Page 91 of Just (Fake) Married
“We’re going to get that blue ribbon back. I know it,” she said. “And how awesome were Marion’s ideas?”
“Really good. She’s a bright kid.” I said. “But it sucks that the clinic has to basically do a bake sale just to stay afloat.”
“Once we get more people in town it will bounce back.” I liked her enthusiasm, but I was still doubtful a blue ribbon could wield that much power.
“What were the other ideas you liked?” I asked, keeping the conversation on safer ground and my hands to myself.
She’d shot down the cat fashion show. The yodeling contest. And the open gun range. I still don’t think I understood what shooting for dollars even meant. She’d handled the folks’ disappointment like an absolute pro.
When she tapped her pen against her pursed lips, it was hard to keep my attention on the road. “You know, what if we changed the re-enactments?”
“You want to start a riot?”
“Well, we can keep the popular ones,” she said. “But also add some new ones? Maybe nicer ones to demonstrate that our long-standing feud is over.”
“Do we have nicer ones?” I asked.
“There was that one winter back in the early nineteen hundreds. Agatha Calloway saved Thomas McGraw’s life in a blizzard-”
“She cut off his leg.”
“Because of frost bite.”
“Are we sure about that?” I asked her.
She went back to tapping her pencil on her lips.
“We are the only good story, Harmony.” Which made me chuckle. “Our fake marriage in which we’re lying to the entire town is the closest we’re probably going to get to a nice McGraw/Calloway fable. I wonder what our statues will eventually look like?”
I pulled into the graveled area in front of the lodge and put the truck in park. In the backseat both animals got to their feet.Harmony reached back and popped the backseat open and the animals headed out into the yard.
“I want to let them stretch their legs a little before we go inside,” she said, and settled back into the front seat. The animals walked into the light of the headlights and Bruce flapped her one wing and pecked at the snow.
“Thank you for her wing.”
“My pleasure.”
Harmony looked over at me, her eyes luminous in the headlights reflected off the snow. I have no idea how long we stared at each other. Outside, Bruce honked, and still I didn’t look away. Neither did she.
“About that list you wrote,” she said.
I nodded. It took everything I had not to touch her. Run my hand across the satin of her cheek. The strength of her shoulder. To bury my fist in her hair and pull her head back, revealing her throat. Which I wanted to kiss. I wanted to kiss all of her.
“If we did…do that…I have some more rules.”
“You and your rules,” I said with a smile, so she knew I was teasing.
“It’s to help us-”
“Draw the lines. I know, Harmony,” I said. “But can’t you feel it? This thing between us. It feels inevitable.”
“Of course I feel it, but you can’t confuse me when we’re alone. If it’s just sex and some uncomplicated fun, then that’s it. You can’t do that thing where you touch my shoulder, or sniff my neck. And, still no kissing.”
“Harmony,” I groaned, my head rolling back on the headrest. “This is ridiculous. We’re adults. We want to fuck each other. Let’s just do it.”
“It’s not that simple and you know it. This isn’t some casual affair between two strangers. We have history. Our family hashistory. We just found out our parents have history! If we don’t keep our guards up, one or both of us, will get hurt.”
“So, let me get this straight,” I said, recapping everything. “In public, we pretend to be in love and I can kiss you all I want-”
