Piece of My Heart (Fostering Love 4)

“Yes,” I murmured against his back. The skin was smooth under my lips, and I kissed him there once, then twice. Yeah, I was enjoying married life very much.

“We need to call our families today,” Alex said, stretching his arms above his head. “Waiting a few days so we could get settled in is one thing, but waiting any longer makes it look like we were hiding it, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” I replied, my voice coming out like a croak. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“Let’s do breakfast first, though,” he said, kissing me quickly before he hopped out of bed. “I’m starving.”

I watched his bare ass leave the room, then fell back against the pillows and stared at the ceiling. It was judgment day, the day I’d spent all week trying to ignore.

I forced myself out of bed and took a shower, barely noticing my surroundings as I rehearsed exactly how I was going to break the news to my family. No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t imagine our conversation ending in anything but tears. I hoped, though, that Aunt Adinah would at least let me try to explain before she completely lost her composure.

“You hungry?” Alex asked, standing in front of the stove in nothing but a pair of sweatpants. “I’ll make you an omelet.”

The idea of food made my stomach roll, and I shook my head. “No thanks.” I’d been dealing with a nervous stomach all week, and this morning was no different.

“I wonder if you caught a bug on the plane or something,” Alex said, leaving the stove to come over and rest his palm against my forehead. “You don’t have a fever.”

“I’m okay,” I said, leaning against his chest.

For all my anxiety and worry, I didn’t regret getting married the way we had. I’d never imagined how comforting it would be to have a husband. It was as if the moment we’d signed our names on the paperwork, I’d suddenly had a person who would always be in my corner. It was a heady feeling, knowing that he wasn’t going anywhere, that this relationship was permanent no matter what. I was glad that we’d gotten to that point without all the unnecessary stress of a big wedding.

“Let’s call my parents first,” Alex said, still holding me in the middle of the kitchen. “Then we can call your aunt and uncle.”

I nodded and went to sit on the couch while he grabbed his phone. As soon as he’d dropped down beside me and pulled my legs over his lap, his fingers were moving across the screen.

“Hey, Ma,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me. “Yeah, I’m good. Is Dad with you?” He paused. “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you both at the same time.” He waited again, and then his face broke out in a smile as he put her on speaker.

“You got married, didn’t you!” Liz was saying, her voice loud and excited. “Dan! Get in here. Alex got married!”

“What?” we heard in the background.

“Mom,” Alex called, laughing. “What if that wasn’t what I was going to tell you?”

“Yes it is,” she said, like she had him all figured out. “Isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he replied, locking eyes with me.

“I knew it! He got married,” she said to Dan, whom we could hear asking “What the hell is going on?” in the background.

“Congratulations,” Dan said, his voice suddenly clear. “And you’re in deep shit.”

Alex laughed again. “We decided to elope,” he explained, relaxing into the couch. “We didn’t want to make it a big thing, especially since our family is all over the place.”

Well, that was as good of an excuse as any. At least he hadn’t told them that I was the one who’d wanted to do it right away.

“Still,” Dan said, his voice happy but serious. “You know your mom lives for that stuff.”

“We can have a big party next time we’re home,” Alex promised.

“I’ll rent the grange,” Liz said. “And we’ll invite everyone to a reception. If that’s something Sarai would like?”

“That sounds good,” I replied, relief making me almost giddy.

“I can’t believe you two,” Liz said, exasperation in her voice. “You know your dad and I would have come.”

“I know,” Alex said. “But then we would’ve had to invite everyone—”

“And it would’ve turned your little wedding into a huge production.” Liz finished his sentence with a sigh.

The next half an hour was filled with more phone calls and more congratulations from the rest of Alex’s family. Ani complained that Bram had known and she hadn’t, Trevor had laughed and given his congratulations without reservation, and Alex’s sister, Kate, had cried because she hadn’t even met me yet. They were all happy for us, though. Not a single person held back as they told us how happy they were, how I fit right in with the family, and how they didn’t know how Alex had managed to get me to marry him.