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“Marry…” I say, swallowing. “I’m getting married?”
“Like I said, it’s all legal. Virtual weddings, they do them now and I spoke to the officiant earlier.”
“But I’m getting married? Right now?”
He nods. “You can have whatever kind of wedding you want with whoever you want. But, that’s the celebration, it can come after. I don’t want you pregnant and not married to me. You’re mine now, I need that to be true in every way. You’re my soulmate. I know it. I’ve had happily ever after going on in my head since I saw you that first night. Be my wife, baby, I love you now and always and forever. We’re going to make it official and fuck. Then,thenwe will celebrate.”
He uses his finger to sign his spot on the electronic form, then waits for me as the woman in the background shuffles something, breathing quietly.
If you are happy, I am happy. I’m with you always, Marin.
It’s like a whisper on a breeze that flutters into my ear. It’s my mother’s voice. I know it as well as I know anything and as Davis holds his breath, brushing the backs of his fingers across the tear on his cheek I nod and swipe my signature on the phone.
“Yas!” Davis’s arm wraps around me, pulling me up next to him as he holds the phone at arm’s length. “Okay, let’s do this.”
And just like that, I’m Mountain Marin, married to her mountain man.
chaptertwelve
Marin
My tears arewet on my cheeks as I hug myself, remembering Stevie screaming.
How did I end up right back in this God-damn truck?
One minute I was watching the sun glint on the beaded sweat across Davis’s abs and the polished blade of his ax, listening to the logs split and thinking of how he would want a shower when he came back inside and I was going to join him. It’s been close to a week of heaven and now this?
This?
Only, ten seconds after he hopped on the tractor and drove into the woods to pull out another felled tree, the front door flung open and an iron grip circled my upper arm, my feet shuffling on the wood floor as I was dragged out the front door.
Grandpa must have been watching to be sure Davis was out of earshot
He shoved me in through the driver’s side of the truck, never releasing his grip as his fingertips dug into the sensitive flesh on the inside of my arm, bellowing about how the devil was strong in me and how he’d find a way to beat him out of me.
“How did you find me?” I hiss, more angry than afraid. “How did you even know to come to that house?”
“I know things you do not.”
I smooth my dress as much as I can. I can’t wrap my mind around what’s happening. I can still feel Davis inside me, his cum wetting my thighs as the Jesus gang leers at me from the dashboard.
The preacher on the radio raises his voice. “In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders!”
“A-fucking-men!” Grandpa glares at me.
Thump-thump-thumpon the steering wheel,and more bellowing, this time scripture from Deuteronomy. And that’s how I know he’s pissed. Really pissed.
Deuteronomy is the big guns.
I thought I was free of it. At least until Spring. A respite at least. Stupid, naïve me. All this time in the love haze had me thinking maybe, just maybe…
“All of you! Clothe yourselves withhumilitytoward one another! BecauseGodopposes the proud! He shows favor to the humble!”
Grandpa thumps the steering wheel. “Hallelujah! Where’s your humility, Marin? Where’s your respect for your elders?”
The preacher starts again. And I reach calmly forward and turn the radio off.
“Respect goes both ways,” I say, sitting up straight and shaking my arm loose from his prying grip. “Didn’t anybody ever teach you that?”
