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“Bye, bye, girls!” I say in a baby voice, blowing Kitty and our new kitten, Kandi, a kiss.
Meow, they say in unison.
My husband rolls his eyes. “We’re going to be late for our own party,” he says, manhandling me into the BMW.
Lincoln zooms down the street, and I try to catch my breath. I’m wearing a red dress with red heels, and I hope it doesn’t get wrinkled in this tiny-ass car.
My phone buzzes and I read the text message. I throw the phone back into my purse. “Crap on a cracker.”
“What?” Linc asks, putting his blinker on before stopping at a red light.
I look at him, the red light reflecting on his face against the dark night sky. “The dishwasher and the garbage disposal both took a shit at the townhouse.”
“So what?”
“What do you mean, so what? That’s gonna cost hundreds.”
He rolls his eyes. “Tell the property management to send me the bill. It’s a tax write-off for rentals. Easy.”
“Okay…” I say.
I hope to one day get in the mindset that I don’t need to fret over money. One day it’ll sink in, I guess. Still, I have this weird feeling that the townhouse is solely my obligation. That being said, even if it was, I could easily afford it on my salary alone.
Adjusting to the job was hard at first. All the travel around the state had wore me out, but I got into a nice little routine, visiting the pubs and attending meetings when it fit my schedule. I quickly caught on to the computer stuff and was relieved when Roman found us a new computer system that would allow the restaurant managers to order direct. I just had to monitor the orders once a month to make sure they weren’t over-ordering or having to throw out excess expired food or drinks.
Honestly, I was worried about working with someone I was living with. I hoped we wouldn’t get sick of each other, but that hasn’t happened so far. In fact, on more occasions than I’d like to admit, we’d had sex in each other’s offices—and truthfully? It made my day so much better. We tried not to make a habit of it, but dammit, that man is too irresistible. I can’t stop touching him. Though, we’ve been better lately about waiting until we get home to play in our playroom. I’ve discovered so many fun things I never knew could be such a turn-on. I never knew sex could be fun, and bring people so much closer.
As a Christmas present, he paid his lawyer to seal my criminal record. I wasn’t eligible for a pardon by the governor, so this was the next best thing we could do. Not that I ever needed to worry about background checks for anything anymore, but it was nice to put that part of my life behind me once and for all.
We pull up to my old place of employment, Silver Park Brewery. Lincoln helps me out of the car, and I teeter on high heels into the restaurant. The icy January wind blows and I’m grateful it hadn’t snowed today.
Lincoln takes off his suit jacket and wraps it around me. “Why don’t you ever bring a jacket? Or at least a sweater?” he asks.
“You know I hate jackets,” I say. “Besides, we’ll be indoors all night.”
“Just because you hate them doesn’t mean they’re not a necessity, woman.”
“When we go to Gulf Shores next month, I will languish in all my jacketless and sockless glory for one full week. Fuck this cold.”
He chuckles at my rare use of profanity, and we head inside, where our family waits for us.
“They’re here!” Anne says, rushing over to us with Sheila hot on her heels.
We take turns hugging them. “I can’t believe y’all eloped,” Sheila says, shaking her head. “I’d have killed Roman if he’d had done that.”
I chuckle. “Sorry, Aunt Sheila, we wanted something small and private.”
Since Lincoln had zero interest in a big, fancy production of a wedding, and I already had been there and done that with my ex, eloping made sense. And yes, I’ve taken to calling them Aunt Sheila and Uncle Mike. I’m part of the family now, so why not?
On New Year’s Day, we took an impromptu flight to Gulf Shores, where we’d had a private ceremony on the beach with just us and my family. My sister took amazing photos and then we jetted off to the Bahamas for seven nights of fun, food, and sex. Now, we are getting to celebrate with his family and our friends.
“Well, you look beautiful,” my new mother-in-law says. “Red is definitely your color.”
“Thanks, Anne, you look lovely yourself.”
She looks down at her black and white dress and smiles. “Thank you, daughter-in-love.”
My eyes immediately well up. “Oh, my gosh. I love that so hard. Mother-in-love.”
