Page 43 of Hire A Cuddler

“But you don’t know what it is.”

He shrugs. “Fine. Tell me what it is.”

I bite my lip because I’ve been nervous about this since I talked to Cassie earlier today and she came up with the idea. I should have just told her no, but I felt so bad for not telling her about the wedding. “So you know my friend, Cassie?”

He thinks about it and then nods. “Yes. Best friend. Her husband is a police officer. Her brother-in-law is Walker.”

“Right. Yeah, right that’s her. Anyway, well, it’s just that…”

He sits up in the bed, scooting up so his back is against the headboard. “Just tell me, peaches.”

I blow out a breath. “Fine. I felt bad for not inviting her—heck I didn’t even tell her about the wedding, and when she came to see me today, I felt so bad. She said we should do a party to sort of celebrate our marriage since no one got to celebrate the day with us. I know it’s crazy-”

He cuts me off. “I think it’s a great idea.”

Shocked, I’m already thinking of all the reasonsit’s a bad idea. “But I mean, that’s crazy, right? I could probably just not say anything about it and hope she forgets it.”

He pushes my hair off my shoulder and leans over so he can see my face. “Do you not want a party?”

I shrug. “I mean, it could be fun. I know I said I wanted a small wedding, but it feels weird. It’s like we were trying to hide it or something. You know the town gossip is running wild, and everyone’s trying to figure out how we got married and why it was all hush-hush.”

“Who’s talking? Tell me who it is and I’ll set them straight. Fuck that, I’ll put a full page ad—no, I’ll buy every ad space in the paper and let them all know we got married.”

I shake my head and laugh. “Stop. That’s a little overboard, even for you. I’m just saying it would be nice to have a party, that’s all.”

He nods. “We’ll do it then. Do you want to hire a party planner?”

“Cassie is on summer break, and she wants to plan it.”

He nods. “I’ll leave you my card in the morning. Spare no expense.”

“But—”

He puts his hand on my shoulder. “Haven, honey, I have felt guilty on how I rushed you into the wedding. I want to do this, and I wish I’d thought of it. Let’s do it right. Food, dancing, cake, decorations… all of it.”

“But… are you sure?”

He cups my chin in his hand and searches my eyes. “I’m positive.”

“Okay.”

We look into each other’s eyes, and just when I’m sure he’s about to kiss me, he releases me, goes to his side of the bed, and lies down.

I reluctantly reach over and turn the light back off before lying down. I toss and turn a few minutes and sigh loudly in the room.

“Are you okay?”

I stare up at the ceiling. “Yeah.”

The bed dips, and I know he’s turning toward me, but he doesn’t touch me, and I sigh again. Even though we can’t see each other, I clench my eyes shut and ask him, “Have you changed your mind?”

“About the party?”

I’m messing this up so badly. “No, about me.”

He almost sounds angry. “Why would you ask that?”

“I don’t know. This morning we, ya know, andthen this evening you haven’t touched me, and now even though you’re right next to me, you might as well be a hundred miles away.”

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