Lucky wags her tail.
Lila’s phone buzzes. She checks it and smiles.
“That’s it,” she says. “Final transaction went through. Took me less than an hour to spend five million dollars. That’s gotta be some kind of record, right?”
I tuck a strand of pink hair behind her ear. “How are you feeling about it? Giving away your five million dollar birthday present?”
“Satisfied,” she answers immediately. “I like knowing that money’s going to work, going to do some good. The Marble Falls Animal Shelter is going to have a new heater at least, finally.”
“Their online donation platform needs work,” I tellher. “The interface is slow and clunky. Maybe my buddy Kyle can redo it for them.”
She goes still. “How do you know what their online donation platform is like?”
Ah, shit. I was hoping to never have to admit this. “I made a donation,” I say gruffly.
“For how much?”
My lips twitch. “Hasn’t anyone told you it’s rude to ask someone how money they donated to a cause, sweetheart?”
“Not when that someone is your husband.” She pokes my bare chest. “Slade. How much?”
“Ten thousand,” I grumble.
I know the jig is up immediately as her eyes widen.
“It was you,” she says. “You placed the remote bid on a date with me.”
“I wanted to give money to the shelter and I didn’t like the thought of you being forced to go out with some random guy.” More like the thought of her on a date with another man made me jealous as hell, but I don’t admit that. “It was a win-win, in any case.”
“Youcould have been the random guy I went out with, you dork. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“It felt weird to pay for a date with you.”
“But proposing a fake marriage is different?” she teases.
“I did that because I care about you. Not because I want anything from you. Other than your happiness.”
Her gaze softens. “You’re a very chivalrous man.”
She wouldn’t be thinking that if she knew what went through my head every time I take my dick in my hand. If she knew the things I’ve imagined doing to her all these weeks we’ve been married. I think about my wife’s tits and ass way too much to ever be in the same universe as chivalrous.
But I’ll let her have her high opinion of me in this case, because admitting the truth is not an option.
After loading Lucky into the rear seat of my truck, we’re off to Marble Falls’s Halloween parade. Main Street is decked out for the occasion, strung with orange and purple twinkle lights, planters overflowing with orange mums, storefronts lined with cinnamon broomsticks. The storefronts are decked in ghosts and bats and the whole town smells like caramel apple. Half the population is in costume. The other half is handing out candy from lawn chairs on the sidewalk, drinking “grown up drinks,” as Jonah calls them, while they do it.
Jonah is riding in the parade on one of the ranch horses beside my dad. Dad is Captain America and Jonah is Spiderman. He spots us in the crowd and his whole face lights up.
“Uncle Slade! Auntie Lila!” He waves both arms, nearly losing the mask he’s pushed up around his forehead. “You’re Ken and Barbie!”
My dad tips his round costume shield at us from horseback, eyes crinkling. Lila presses both hands to her cheeks and laughs.
I never had strong feelings about Halloween one way or another. I do now, because Lila has them, and watching her pleasure and enthusiasm as she pours herself into a project is something I can’t get enough of.
She decked out our whole house for the holiday, inside and out. Jonah just about lost his mind when he saw the twelve foot skeleton in the front yard. One afternoon, Lila enlisted Jonah’s creative input on where to put the fake spiderwebs and paper bats and the two of them had a blast decorating the place and eating their weight in candy corn Rice Krispie treats.
She’ll be such a good mom.
The thought arrives with a vividness that stops me in my tracks. We haven’t talked about kids—why would we, when thismarriage has an expiration date?—and I never thought I wanted them, just like I convinced myself I never wanted to be married. Too much emotional risk.
