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“Isabelle, I love you,” he said so tenderly, while cupping my face with his hands. “You are incredible. Thank you for thinking of my children. We will keep this between us for now.”
“Okay.” I kissed him. “I should probably go,” I sighed, hating the thought of leaving. “It’s late.”
“Please stay. Let me hold you in the dark. I swear that’s all I’ll do.”
I believed him, and I appreciated that he didn’t want to rush into a full-on physical relationship. However ... “No kissing? How disappointing.” I tapped his nose.
He grabbed me and ravished my neck, making me giggle. “I would hate to disappoint you.”
“Then perhaps I will stay, but maybe I should take the Christmas lights off first.”
“Good idea.” He helped unravel me.
“By the way, my mother will mention during coffee tomorrow morning that I didn’t come home, so be ready for some very awkward questions that will probably include the topic of flavored condoms.” On top of the other uncomfortable ones about his dead wife. I didn’t mention those.
Patrick’s jaw dropped. “Ohh ... okay.”
“I did warn you that you might want to get to know my family better before you decide you want to make this a forever thing between us.”
“Isabelle.” He rested a hand on my cheek. “I knew ten seconds after I met you that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. A conversation with your mother about contraception will not change that.”
Oh, wow. “Well ... I suppose you better kiss me, then. Make it nice and slow.”
“That’s my favorite kind.” He leaned in and, let’s just say,oh, holy night.
“ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?”Patrick gripped my hand.
I looked at the brick courthouse, the largest building in Fair Hollow, standing regally and covered in a layer of snow. I couldn’t believe we were actually doing this. Sure, we weren’t getting married anytime soon, but that was the eventual plan, and this step made it seem so real.
“Of course she is.” Mom popped her head between us. She had insisted on coming to document us getting our marriage license. And to “rumble” with Dave, as she put it.
I’d tried to convince her not to come, but for the past several days she had been stuck to Patrick like glue. She loved him with a capitalL. At least that was her declaration on Instagram. Her prison sentence was unfortunately over. She and the hot grandmas had celebrated over a Zoom call the day before that included some day drinking and crocheting. I had a feeling there were going to be a lot of people out there getting some uneven blankets and scarves for Christmas.
I turned toward my mother. “Please don’t do anything that would get you arrested. As much as I loathe Dave, he’s not worth it.”
The dirtbag had almost run me off the road the day before, when I was going into town, to harass me about getting the marriage license. He was practically begging me to prove him right—that this was all for show, covering up the real wedding of the decade. Uh, when I got married, it was going to be the wedding of two decades. Not that I needed to one-up Charlotte, but I did wait a lot longer than she did to marry the man of my dreams. Regardless, Dave was freaking me out. Something in his eyes told me this was more than just scooping everyone else. It was like heneededCharlotte and Drake to get married. Drake and his lawyers were still looking into him but hadn’t found anything concrete yet.
“Oh, honey.” She patted my head. “I can’t afford to go to jail; I have to make your birthday cake in a few days.”
I supposed I should be touched that I was her motivation for avoiding arrest.
“Besides, Patrick will post bail for me, won’t you?” She pinched his stubbled cheek.
“Absolutely.” Patrick chuckled. This was why he was her favorite now.
I gave him a look that said,Please don’t encourage her.I was already afraid I was getting flavored condoms for my birthday because of their little chat the other day. Not that Patrick had divulged anything intimate. But Mom had mentioned she was making me a little care package for the honeymoon. There was no convincing her we weren’t getting married right now. And besides, how intimate could we possibly be these days? We were constantly surrounded by family, and neither one of us had a bedroom at the moment. That wasn’t a complaint. Maybe it was even a good thing. It made our relationship more about emotional connections and sneaking in any moment we could get alone—which normally happened around the hour between eleven and midnight, after his kids went to sleep and before we conked out, exhausted.
Dating in your forties was an entirely different experience than in your twenties.
To make matters more interesting—and crowded—Patrick’s parents were arriving that evening. That’s right, his probably sane, and classy, parents were going to come face-to-face with Sexy Mimi.
“Shall we go, ladies?” Patrick was anxious.
“Yes!” Mom shouted, shoving her wide-brimmed hat on like she was going to walk a runway.
Patrick exited the car to open Mom’s door first, before he walked around to get mine.
Mom stepped out and kissed his cheek.
