Page 58 of Finding Basil
“How’s my future husband?”
“Not too far in the future,” he scolded as he sat next to him without a kiss or anything.
“Kiss me, you fool.”
“Oh, shit, sorry,” he said, laughing before he leaned over and gave Herb a peck on the lips.
“Wow, not even married yet, and the romance is gone,” he whined, teasing.
“Oh, stop, I’ve been with my mother, aunts, and grandmother this morning, not to mention Lila. She insisted she has the perfect venue for the wedding. She’s coming over here today to show us.”
“The wedding. Well, it’ll need to be big enough for your family. I’ve got ten coming on my side. It’s pretty pitiful.”
“I thought you were inviting your old work buddies.”
“I did. That’s eight.”
“Two people in your family are coming? Two?”
“I told you, I have a small family, and we’re not really close with any of them. I have two uncles, one on each side, and I have a cousin in the marines, a general or something.”
Basil was staring, just in awe. “You have more family, but they wouldn’t come?”
“I mean, I don’t know if they’d come.”
Basil nodded and said, “We’ll ask them. I’ll send them a special invitation. If they don’t accept, part of the honeymoon will be flying around to their cities and egging their cars.”
Herb laughed heartily. “You’d do that.”
“Of course! I’m always going to go ham for my partner.”
Partner. Lover. Friend. Husband. They were, very soon, going to have all the titles and more. Herb grabbed his hand and whispered, “I almost can’t believe it’s happening.”
“Since you’ve been bugging me since the wreck to never leave your side, it was the only way to get some space.”
He was grinning playfully, but Herb still asked, “How does that mean you’ll get space?”
“You know, married people get all complacent and then they take separate vacations and generally just get bored with each other.”
“If you ever thought of planning a separate vacation, you’d get your butt whipped.”
“So now the kink comes out. I was hoping you weren’t just saving that for a year or two down the line to spice up our routine.”
“I’ll spank you at the reception in front of your family.”
Basil’s eyes shone as he whispered, “I can’t wait.”
“For the spanking?”
“For the wedding. It kills me that we can’t live together.”
“Roman Catholic rules, baby. Besides, it gives us even more to look forward to.”
Basil got himself a cup of coffee and brought it out so they could sit and enjoy the morning together. The breeze was almost cold, but they barely felt it, and Herb had him in his arms, and their silence was a mutual comfort that they already enjoyed.
The scent of the herbs were thick, and the lavender, which was all the way across from them, even brought it’s dusty, soft scent into the mix.
Basil had taken over but didn’t leave him behind. He was taught every step of how to grow the plants from seed to harvest. The intricacies of getting good yields, the joy of watching each little plant grow.
