Fiance Next Door

“Maybe you should be the one getting unplugged,” I tell him.

“Sorry.” Leander starts to walk away after looking at the screen of his phone. “I’ve got to get this.”

And he does. He presses the phone to his ear and walks a few feet away.

I stand next to Aster. “Getting used to being Mrs. Burke? And by that, I mean Mrs. Mason Burke.”

“How can I forget?” she asks with a tinge of annoyance. “I signed my name next to yours, remember? But it’s Mrs. Higgins-Burke.”

I step even closer to her. “Well, well, well. I sure got myself a feisty wife. What am I going to do with her?”

I can think of a few things, actually. Wrap my arms around her and kiss her until she’s out of breath. Pull her onto my lap and run my hands all over her. Pin her against a wall. Bend her over the kitchen counter.

Just the thought that she’s mine, that I can do everything I want with her, makes it hard for me to breathe.

Aster’s eyes narrow. “Are you okay, Mason?”

I force air into my lungs. “Yeah.”

Easy, Mason. You’ll scare her.

She puts her hand on my chest. “You know, just so we’re clear – ”

I hold my finger to her lips. “Not now.”

I know we still have a lot to talk about, but now is not the time. Here is not the place.

“We’ll talk later,” I tell her. “When we’re alone.”

And maybe do more than talk.

“Hey.” Leander comes back. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“You’re leaving?” I hear the disappointment in Aster’s voice.

“Leaving town?” I ask.

Leander nods. “Yeah. I have to… do some stuff. Important stuff.”

Stuff? My eyebrows crease as I realize I don’t really know what Leander’s up to these days. We talked about a lot of things last night, but somehow that didn’t come up.

“You mean teach football to kids? Where exactly do you do that now?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Leander answers. “I travel from place to place. Third world countries, mostly. Remote areas. Usually places where there isn’t any cell reception.”

“Wow.” Aster gives him a look of admiration. “That’s… amazing.”

“Not as amazing as Mason waging a battle against cancer,” he says.

Thank you, Leander.

He pats my shoulder and Aster’s. “Now, you two take care of each other.”

Then he walks off.

“Why did he say he has to rush off again?” Aster asks as she watches him leave.

“Important stuff,” I answer.

She shakes her head. “I don’t understand. He just got here yesterday. And what kind of emergency would someone who teaches football have? Wouldn’t they understand that he needs to spend time with his family, too?”

Why does she sound upset? “I thought you admire what Leander does.”

“I do. I just… I don’t understand why he has to leave so soon and so suddenly.”

“Wow.” I exhale. “I can’t believe you miss him so much already.”

Aster pouts. “Like I said, he deserves to spend time with his family.”

“Which now includes you,” I remind her. “Isn’t that nice? You’ll now get a hug each time you see him. Maybe even a kiss on the cheek.”

Aster shakes her head. “I can’t believe I married you.”

“Too bad you can’t back out any longer,” I tell her. “Or would you like a divorce right now? After all, your father already got his wish, didn’t he?”

She snorts and turns on her heel.

“Where are you going?” I ask her.

“To find someone worth talking to,” she answers without glancing back. “If I stay, I might be the first newlywed wife to kill her husband.”

I chuckle. “Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen.”

She doesn’t answer, already a few feet away from me. I wipe the grin off my face. It’s not funny. I thought we’d get along better now that we’re married, but it seems like there’s going to be a bumpy ride up ahead. Bumpy? We got married on impulse. And the fact that I can’t resist the urge to tease her isn’t helping.

I draw a breath. Hopefully, we can smooth out some of those bumps later.

I glance around. I wonder how long all this wedding commotion will last.

~

It almost felt like it would never end, but finally, in the early evening, it did. Aster and I retreated to my old room. I suggested a hotel suite in Baltimore but Aster vetoed it, saying she wanted to be close to her dad, who didn’t want to leave the dogs alone. She even wanted to go back to her old room before she realized she had to share it with me and that there wasn’t enough space for us both. How considerate of her.

So here we are in the attic with its thick beams and cobwebs and the big bed that still smells the same as it used to. My mom and dad were the ones who opted to stay in a hotel, saying they wanted to spend more time with some friends who came from across the country, so we have the house all to ourselves.