Page 7 of Dearly Unbeloved (Spicy in Seattle #3)

SIERRA

The drawer by the door labeled “shoes” is for your shoes, by the way. I labeled it just for you. No need to leave them in the middle of the floor. - R

M y head is still pounding when I walk into work on Tuesday morning.

Between the lingering effects of the alcohol and my complicated new marital status, my mind is in knots.

Jazz has been needling me all morning, asking if I’m sick and holding her hand up to my forehead to check for a fever, because I’ve been quieter than usual.

But quiet is better than blurting out that I married her sister over the weekend.

Rose and I decided to wait until this coming weekend to tell everyone.

Maggie and Cal are hosting family dinner at their place, and it’ll be easier to just rip the Band-Aid off and tell everyone at once.

And her parents are more likely to be civil in company.

But that means four whole days of work without breathing a word of it to Jazz.

I have to tell my parents, and I know they’re going to want to meet Rose.

For the first time, I’m glad they live so far away.

Kyo’s partner, Rylan, is an engineer, so they move around the West Coast every couple of years.

When they moved to Sacramento earlier this year, my parents decided to move with them.

They’re both semi-retired (my dad does some freelance web design, and my mom volunteers for a children’s charity) and with Lina’s health problems, they wanted to be close to her.

Sacramento is a twelve-hour drive, and I don’t like flying, which is a perfect excuse not to introduce them to my wife. Wife . Jesus fucking Christ, how did we end up here?

But at least we don’t have to worry about our families for a few days.

In the meantime, though, there is one person I need to tell—because if I don’t tell someone, I’m going to explode.

Besides, I really need to make sure what we’re doing isn’t going to land either of us in prison, since it’s technically fraud.

I knock lightly on Cal’s office door. “It’s open,” he calls in his thick Irish accent. He looks up from his desk when I walk in, a wide smile on his face. “Hey. How was Vegas?”

“It was good. I’m still a little hungover,” I admit, dropping into the chair opposite him. The soft, worn leather hugs my body, and I could so easily curl up and take a nap. Cal probably wouldn’t mind, but that’s not why I’m here.

Michaelson and Hicks is the top business and corporate law firm in the state, and it couldn’t be in a better spot. The building isn’t huge, but Cal has the penthouse office, and the floor-to-ceiling glass windows let in the gorgeous late-summer light.

“I can imagine. Maggie said you and Rose were struggling on the flight home. You know, if you need the day?—”

“I’ll be fine,” I promise, leaning my head on my hands, and wondering how to approach this with him.

Cal eyes me suspiciously. “Everything alright?”

“Yep. Mhmm. Definitely alright… I’d like to hire you,” I blurt out. “For legal advice,” I clarify, but it does nothing to clear up the confusion on his face.

“Sierra, we’re friends. You can just ask me for legal advice.”

I shake my head. “Nope. Because if I ask you, you’re going to want to tell Maggie, and you’re going to end up feeling like either a bad friend if you do, or a bad husband if you don’t. If I hire you, you’re legally required to keep my secrets.”

Cal raises his brows. “That’s sneaky. I like it. I’m pretty expensive, you know.”

I roll my eyes and pull a five-dollar bill from inside my phone case. “How about five dollars, and I’ll buy you lunch?” I slide the bill across the desk and Cal pockets it.

“Five dollars, and I’ll buy you lunch, because I feel so guilty for accepting your money,” he counters.

What a Cal thing to say. I laugh and lean back in the chair. “Perfect. Although, I think I’m getting the better deal here.”

“I have a million things on my to-do list today, and I don’t want to do any of them, so you’re giving me an excuse not to,” he replies with a shrug. “What can I help with?”

“Do you remember last year when I asked you to look over the terms of my inheritance?” I figured there was no harm in asking Cal to see if he could find a loophole.

He couldn’t, and, though he offered to reach out to an old friend who specializes in inheritance law, he said it was pretty airtight.

“I understand that I have to be married, and I’ll receive the inheritance after three months, but what happens if I get divorced after those three months? Can they take it back?”

