Page 34 of Bad Boy Husband

JAMESON

I breathed in the scent of freshly cleaned carpet, electrical heat, and coffee, and for the first time all day, it felt like the oxygen was fully penetrating my lungs.

We were here, the big reveal had happened, Sadie was still with me, and that scent right now was exactly what I’d needed to take the last bit of the edge off.

Stalls made up of gleaming chrome and glossy white plastic stretched out in every direction, looking crisp and new under the bright lights. Outside of some of them, banners flapped gently from the breeze generated by the latest, best high-powered fans.

Despite what some people might think, this was a flashy convention. There were some sections dedicated to the antiques, but it was mostly aimed at top-of-the-line residential and commercial products.

When I’d visited the convention before, I’d always been alone.

I’d made a habit of moving fast from exhibitor to exhibitor, keeping my head down in case somebody recognized me and avoiding conversation as much as I could.

If I was being totally honest, I’d always felt a sense of shame walking through those doors, but this time, Sadie was with me, and to my absolute surprise, it didn’t look like she was just humoring me.

She was still smiling just like she had been all morning, and that smile was definitely real.

Unlike the way I’d felt in the past, she also definitely wasn’t ashamed of being there.

She leaned over displays and asked questions about suction power.

She murmured a few comments to me about it that made me have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

It really seemed like she was getting into the spirit of things.

We stopped at a booth that sold power mops and I stopped, wondering if there was a new addition to the line from which I’d bought my current favorite. Sadie didn’t hesitate to pick up a glossy pamphlet. She flipped through it, then chuckled and raised an eyebrow at me.

“What are you planning to mop with a water tank this big?” she asked. “Unless it’s an airport runway, this is just impractical.”

“It’ll save time,” I argued, my mouth twitching into a smile. “Besides, with all that slobber in the house these days, we need something heavy duty.”

“If they build one you can ride on, are you going to be first in line for that, too?” She batted her eyelashes at me. “Although that might be fun.”

I laughed. “I won’t just be first in line. We can put in a pre-order. One for each of us. Mop races can become a Saturday morning tradition.”

She groaned. “Okay, now we definitely need some. Think you can talk to these people and make it happen? Maybe bankroll the R&D?”

I knew she was teasing, but I shrugged anyway. “Let me see what I can do.”

Her jaw dropped when I turned and went to speak to the sales rep. Instead of offering to pay for the development of a ride-on mop, I placed a discreet order for some powerful commercial machines for the shelter.

These things were expensive. Not for the amateur cleaning enthusiast. I imagined they would be way outside the budget of any nonprofit, but they would also change the lives of everyone who worked there, including Sadie.

I’d been able to tell that they tried their best to keep it as clean as they possibly could, but I’d also seen the equipment they were working with.

Everything there was probably twice as ancient as my great, great grandpa and not in much better shape.

We kept moving after I was done, stopping at every booth to check out the specs and attachments.

I found myself pausing every few minutes just to watch her, though.

Sadie honestly seemed to be having fun, expressing interest while we spoke to the salespeople and even making a few notes of her own, presumably for the shelter.

Later on, I would tell her that I already had that handled, but for now, I was just enjoying seeing her here, not in her element, and still having an absolute blast. Around lunch time, we headed to one of the food trucks. The noon heat hit me like a wave as soon as we stepped outside.

Seagulls cawed overhead. The scents of sea air and French fries mixed on the light breeze. We hit up a burger truck, then grabbed a plastic table that was much too small for the two trays we tried to balance on it.

Sadie dropped her sunglasses onto her eyes, grinning, and swiped a fry from my tray. “I’m curious. Does anybody else know how passionate you are about all this stuff?”

“Only Wanda,” I said before quickly adding, “My housekeeper. You haven’t met her yet, but you will. She’s the only other person who knows about the existence of my collection and that’s only because she helps me keep that room clean.”

“No one else?”

“No one else,” I admitted, sliding my gaze to the gulls above even though my eyes were hidden behind my sunglasses. “I know it’s weird. Super fucking weird, actually. So it’s just not something I broadcast.”

“You’re not weird.” She smiled. “You’re a nerd. That’s different.”

It hit me harder than I might’ve expected, how casually she said it. Almost like it really wasn’t a part of me that I should be hiding. She’d reacted this way the other night too, when she’d found my collection, but I hadn’t been sure that her opinion of me wouldn’t change after this.

“If you really think about it, this is perfect,” she said. “You love cleaning and I couldn’t care less, so we balance each other out. I shed everywhere, you clean everything. It sounds amazing to me.”

I laughed. The knots of tension I’d been carrying for days finally released.

Demo vacuums hummed in the distance and the sun was warming my back.

Sadie dug into her hamburger in front of me like it was a Michelin-star meal, and I suddenly realized that I was dangerously close to being very fucking happy.

