Page 47 of My Husband Problem

I nod. “Yeah, I agree.” I think about my siblings. All of them are wildly crazy right now. Finally. I’ve been funding their lives for years and they’ve all been happy, but they haven’t beencrazyhappy until recently. They’ve found their true passions—an animal park, huge green energy innovations, family program initiatives—and they’ve fallen in love. With partners they share those passions with and with communities of people who help them make those things realities.

I’m also extremely grateful my grandfather sees that. And wants that for me and Astrid.

I just need to convince him that we can have that together.

Right after I convinceherof that.

“Do you think you know what your cats might be?” Patty asks.

Astrid.

That’s the first thing that comes to mind.

I haven’t been as passionate about anything as I am about her and her happiness.

But now that I’m here, in this town,inthis new life and world of hers, I’m getting a sense that there might be a new level here to all of it. She’s right here. Right in front of me. Right here in this town. I’ve been giving her space, time, whatever life she wants to have, because I needherto be happy.

But what if we canbothbe happy? Together. About the same things.

I look up at the gaudy yellow flower clock on the wall and smile. Not even twenty-four hours in, and my outlook is already more colorful.

“Yeah, I think I know exactly what my ‘cats’ are,” I say.

“Good,” she tells me with a pleased smile. “Then just find a way to becrazyabout it.”

Not a problem.

CHAPTER 11

ASTRID

I meetNora on the steps to City Hall. She’s got a coffee cup from Perks and Rec in hand and a huge I-just-said-goodbye-to-Alex glowy smile on her face.

I want to roll my eyes, but I can’t. I love that my brother is in love and proved that he’s intelligent and has amazing taste by falling for Nora. She’s amazing and, more, she’s amazing for my brother.

“Good morning!” The perky brunette beams at me. “How are you today?”

Uh-huh, she’s using that knowing tone that suggests she thinks I should be especially happy today because Declan showed up last night.

“Arranged marriage,” I remind her.

Nora knows even more details about just how unusual and unreasonable the whole thing is from Alex. He felt, rightly, that she should understand the eccentricities and history of the family she’s getting involved with.

“I know,” Nora says as she bounces up the steps to the front of the building. “But now he’s here, and the way he was looking at you last night? Whew!”

I trip on the top step, but she’s in front of me and doesn’t notice. How was Declan looking at me last night? And it was so obvious that other people noticed? What doesthatmean? It doesn’t matter anyway. But still… what does that mean?

Nora pulls the heavy wood and glass door open. “Doesn’t matter how it started. It only matters how it’s going, right?”

“Wrong,” I say, following her into the building. “That’s why I stopped by. I need to see what the event calendar is like this week and potentially… tweak it.”

“Tweak it?”She doesn’t act concerned by the suggestion, just curious.

Nora is the queen of adjusting on the fly. Being in charge of pretty much every social and community event in this town, she has to be. You never know what’s going to happen. Or how things are going to go off the rails.

She leads me to her office. It’s the first door on the first floor for multiple reasons. Primarily because she and a myriad of other people are in and out all day, often with paraphernalia ranging from beach balls to toolboxes to cooking grills. Being the first stop inside the building keeps the traffic and noise away from the other offices.

The Parks and Rec Department in Rebel also acts as a de facto welcoming committee and communication hub. If something is happening in this town, this office knows about it. That includes festivals and holiday events, of course, but also anniversaries, birthdays, hospitalizations, even people who are just having a hard time. They know when someone needs their garbage disposal fixed, when someone has extra zucchini in their garden, and when someone needs some zucchini for a recipe.