Page 32 of Mating of Convenience
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When I gotoff work that day, there was still one thing left for me to do before I could go on that trip with Nathan in relative peace—I needed to swing by my dad’s place and tell him that he could stop worrying because I had the situation under control.
The moment I stepped into the house, the smell of burned meat hit my nose. “Dad?” I called. “Don’t tell me you were trying to cook.” Waving my hand in front of my face, I made my way into the kitchen where I found my father standing in front of the stove, trying to save a meal that was definitely beyond saving.
“Damn it,” he cursed. “I’m not a cook.”
“I could have told you that before you murdered this steak.” I whisked the pan off the hotplate. “Throw open a window,” I instructed. “Your culinary accident is stinking up the whole house.”
While he did as ordered, I tossed the steak with a pang of regret. Such waste. “Let’s order pizza,” I told my dad. “We got something to celebrate.”
“We do?”
“Grandma is going to clear your debts.”
“Who’s gonna do what?” Dad stared at me in confusion. I couldn’t really blame him. The whole thing was as shocking to me as it was to him; I’d just had more time to get used to the idea. “I talked to Grandma, and she’s willing to help,” I explained.
“I don’t know what surprises me more, that you talked to your grandmother or that she wants to help us.”
“I know, right?” I shrugged and grabbed the house phone from its station. “So, pizza?”
“Did someone say Pizza?” My little brother, Kevin, strolled into the kitchen and shot me a curious look. “Can I have bacon on mine?”
“Sure. Have all the bacon.” I tried to ruffle his hair and he ducked away. Little bastard.
Only a moment after Kevin, though, Kendra entered the kitchen as well. And she didn’t care about the offer of pizza as much as she cared about the piece of jewelry she spotted on my finger. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at it with suspicion etched into her features.
“That? Oh, that’s just…” Slowly, I put the phone back on its station, realizing that I wasn’t gonna get around telling my family that I’d gotten married. But if Nathan could do it, so could I. “That’s my wedding ring,” I said, unceremoniously.
My little sister’s eyes grew wide. “Yourwedding ring?”
“Yup. I got married. Did I forget to tell you?”
My sister, my brother, my father… they all stared at me in shock.
“C’mon, guys, it’s not that much of a deal.”
“Who the hell did you marry?” Dad asked. “And why weren’t we invited?”
“I married Nathan. We didn’t have a ceremony or anything. If you really want to celebrate, how about we have some pizza?”
“Pizza?” Dad only looked at me in disbelief.
“Yeah, pizza.” I picked the phone back up. “Oh, also we’re celebrating our honeymoon in Paris so I won’t be around for the fourth.”
“In Paris? How are you paying for that? Wait, this isn’t anything to do with—”
“We got some good discounts,” I cut my dad off with a sharp glance. I wasn’t going to discuss the details of my deal with grandma with him—especially not in front of Kevin and Kendra.
“Okay then,” he relented, while Kendra grabbed my hand to study the ring.
“It’s so pretty! Is it real?”
Did she mean the ring or the marriage? For a second there, I couldn’t tell. My sister was far too smart for her own good. “Of course it’s real.” And itwaspretty. The small diamond caught the light in all the right ways when I moved my fingers. It was perfect.
I could only hope that the rest of my plan would play out perfectly as well.
17
