Page 55 of Just (Fake) Married
Those were good snacks. I gave Bruce a grape and Jenny some cheese. They wolfed it out of the air and settled down in front of the fire with a happy sigh.
Ethan wore jeans and a grey t-shirt. His hair was rumpled and he wore…Jesus, Mary and Tom Hanks, he was wearing glasses.
That was not fair. Not in the slightest.
“Sit down,” he said. “It’s cold away from the fire.”
Leary of him and his glasses and quiet subdued-ness, I paused.
He turned to face me and I caught my breath. He was painfully handsome in the firelight. His eyes were soft behindthose glasses, like he was trying to tell me that he wasn’t going to hurt me. That he’d never hurt me.
That is my husband.
This is my wedding night.
I tucked myself into the corner of the leather couch. It was a rich man’s couch, so the leather was buttery and the cushions were like an excellent hug for my butt. I tucked my knees to my chest and pulled my sweatshirt down over them.
He smiled at me, like he was tired and he didn’t have any more fight in him.
“Please eat something,” he said, gesturing to the food on the table in front of us. I helped myself to a wedge of apple, some cheese and some ham.
I nibbled the apple and tried to channel Bliss, who would not apologize for everything that happened today, only part of which was my fault. Or ask if he was all right. But the silence was excruciating, and I did what I always did.
“I’m sorry,” we said at the same time. We looked at each other with wide eyes.
“What are you sorry for?” he asked.
“For answering that phone call. It was an invasion of your privacy. I was just trying to…” Distract him. But I didn’t want to remind him of what we were talking about. So instead I said, “And I’m sorry you got suspended.”
“That wasn’t your fault,” he said, and sipped his drink. The ice cubes clinked in a way that made me want some whiskey, but I ate my cheese. “It was all me and,” he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “I deserved it.”
Wow. A McGraw admitting when he was wrong.
“Dr. Xio was right,” he continued. “Sometimes it’s not about right or wrong, it’s about playing the game, and I’ve always been shit at playing games. Medicine was supposed to be straight forward, you know?” he asked, and even though I didn’t reallyknow, I nodded. “It was supposed to be about being good at the job and helping people. That’s what I signed up for, but somewhere along the line, it got to be about kissing the right ass.”
“I can’t imagine you kissing anyone’s ass,” I said, and he smiled. “What are you sorry for?” I asked him, and took another slice of apple.
“I’m sorry this was your wedding day,” he said. “Mabel, the sweater, Seal for our wedding song. And me being an asshole about the call. You deserve better.”
The fire crackled and popped and I was not prepared for this version of Ethan McGraw.
“It’s your wedding day, too,” I said. “I think you had a worse day than I did. At least I got a pretty ring out of it.”
“It is pretty, isn’t it?” he said, and I held out my hand so the emerald and pearls caught the light. He took my hand and turned it over, running his fingers along the thread and nail polish trick I’d used around the band so it would fit better.
“Did you do that in high school to your boyfriend’s class ring?” he asked.
“I didn’t have a boyfriend,” I said, as his fingers touched my palm and I curled my hand up like an animal protecting its soft belly.
“You had a serious boyfriend in college, though? Right?” he asked.
“Yeah…how do you know?” I asked him, pulling my hand back and wrapping my arms around my knees.
“My sister-in-law Lilly used to keep me up to date on all the gossip around town. Including the Calloway women. What happened with the boyfriend?” He asked.
“Well, my dad died, and I flunked out of grad school and moved home and that wasn’t what he signed on for,” I said, though that wasn’t all of the story.
“He didn’t want to live in Last Hope Gulch?”
