Page 25 of First Comes Marriage

Ethan glanced at Baz in the rear-view mirror. “I assume because newlyweds typically want to live together, and not with their elderly aunts.”

“I’ll kill him,” Baz said, already firing off an incredulous text to Gavin.

“What was Gav supposed to do? Say no to Mrs. White?” Ethan scoffed. “Besides, you twoarenewlyweds, right?”

“That’s no one’s business but ours,” Baz grated out.

Ethan laughed. “Hate to break it to you, man, but when you put shit like that on the internet, it’s everyone’s business. Especially in Aster Bay. You should know that.”

The hell of it was, Bazdidknow. He knew better than anyone that keeping secrets in Aster Bay was futile. When he was seventeen, he’d skipped a shift washing dishes at the diner to take Cindy Parker on a date. Before he’d even gotten the chance to put his arm around her in the movie theater, half the town knew where he was. By morning he didn’t have a job at the diner anymore. And Cindy hadn’t posted a blow by blow of their evening online like Sabrina had.

Ethan caught Baz’s eye again in the mirror, the laughter fading away. “You should call your mom.”

Fuck.He hadn’t even thought about that conversation yet.

Baz nodded. “Let’s stop there first.”

Chapter Nine

Charlotte Graham lived in the same two-bedroom Cape a block away from the industrial park that she’d lived in all of Baz’s life. Despite Baz’s repeated offer to buy her something nicer, something bigger, something in a better part of town, his mother adamantly refused. “This house is my home,” she’d say. “I don’t need anything fancy.”

What she never understood was that she might not have needed it, butheneeded her to have it, to know he’d made her life better, that he’d provided the security and ease his father never did. But Charlotte Graham didn’t care all that much for ease, as evidenced by the fact she continued to work as a hair stylist, completely ignoring Baz’s repeated pleas to let him help her retire.

Ethan’s truck pulled into the driveway along the side of Baz’s mother’s house and Baz made a mental note to send the landscaper by to trim the hedges. His mother might not have let him truly take care of her the way he wanted to, but she at least allowed him the small gesture of hiring a landscaper to look after the lawn and flower garden at the front of the house. She’d fought him at first, but all it took was one slip and fall on the icy front walk for her to relent and accept the help.

“Should I—I mean, do you want me to—I’d be happy tocome in and—” Sabrina stumbled through the words.

Baz shook his head sharply as he hopped out of the truck. “You go talk to your aunt.”

She glanced uneasily at Ethan, before climbing out after Baz. She gripped his forearm so he couldn’t walk away, lowering her voice to keep Ethan from hearing. “What are you going to tell your mom?”

“What do you want me to tell her?”

Her lips parted as though she would speak, but no sound came out. She blinked rapidly a few times, each flutter of her eyelashes winding some hidden coil in his chest, tighter and tighter with each moment she hesitated. “You should tell her the truth.”

“What truth is that?” He stepped closer and dropped his voice low. “Should I tell her that I know the way you press against me when I kiss you, or how it feels to wake up with you in my arms?” He wasn’t sure if the blush rising beneath the smattering of freckles across her cheekbones was a victory or another temptation. “Or that we got drunk in a bar in Vegas and lost our fucking minds? That this whole thing was a way to get back at your sister? Which truth are we telling today, Sabrina?”

He hated the flash of hurt in her eyes, but it was necessary. If he was going to survive this marriage—however brief it may be—he needed to remember that it was all a stupid mistake. Sabrina didn’t want him, just like her sister hadn’t wanted him. And the fact she made his dick hard didn’t mean he wanted her either. Biology wasn’t enough to build a marriage on.

He scraped his hand over his jaw. “I’ll come get you when I’m done here and help you bring your things back to your aunt’s.”

He strode away from her, towards his mother’s house. He didn’t want to see any more of Sabrina’s reactions. If she was upset that he was planning to send her home to her aunt, he didn’t want to know. And, quite frankly, if she wasn’t upset, he didn’t want to know that either.

“Oh, good, you’re home!”

They turned to see Sabrina’s aunt and Baz’s mother standing arm in arm on the front step.

Baz tilted his chin at Ethan, who waved his goodbye and got the hell out of dodge.Lucky bastard.

When Baz reached the front step, Sabrina right behind him, his mother pulled him down into a hug, hands pressed to his cheeks like she used to do when he was a boy. She practically bounced on the balls of her feet when she asked, “Did you just get back?”

Fuck. She already knows.

“You know?” he asked.

“Maybe, but tell us anyway.”

Christ, her smile was wide enough to look like it must hurt.

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