Page 35 of Marrying My Moth Lady

“Don’t worry, Mills. I got you,” Matthew says as he dives into the driver’s seat.

Matthew starts the truck with a roar. The door slams shut on my response. The cab fills with sobs as we drive away. A mob of reporters, cameras, and people swallow Horus. He walkedinto the belly of the beast to keep my secret, but where does that leave us? He told me to go back to my old life. How can I forget him? Not a wave or a kiss goodbye, and my chance at love is gone…and my heart breaks.

Chapter 16

Millie May

“Millie Mills, your husband is here! Millie! Come on, Millie, you can’t be mad! I bet you are, but I can explain!” My husband yells from the ground below after silence for days.

The first three days of our marriage went by without a visit, phone call, or text message. He cut me loose before I took off my gown. Sure, we never promised each other forever, but I can’t help but feel as ditched as a beer can on the side of the road. When will I admit I’m worth more than he can give me? He’s the first man I’d ever laid eyes on…of course, I fell for his seduction. I knew on day one he had a one-night stand with Amber, and I arrogantly thought his time with me was different. Yes, he saved my home…for the price of my heart.

“Go away!” I lean over my nest’s edge to tell him off. Where’s a shoe to throw at his face? “Unpin my home from your GPS. Move on! Forget about me!”

“I can’t do that,” he yells. Is he waving a toilet seat? He drops three matching suitcases on the ground. One bounces off his dress shoe and leaves a scuff against his tuxedo pants. “I’m a selfish bastard, Millie. I can’t let you go. It’s the right thing to do, but I’m fucked in the head.”

“Language!”

“I tried to let you go. In my head, I planned our lives to the number of kids we’d have. I never talked to you about any of it—just assumed you would be grateful for more social opportunities. Trapping you into a relationship to save your home is wrong. I deleted your number from my phone to resist calling you. I tortured myself.”

“Deleted number explains why you didn’t text me. Not even an emoji to let me know Eli didn’t murder you for robbing him!”

“I didn’t rob him because I gave the money to Amber. The proof was the deposit I paid her from my 401k before the wedding. Eli calmed down after I paid her the difference. The transfer went through this morning. That’s one of the things I had to do before returning to love you…when I was trying not to love you anymore.” He rakes his fingers through his hair. The golden fringe falls back to where it was on his forehead. He blinks several times as the locks bounce on his glasses.

“Really? What else did you do when you were trying not to love me?” I yell with half the venom I spewed a minute ago.

“I fired the demolition crew, applied for this part of the forest to be registered as a national landmark, and moved out of my office at Carter Mining. Amber and Eli wished us well. She’s joining Rash’s MC in Kentucky—a real biker babe. Eli’s buying a ranch to be closer to them. Can you imagine him on a hog?”

“Neither pig nor bike,” I say with a giggle. Wait! My cold veneer shatters. He doesn’t deserve a giggle!

“I stole the toilet seat from my apartment to replace your cracked one. Broke the lease and turned in my keys, too. I’m homeless if you don’t want me. I’ll have to drive to my parents’house and explain how I can’t bring you over for dinner because you don’t want my sorry ass.”

“Language times two! Why would you do that? If this land is a national monument, I’ll have to move, idiot.” He made dinner plans with his parents to meet me? They fought to get us out of our wedding from hell, but in our time apart, I realized that might be to keep their son from jail. To be a part of a family again is more than I ever hoped…not that I can get my hopes up over this man’s lip service.

“It will take months—not meeting my folks—the forest registry,” he says, leaning against a tree and almost falling over. “Oh yeah, I want you to move.”

My dander stands on end. How dare he!

“My fraternity brother is an architect and offered us a sweet deal as newlyweds. If you list what you want in a home, he will design one. We can build in our part of the forest by the conservation center. I can’t give you a palace, but I can build you a small home with all the modern conveniences you want—appliances, shoe closet, indoor plumbing—” He ends his declaration with a triumphant wave of his toilet seat.

“Love?”

“Oh yeah, we’ll make love all the time. Every surface.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“What else could you mean? Of course, I love you, silly goose,” he says with a laugh and a snort that throws him into a fit of hysterics. “Don’t you know? I love you. You look surprised. I lo-o-ove you, Millie. I love Millie Mills—My Mills Mills—My Mills Squared!” His declarations get louder with each iteration until he’s frightened the birds away…the bugs too. He drops toone knee with a splash when he hits a puddle. When he flings his arms wide, his toilet seat goes sailing into the trees.

“I’ll live under your treehouse until you take me back. I have ideas to help you make your dreams come true. Can you love me as a wife loves her husband?”

Is a marriage to Horus what I want? When I don’t answer, his head hangs in defeat. It seems as if I’m doomed to a life of extremes. Either every day will be the same, regular as clockwork, with no human contact except my grumpy brother, or I’ll ride the rollercoaster that is life with Horus. As much as he gripes about people and their drama, he’s surrounded by them.

How could they not?

With his sky-high standards, I can’t help but glow beneath his praise. He holds everyone at arm’s length, so I’m honored to be invited into his embrace. How could someone so educated find lil’ol’me interesting? I’d doubt his sincerity if he didn’t hang on my every word. Without the promise of Carter’s money, he kneels in a mud puddle at my feet. The man who looks down his nose at everyone else, bows his head for me.

“You need to work on your communication skills,” I say as I flutter to ground level. “No husband of mine will give me the silent treatment on the regular, hear me?”

“Just communication? I need a lady to domesticate me,” he whispers, taking my offered hand.

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