Surprise lights Cal’s face. “Not that I can remember, but I’d need to double-check the terms again. Do you have a copy?”

I pull it up on my phone and pass it over.

Cal scans it. “There’s nothing in here to say you have to stay married once you have the money.

The only issue that might come up in a situation like that would be if someone else claimed you’d committed fraud by getting married just for the purpose of the inheritance, but since there’s no one expecting the money if you don’t get it, I don’t think there’s much of a risk there. ”

I breathe a long sigh of relief. “Good. That’s… good, yeah.”

“Any other questions?”

“Yeah, um, hypothetically, if an employee had a potential conflict of interest with a direct manager—like Jazz being your daughter-in-law, for example—they would need to report that ASAP, right? Or the employee who didn’t report it could get in trouble. ”

“Yes…” Cal draws the word out, his brows meeting in the middle. “Why?”

I take a deep breath, practicing the words in my head before I say them out loud for the first time. “Rose and I got married on Sunday.”

It’s almost comical how wide Cal’s eyes get. He opens his mouth and closes it about four times without saying anything.

“So, yeah… Jazz is my sister-in-law now. If you could pass that on to HR, but also not tell Jazz, that would be great.”

“What the… You and Rose got married for your inheritance?” Cal asks, leaning forward. Shit, I forgot what a gossip he is. Still, he legally can’t tell anyone.

“No, we got married because we were blackout drunk in Vegas. We’re staying married for the inheritance.”

“But you two hate each other.”

“Yes, well, alcohol.”

“Shit.” Cal rubs his jaw. “I can’t tell Maggie about this. You told me this knowing I can’t tell Maggie. What the fuck, Sierra?”

I wince. “Sorry. It’s only for a few days, if it helps. We’re going to tell everyone at family dinner on Friday. Which gives you plenty of time to practice acting surprised.”

“This is… I have so many questions. Christ. So what, you’re going to stay married for three months, then get divorced?”

“That’s the plan. Oh, and no one else can know about the inheritance part. I’m already worried Jazz is going to kill me for getting drunk and marrying her baby sister. I don’t need to make it worse.”

“What if Maggie figures it out? Can I tell her then?”

“How the hell would she figure it out?”

Cal chuckles, something like relief shining on his face.

“What?”

“You know I love you, but there’s no way you and Rose are going to be able to act like you like each other enough for Maggie not to figure out something is up.”

I groan, leaning my elbows on the desk and letting my head fall into my hands. He’s right. Rose and I have barely spoken since we left the diner, because we have no idea how to speak without fighting. We’re so fucked.

What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?

“ Baywatch ?”

“ Lord of the Rings ?”

“Where the hell are you getting that? It’s clearly The Little Mermaid .”

“ Titanic !” I shout above my bickering family.

“Sierra got it,” Kyo says, and everyone groans.

My mom crosses her arms. “You two are always too in sync for these things.”

“Or I’m just really good at charades,” I counter, tilting my laptop screen so the glare of my bedside lamp stops reflecting off of it.

“You’re good at everything, Sierra,” my dad assures me. It’s a lie, but one I appreciate.

Since my family moved to California, we’ve tried to keep in touch as much as possible: texting, calling, video call game nights.

At all times, there are a dozen different conversations going on between my parents, Kyo, Lina, Rylan, and me.

Which means there have been at least a hundred opportunities for me to mention I got married.

All five of them are on the call for a change, and I can’t put it off any longer. It’s now or never.

“So, I have some big news. And it might come as a bit of a shock.”

My parents exchange a concerned look.

My mom leans in toward the camera. “The last time you had big news, you told us you were a lesbian. Are you not a lesbian? Because you know we’ll support you no matter what, SiSi, but I think your dad’s flag tattoo is probably too big to cover.”

I almost laugh. My parents really are the most supportive parents in existence. Not only did my dad tattoo a watercolor lesbian flag on his shoulder when I came out, he tattooed the polyamorous flag on the other arm for Kyo, Lina, and Rylan.

“I’m still a lesbian. That’s not going to change,” I assure them. “Actually, speaking of lesbians, you know my roommate, Rose?”

