Page 49 of Will & Patrick's Endless Honeymoon
Kimberly closes her eyes and shakes her head. “I’m such a fool.”
“Tell me more,” Patrick says.
Will shoots Patrick a silencing glare until he puts up his hands in surrender.
Kimberly seems to have taken Patrick’s snark seriously. “When he said he was in a scrape with some woman, I thought he was trying to make me jealous so that I’d come down here to ‘save’ him. I didn’t think…” She sniffles again. “You mean he’s actually…he married her?”
“For fun,” Patrick says again. But gently this time, like he’s trying to be sweet and reassuring. Will’s stomach flutters and his heart softens. Underneath his gruff exterior, Patrick is a healer and he’ll always try to ease anyone’s suffering. Even someone he doesn’t like very much.
“It’s just a fling.” Will pushes a hank of his mother’s hair behind her ear. “He’s just trying to bait you.”
“And it worked,” Patrick points out.
Kimberly pats at her eyes with the tissue. “Did my mascara run?”
“No,” Will whispers.
“Good.” She straightens her shoulders, puts her chin up, and the tears are replaced by a glare. “I want to look my best when I give him a piece of my mind.”
“And your ass.”
“Patrick!” Will snaps, his relaxed mood from earlier dissolved in the glare of the late-afternoon sun and his mother’s red eyes. “Mom, calm down and just…”
“No, I need to find him,” Kimberly says, standing up and smoothing her dress again. “Now that I know you’re safe, I’ll help your father disentangle himself from the clutches of this gold digger. Even if he doesn’t deserve my help.”
“Diamond digger.” Patrick spreads his hands wide. “She’s got a huge tooting diamond she plans to sell.”
“To fund her return to college,” Will confirms, rising and taking his mother’s hand.
Kimberly frowns. “Good lord, if the man wanted me to come down here for a tropical fling, you’d think he’d just call. He knows that’s all it’d take.” She rolls her eyes. “Why make up something about you being in the hospital? Why marry some…” She waves her hand around. A parrot squawks in a nearby cage.
“Some stripper?” Patrick offers.
Will watches as a butterfly flies close by and lands in one of the flowering bushes next to the pergola. “I guess he thinks this is more—”
“Fun,” Patrick says again.
“Yeah,” Will rubs a hand over his face and his monitor alarm goes off. He glances down at the numbers. “Low.” He slings his murse down off his shoulder and takes out a small tube of frosting and opens it, squirting the sickly sweet contents into his mouth and closing his eyes.
Patrick raises a brow at Kimberly. “Stop stressing him out.”
“I’m not,” she says irritably. “You both stressedmeout. Well, you and his father.”
“Then go find his father.” Patrick takes Will’s hand and pulls him up from the bench. “We’re on our honeymoon and you’re not welcome to be part of it.”
Kimberly gasps, but Patrick doesn’t wait to start up another argument with her. Will doesn’t fight him as he leads the way toward the boat dock to catch a ride back to their rooms.
Rolling the sweetness of the frosting around in his mouth, Will sighs again. He doesn’t even look back over his shoulder to make sure she’s okay. His mother can fend for herself. He’s done pretending his entire family isn’t legitimately insane.
At least until after they’ve eaten dinner.
And after he’s spent some time kissing Patrick’s asshole.
Then maybe he’ll be willing to think about his family and their dramas again. But he doubts it. He’s on his honeymoon with Patrick and he’s going to dedicate every single bit of his brainpower to enjoying it.
Even if his family is determined to make that really, really hard. Or impossible.
