Page 37 of Hitched

“Can I please, please be there when you tell him?” Brandy teases.

“Goodbye, Brandy.” Laney says, and then she hangs up, smiling. “Well, at least she’s not going to tear me up for this.”

“You think your da will?” I ask, levelling with her.

“Caleb, your da will be dancing in his shoes, when he finds out that we’re getting along. But mine, while mine wants nothing but happiness for me, he’s going to see a hidden agenda, no matter what.”

I see something in her eyes, and I’m not sure what it is. “Laney, you know that I’m not…you know…here, because I still want to make you marry me, right?”

“Look, I told you, Caleb. I’m not getting married. I’m not having children. I’m not doing any of that conventional stuff.” Her gaze is measured equally between both my eyes. “What we’re doing, just…being…together, that’s all I want right now. Nothing more. You can tell your da that, too. And I’ll tell my da the same. The fact that we’re together doesn’t mean more than that.”

I swallow, sliding a finger down the side of her cheek. “Then this is the first thing that my da’s going to have to accept. He’s not one to take the word no lightly, Laney, but if that’s what you want, then that’s what he’s going to have to do.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure, Laney. I mean, I don’t know where this is going, of course, but I like you. I like you a lot. We’re having a great time together, and we’re not driving each other nuts, which is more than I can say for any other woman that I’ve spent more than a couple of hours with.”

She gets a quirky smirk on her face. “Were those couple of hours just fucking? Because we’ve done more than that, too.”

“Well, we have done a lot of fucking, baby.” I joke, kissing her lips. “But I hope that we mean more than that to each other, and I think that we do.”

She kisses my lips. “Let’s find out.”

Laney is off to see her family while I’m off to visit mine, and then we’re getting together to go over to see Gretchen and Peg later. Da is on a call, so I head to my office, to answer some emails and make a few calls, feeling fresher and stronger than I have in a long time. It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

“Caleb.” Da greets, entering my office. “I didn’t expect to see you here. I expected you to be dancing in the streets over your newfound freedom.” He says, clapping me on the back, kissing my cheeks. It feels great for him to be warm like this. It doesn’t happen often, so I take advantage.

“Yeah, it’s great to be back. I couldn’t wait to get here. I missed Scotland.”

“I know you did, son. And how’s Laney? Is she more settled now that you’re free?”

I look down at the floor, deciding that there’s no time like the present to cut to the chase. “Da, Laney and I, we’re just friends.”

He lifts a brow. “You’ve bedded her, Caleb. You’re more than friends.”

“I know that, da. But that’s all she wants. She doesn’t want to get married.”

He waves. “Ah, Caleb, they all say that. It’s a game, son. Every Scottish woman wants to be married and have bairns.”

“Not Laney, da. She’s made it perfectly clear that she doesn’t want to marry or have any bairns.”

Da waves. “Ah, why do you think your brother Ethan had to ditch that lass he was seeing, huh?”

And just as he says this, lo and behold, Ethan walks into my office. “Da, I knew my ears were ringing for a reason.” He looks at me. “Hey, dipshit.”

“Suck my dick.” I sneer. This is our usual M.O., and da is completely immune to it.

“Having trouble with the lasses?” Ethan asks.

I guffaw. “If I did, do you think I would ask you?”

“Why not? I get as much pussy as you do.”

“We’re not just talking about getting pussy, loser.”

He interrupts me. “Yeah, I know. Da told me about his genius plan to get you hitched.”

Such a suck up. Da is glowing. His golden boy puffs his ego fuller. Meanwhile I look like a sucker that can’t do one simple thing.

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