“Of course we do. You complain about her constantly,” Rylan chimes in. “I feel like I know her personally at this stage.”

“Right. Well, about that… As it turns out, our dislike of ea ch other might not have been as strong as we thought it was.” God, it sounds so stupid when I say it like that.

Lina gasps, whacking Kyo on the arm. “I told you they had feelings for each other!”

“You and Rose are dating?” my dad asks, and it’s a testament to how great my parents are that he looks happy to hear that his daughter might be dating the person she’s been ranting about for a year straight.

Now let’s see if that happiness extends to the ring on my finger.

“We’re not dating, per se…” I hold up my hand, flashing my ring, and their jaws drop. “Surprise! We got married!”

My mom squeals and claps her hand to her mouth. I think I hear something like “oh my god” muffled behind her hand.

Dad recovers first, clearing his throat. “Congratulations, SiSi. That’s…Well, like you said, it’s a bit of a shock. Are you happy?”

Are you happy?

It’s what my parents ask whenever we do something they don’t understand: when I came home with an eyebrow piercing (that I took out a week later,) when I quit law school, when Kyo and Lina canceled their wedding because they didn’t want to marry each other if they couldn’t marry Rylan, too.

As long as we’re not hurting ourselves or anyone else, they don’t care what we do if it makes us happy.

“Yeah, Dad. I’m happy. Rose and I are both happy.” The lie makes me nauseous, like I’m spitting on something sacred—my parents’ trust .

But it’s enough for my mom, Lina, and Rylan’s shock to morph into excitement as they congratulate me. Kyo’s the only one who looks suspicious, and I wish I could say I’m surprised.

By the time my family’s finished quizzing me on all things Rose and our wedding, and my mom has asked no less than ten times when they get to meet her, it’s almost midnight, and we’re all yawning. We say our goodbyes and goodnights, but my relief is short-lived when we finally hang up.

Almost immediately, my phone lights up with a video call from Kyo. I lie down before answering it, propping my phone up on my pillow.

“Are you hiding in the bathroom?” I ask, peering at the wall of duck paintings on the wall behind him. My mom loves a theme.

“Yes. What the fuck, Sierra? Tell me you didn’t marry your roommate for money?”

“I didn’t marry my roommate for money,” I reply instantly. “I didn’t! We got drunk, and you know how it is.”

He glares at me. “Not really.”

Kyo and I have always looked more like twins than siblings, favoring our dad so strongly that people often seem surprised that our mom isn’t Japanese, too.

Side by side with her, we look nothing alike—until we show any emotion, that is.

Our mom never learned to hide a single emotion from her face, and Kyo and I are exactly the same.

Everyone talks about how we have her smile, but we have her frowns, her fury, her frustration, and her resting bitch face, too.

There’s no point in lying to him—even if he didn’t know about the inheritance stipulation, he’s always been able to see right through me.

My parents are probably under the impression that I’ve given up on the inheritance, and I’ve never told them, or Lina and Rylan, that my plan was to give Kyo the money for IVF.

“We woke up married, and we both saw a benefit to staying that way for a little while. I get the money, Rose gets a promotion—it’s a long story—and no one ever needs to know. Be serious. Who’s going to be surprised when they hear we’re getting divorced in three months? No harm, no foul.”

Kyo looks skeptical. “I feel like you’re making that sound a lot simpler than it is. You’re going to have to spend a lot more time together to convince people you’re married. Why not just be honest about it? You know Mom and Dad wouldn’t care.”

“It’s not our family that’s the problem. Rose’s parents are a nightmare, and I don’t want Jazz to think I’m taking advantage of Rose by using her to get the money.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing, though?” Kyo asks, and I glare at him.

“Ouch. I mean, technically, but she’s using me, too. We’re both benefiting here. It’s all good, Kyo.”

“Okay,” he says, looking less than convinced. “You know I love you, and I appreciate you doing this for me. Just be careful.”

“I love you, too. Quit worrying, Ky. What’s the worst that could happen?”