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I smoothed my face to hide my disappointment. Did he not want me as much as I wanted him?

“You’re too sexy. There’s no way I can be quiet,” he said softly.

I smiled beneath his lips as he kissed me goodnight before gathering me in his arms.



















Chapter 24

Melena – Family Togetherness

Mom finally managedto get me alone. I knew it was coming, and I’d been dreading it. Ever since our first call after I married Jimmy, I anticipated the reckoning. In the whirlwind of their visit, we hadn’t had any real time by ourselves. First, Mom was cooking, and everyone was meeting Jimmy yesterday. Most of today we spent exploring breweries and cideries south of Seattle. It was one hobby the whole family could enjoy when they came to visit me, and we’d debated the merits of different varieties, swapping tastes.

The men settled down in front of a college game when we got back, and I suspected my dad was asleep on the couch. The others might not be far behind. My mom had other plans for me; she’d pulled me into the kitchen and started throwing ingredients from her bag out on the counter.

“I thought we could make your great-grandmother’s oatmeal cookies this afternoon.”

I debated arguing for our own naps, but one glance at her expression ended my protest before it began. “Sure, Mom. Sounds great.”

“You put together the wet ingredients, and I’ll do the dry. You have eggs, right?”

I nodded and worked on my assignment, creaming the eggs, oil, brown sugar, and white sugar into a soupy paste in the bowl before adding the flavoring. My great-grandmother’s recipe included a rainbow of artificial flavors; everything from almond and vanilla to orange and lemon. I measured them each carefully before dumping them in. The combination sounded weird but tasted delicious. I was looking forward to Jimmy’s face when he first bit into them.

“Jimmy seems lovely,” my mom said without glancing up from her bowl.

Opening salvo. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly before responding. “He is.”

“At first I thought you couldn’t really be married; that it was all some kind of joke on your poor mom. But after seeing you two together, I can tell you’re in love.”

I’d barely admitted to myself that I loved Jimmy. I was not ready to admit it to anyone else. My mother believed we’d married for love. She was half right. What else could I say?

“My feelings for him grew a lot in a short amount of time.”

My mom’s eyes narrowed. “How short a time? We talk almost every week. I’d never heard of Jimmy before you married him.” Her lips turned down and she stared into the bowl of flour and oats. “Were you ashamed of your relationship with him? Or ashamed of us? Did you think we wouldn’t accept him? Why wouldn’t you tell me about him? I thought we were close.”

My stomach knotted, twisting tighter with every word. I’d screwed up. I didn’t want my family believing I was ashamed of them or Jimmy. I had feared they wouldn’t accept him if they knew the truth; not because of anything about Jimmy, but because they’d want to be the ones to come to my rescue. They were family, and they wouldn’t see my desire for independence as anything but a rejection. Taking financial advantage of them didn’t feel right, and I didn’t want to move home, but it was selfish to keep my condition to myself. No one had anything to be ashamed of but me; I’d chosen secrets over love and honesty. Jimmy was right. They loved me enough to support my independence.

“Mom, I didn’t marry Jimmy for love.”