“Those aren’t exactly the traditional stereotypes in a marriage,” I teased. “The wife making a mess of everything and the husband obsessively cleaning up after her.”

She chuckled. “What do you want, for me to be cooking barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen while you play golf and fall asleep in board meetings?”

“Sure.” I smirked. “While you’re at it, if you get a minute between all the naked, pregnant cooking and grocery runs, could you embroider my initials on my shirts?”

“Absolutely.” She fluttered her eyelashes at me as she laughed. “I also plan on teaching Hooch to use your antique vacuums to help me out in the house. And uh, not for nothing, but it’s bare foot in the kitchen, not completely bare. There will be no naked cooking.”

“You’re a real killjoy, aren’t you?”

“If it involves potentially getting hot oil on my nipples, then yes. I have no problem being a killjoy.”

“What’s a bit of hot oil on the nipples to keep your husband happy?” I joked. “If I get to come home to you cooking naked every day, I’ll cover the medical bills and rub ointment on you whenever you need it.”

“You’ll cover the medical bills, huh?” She grew a tiny bit more serious, the laughter fading from her expression. “When I get my inheritance, you know you won’t have to do that, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” I thought it over for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase this without it coming across as offensive. “To me, it’s not about whether or not you can afford to do it. It’s about the principle. I guess I’m a traditionalist that way.”

“What do you mean?” Her voice was softer, not offended but open and curious. “I suppose it might actually be time to talk about what we’d both want and expect out of our marriage, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” I couldn’t tell her the truth yet, though. Not the whole truth, anyway. “What do you want? What do you expect?”

She drew in a deep breath and blew it out, silent for a few long beats before she shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t seriously thought about getting married for so long, sometimes I wonder if I ever actually thought about it at all.”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I haven’t given it much thought in a long time myself until recently, but to me, marriage shouldn’t be casual. It should matter. Despite the fact that ours would be starting out a little unconventionally.”

Her expression turned thoughtful. “Whenever we talk about this, you become surprisingly serious. This really means something more to you than just a contract.”

“It does,” I admitted, thinking back to all the arguments I’d had with Sterling and my dad about this.

“Of course, it does. If we go through with this, you’d be my wife, Sadie.

That should mean something. It should mean showing up, even when it’s inconvenient.

It should mean putting each other first.”

My chest felt tight with how much I still wanted to say, but I couldn’t do it yet, so I settled for another, much simpler truth.

“No matter how we get there, when we say our vows that day, I’m going to mean them.

Every word. I’m going to live them every single day and I’m not going to compromise on that.

If we end up saying yes, I’ll really be saying yes. To all of it. Contract or not.”

She didn’t say anything right away, but she didn’t tease me, either, which somehow made the silence louder. If anything, she seemed taken aback by what I’d said, but I wasn’t sorry that I’d said it. I might not be able to tell her the whole truth, but not a word of that had been a lie.

We spent the afternoon visiting a few more booths, but Sadie was much quieter now. Much more introspective.

By the time we got back to the hotel, the air felt charged, heavy with the weight of what we were considering. I was half-prepared for her to run. To thank me for the offer or perhaps not even that, but for her to say goodbye.

In our suite, Sadie stood by the window. Late afternoon light caught her red hair in a fiery halo and turned the curve of her cheek into an almost otherworldly shimmer. Almost like she really is about to disappear.

When she finally turned to face me, I thought this was it. My heart thudded against my ribs, and I braced myself for impact. Only it wasn’t the impact I was expecting.

“Can I ask you something, Jameson?” She didn’t wait for me to respond. “Why didn’t you ask me to do this sooner?”

“Do what, get married?” She nodded and I swallowed hard but spoke past the wave of uncertainty that had been so unfamiliar to me before she’d come back into my life.

These last few years, I hadn’t even thought I’d known the meaning of that word, but now, I was becoming intimately familiar with it.

“The long and the short of it is that I didn’t ask because I didn’t think you would say yes. ”

She opened her mouth, but I kept going, needing to get it all out.

“Don’t get me wrong, I deserved the distance you put between us.

You had every right to shut me out. I hurt you.

I chose Trent over our relationship and any other justification or excuse that I might offer doesn’t really matter, but… ”

I inhaled a deep breath, looking directly into her eyes.

“If we do this, you’ll be my wife. The most important person in my life.

I will honor you and keep you. I will be true to you.

No one’s opinion will matter to me as much as yours.

I meant what I said back at the convention, Sades.

If we ever make vows to each other, I will mean every last one of them. ”

And there she has it. I’d said everything but I love you . The words were right there, on the tip of my tongue, dangerous and reckless, but I didn’t let them out.

Sadie’s eyes hooked on mine. With sure, small footsteps, she closed the distance. Rising on her toes, she curled her hand around my jaw and kissed me.

As her lips molded against mine, I wasn’t thinking about business, family obligations, or old heartbreak. There was only us. A new version. But if I played my cards right, maybe it could be a better one.