Page 81 of Just (Fake) Married
The bellover the door rang, and I braced myself for another person pretending to be a customer but really just came here for gossip. I was still answering questions about me and Ethan.
How happy were we finally being together after all this time?
Blissfully.
How crazy was it that no one in town knew anything about our relationship?
Batshit.
How things must be really hot and heavy in the sheets after being apart for so long?
No comment.
That last one came from Ida Strunk. The nerve. Then her sister Irma wanted to know if Ethan’s naked butt was as hot as his butt in his jeans.
Really, those two women could be audacious.
Except my customer wasn’t a customer at all. It was, in fact, my husband.
He of the hot butt.
Something strange happened to my shoulders. They…relaxed? Just the smell of him, cedar wood and cold wind and the spicy tang that followed him wherever he went, made me sigh.
“Hey,” I said, and checked my watch. “You’re early. The town hall doesn’t start for an hour.”
He dropped a kiss on my forehead, which immediately smoothed out the tension in my brow.
“Safe kissing,” he muttered. “In case anyone is watching.”
Right. Very safe. No worry that I was going to like that too much.
“The store is empty,” I said.
“Yes, but there’re always people passing by the window. Looks like it’s going to be a big crowd at the town meeting.”
“People are really excited,” I told him. “It’s nice to see the town…well, alive again.”
He looked at me. “You’ve always loved this place.”
I shrugged. “It’s home. What’s not to love?”
An expression came over this face, but I didn’t know him well enough to read what it meant. Wistfulness?
“Anyway, I come bearing gifts,” he announced.
He held up a bag from the café and I could smell grilled cheese sandwiches, and what I hoped was tomato soup. In the other hand was a bunch of medical stuff.
“Am I supposed to guess which is the gift?” I asked, pointing at the medical stuff in his hands.
“Well, we eat this,” he put the bag on the counter and I glanced in. A soup container. Had to be tomato. That was the only soup that went with grilled cheese. “And this is for Bruce,” he said.
At the sound of her name, Bruce honked behind the counter and got to her feet.
“Switch places with me,” he said.
I came around to the other side of the counter and he stepped behind it with my animals and my exploding purse. I pulled up one of the stools I kept by the stove for people who wanted to chat, and settled in on the other side of the counter and started to unpack our dinner.
He ducked behind the counter and there was suddenly quite a bit of squawking and Jenny barked once as if to calm Bruce down.
