Page 105 of Just (Fake) Married
“You don’t think it’s a bad idea?” I asked them both.
“Oh, for sure it’s a bad idea,” Amity laughed. “But, well, the C&C was always our rule about what really mattered. You can’t ignore those types of feelings because they don’t happen all the time.”
“What if it hurts when he leaves? What if he breaks my heart?”
“You’ll survive,” Amity sighed, with a sad smile. “We’re Calloways. It’s what we do.”
TWENTY-FIVE
ETHAN
Man,I’d forgotten the way snow fell in Last Hope Gulch, like it was the end of the world. The clouds went grey and the wind kicked up. Making the world outside the ranch turn white and opaque. I’d sent Mrs. Walker home early.
The cattle weren’t calving yet, so no one had to go out tonight. The bunk house would be full of everyone hunkered down for the storm. I imagined the drinking and card playing had already started
I stood at the window waiting for Harmony to pull her truck up safely. I wasn’t worried. She knew what she was doing in this kind of weather. But I wasn’t going to relax until I saw her.
My brother’s words rang in my head.
She was my best friend.
I didn’t have a lot of friends. I had my brothers and some colleagues back in Seattle. Tag, obviously, but he was just like a brother. Dr. Xio. And that was it.
Harmony was breaking new ground in my life and not just as a fake wife or a hot fuck.
She was a friend.
When the headlights of her old Ford truck sliced through the blowing snow I couldn’t control the surge in my blood. The sudden thickening of my cock.
She was home. She was safe.
Even if nothing happened, even if we just ate the stew and drank some wine in front of the fire, it was a better night because she was in it.
In anticipation of that, I went to the kitchen and turned the flame on under the stew that Mrs. Walker had left for us, along with some crusty, homemade bread. I pulled out a bottle of red wine from my dad’s collection and opened it. I heard the front door open and the shuffling in of her animals.
The sounds of the honking and barking weirdly, and I do mean weirdly, made me smile. Only her. Harmony was one of a kind and if I had to be fake married to someone, I was glad it was her.
“Hello?” she called out, and I was relieved. Part of me was afraid she might have just gone right upstairs to her bedroom and I wanted more time with her.
Like I wanted to store it all up so I would remember it when I left.
“Back here!” I said, and poured wine in a glass and took it with me to the stove to stir the stew.
“Hi,” she said, coming in the kitchen wearing her thick jacket and a knit hat.
“Hey,” I said. “It’s really coming down, huh?”
“Yeah,” she took off the hat and stuffed it in her pocket. “We’re supposed to get nine inches.”
I swallowed my completely inappropriate response. What was wrong with me that I was turning into a dirty-minded teenager?
“You hungry?” I asked, still stirring the stew.
“Not yet…but the wine looks good.”
I poured her a glass, and, still in her coat, she took a big sip. Gulp? Okay, she drank half the glass, if I was being honest.
Then she met my eyes, dead on. Like she was a woman on a mission and I was the mission.
