Page 102 of Winning Bid

Why is hearing him call me wife so hot?

Our drinks arrive, and sipping my martini while looking out on the harbor makes me take stock of the day. It’s not the wedding I pictured. He’s not the husband I imagined. Nothing is what I thought I’d get.

It’s so much better.

Even though I’d never dreamed about my wedding day as a girl, I wondered about what kind of man I’d end up with. Married or not. Given my own father and his abusive relationship with my mom, I didn’t understand how a relationship could be a good thing. All the women on TV were pretty and married to slobs. They weren’t abusive unless they were on one of the expensive channels, but for the most part, no one on TV sold me on the idea of a husband.

Boyfriends were always cute, though. I was pretty sold on the idea of boyfriends forever.

But Anderson did a good job of changing my mind about that. It is startling to even think about, and for the moment, it is all I can think about. “We’re married.”

“Is that what all the hubbub at the courthouse was about?”

I roll my eyes. “I’m just saying it’s … well, for now, it’s surreal.”

“How so?”

I laugh, still trying to figure out the words for it. “Married. Me. Who’d have thought it?”

“Me. Every moment of every day that we weren’t married.”

“Seriously?”

“June, I meant what I said.” He toys with the rings on my finger before he speaks again. I love my wedding set. I keep toying with it, too. It feels like pieces of my hand that I’ve been missing until now. He declares, “You are my everything. I have waited a very long time for this day.”

I sigh, smiling at him. “If you keep looking at me like that, you’re going to get me pregnant with just your eyes.”

He laughs. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”

“Or, we could be naughty and go into the bathroom here?—"

“June, Anderson,” Kitty says out of nowhere as she comes to our table. Elliot is next to her, and my libido takes a nosedive into hell. “How good to see you!” She hugs each of us in turn while Elliot gives his version of a warm glance.

Out of instinct, I subtly drop my left hand beneath the table. Telling his parents about our wedding is not something I want to cover right now.

Anderson’s face tightens the way it does when he’s stressed out. “Mom, I didn’t know you and Dad were coming to dinner here tonight.” Every word in that sentence rings with the tone of, “For fuck’s sake, we have to start checking these things because I did not want to see them today.”

Kitty motions to the server. “Put our tables together. I wish to dine with my son.”

The server’s face is a perfect mask of decorum, but I have a feeling we’re getting some sympathy from him. “Right away, ma’am.” Within seconds, our tables are cozied up to each other, and we have the world’s most unwelcome dinner guests.

Not that I don’t adore Kitty. I do. But dining with Elliot on my wedding day? Kill me now. But at least they don’t know about today. We can have an uncomfortable dinner and let that be that. We can keep our wedding day private if I can secretly pull my rings off under the table.

But Anderson’s is in full view. Shit. I casually glance down at his hand, trying to signal to him to hide it or something. When that doesn’t work, I take that hand in mine as if I just need to touch him. I smile brightly at Elliot. “What a strange coincidence?—"

“Not that strange,” he says haughtily. “Copeland’s has the best martini in Boston.”

I smile and raise mine to him. “As I’ve recently discovered.”

The look he gives me stops my heart. It’s vaguely approval-like. They order theirs, and we get another round, and before I know it, things are less uncomfortable.

Kitty notes, with her eyes on our joined hands, “You two remind me of Elliot and me when we were young. Couldn’t keep our hands off each other, either.”

I laugh a little too hard at that. It’s impossible to think of Elliot being affectionate that way. “I’m sure there are times that are like that now, too.”

Anderson brings my knuckles to his lips to brush them with a kiss and stares into my eyes when he says, “We are a little more amorous today than usual, on account of we just got married.”

He just had to go and bring that up.

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