. “Yeah, that sounds really badass.”

She laughs and rests her head against my chest. I place my hand on her shoulder. I don’t know when or how it happened, but my not-adorable little sister turned out to be just fine.

“I can’t believe you’re getting married,” I tell her. “Wasn’t it just yesterday that you were crying because you couldn’t find the exact shade of pink nail polish that you wanted?”

“Shut up,” she scolds me as she pulls away. “I’m not a little girl anymore.”

No, she’s not. Her pigtails and braids are gone. Her braces and pimples, both of which she hated, are now gone, too. She still has some of that baby fat – it’s never completely gone away – but I wouldn’t call her chubby anymore. Curvy, maybe.

“To be fair, I can’t believe I’m getting married, either,” Giselle says as she hoists herself up on a stool. “I mean, here I am, fresh from medical school. I stayed up so many nights to memorize books about every organ in the body, every disease. I cut up cadavers. I walked around with a real human skull. And now, here I am, about to just forget about all that, get married and start a family.”

I look at her stomach. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“No!” she answers emphatically with hands in the air. “No, I’m not.”

My eyebrows furrow. “But you just said ‘start a family’?”

“Isn’t that what married couples do? Bill’s older than me, so he’s particularly eager on that aspect. He wants at least four kids, so yeah, I’d better get started soon.”

“And is that what you want, too?” I ask her.

Because it’s starting to sound like she doesn’t want to get married, like she’s just doing this for Bill.

“Well, I don’t want four kids,” Giselle admits. “I’d like three at most. Odd number so, you know, there’s always a deciding vote. But yeah…” She taps her fingers on the counter. “I do want kids. I do want a family.”

“And Bill?”

“Of course, I want Bill, too,” she answers with a chuckle. “I love Bill. He’s kind. He’s sweet. He helped me stay sane through medical school.”

“And now you feel like you owe him a big favor so you’re going to marry him?”

“No,” Giselle answers. “I love him. I’m marrying him because I want to.”

I cross my arms over my chest and narrow my eyes at her. “Really?”