Page 26 of Just (Fake) Married (Calloways vs. McGraws #1)

SEVENTEEN

ETHAN

Harmony’s mouth opened, closed, then opened again. Clearly, I’d left her speechless with my declaration. Instead of responding, she opened the door of the café and a blast of heat, and the smell of garlic and fresh baked bread, greeted us.

“Harmony!” Amity cried, coming out from behind the counter. “And my new, fabulous brother-in-law, Ethan!”

The entire café turned in their seats to stare at us.

There were booths that were full along the wall of windows with pretty checkered curtains.

The different tables in the middle of the restaurant with mismatched chairs and candles were quirky, and also full.

The only empty seats were at the bar and there weren’t very many of them.

Staff in red aprons and t-shirts that said, “it’s your last meal, get the special,” carried trays full of food back and forth from the bustling kitchen.

The place was hopping.

“See?” I muttered through a smile. “We’re not hiding. And don’t forget to pretend you love me.”

She muttered back, her lips also stretched into a smile. “That might be hard when I want to punch you in the face.”

“I think we both know when you say punch, you mean kiss,” I said, and took her hand. “Anywhere okay to sit, Amity?”

“You bet,” Amity said, maybe a little too cheerfully? “I’ll be over in a second to take your order.”

Mayor Gallup, sitting in one of the far booths, got to his feet and came over to shake my hand.

“Well, let me be the first person in town to congratulate you, Ethan,” Mayor Gallup said.

Swear to God, the man should have a piece of straw in his mouth.

“I feel like a Calloway and a McGraw getting married might be a sign that hell is about to freeze over, but your bride told me you two have been a thing for a while.”

“Sure have,” I said, and curled my arm around Harmony’s waist. “After Dad died, we didn’t want to waste another minute.”

Mayor Gallup was quickly joined by a woman I didn’t recognize.

“Sandra Blackfeather,” she introduced herself. She had silver in her long, jet black hair and her dark eyes were sharp and probing behind a pair of red glasses. “I run the health clinic in town and I heard you’re a doctor?”

“A thoracic surgeon at Mt. Sinai in Seattle.”

“But you’re moving back to the Gulch, right?” She optimistically looked between me and Harmony. I had no answer for that, and fortunately Sandra kept talking. “I would love to talk to you about the clinic at some point. Just what we do here, what I think the community needs?”

“Sure. Of course,” I said. I hadn’t outright lied about moving back here, but it felt like lying and I didn’t like it.

“Tomorrow,” my extremely helpful wife chimed in. “He could meet you at the health clinic tomorrow?”

She had the good grace to wince. Like she knew she was stepping over a line, but the truth was, we had no idea where each other’s lines were drawn.

“Wonderful!” said another voice. This one I recognized. Mrs. McCormick, my fifth grade teacher, came muscling her way through the crowd. “And when you’re done visiting the clinic, you’ll be sure to attend the town meeting! Very important as we begin our preparations for the Feud Day Festival.”

“Mrs. McCormick!” I cried, with arms open, seeing the older woman for the first time in so many years. “My favorite teacher!”

“Ethan McGraw, my favorite student.” She gave me a quick, hard hug.

“Hey, I thought I was your favorite student,” Harmony said.

“You both are! That’s why I think the two of you make wonderful sense,” Mrs. McCormick said, squeezing both our hands. “I’ll see you tomorrow night at eight pm sharp. Don’t be late. I’m making cookies and they go fast.”

We had to make our way through a gauntlet of more well-wishers, but ultimately we were able to sit down across from one another in a booth.

“Well, you guys have caused quite a stir,” Amity said, coming over with menus. She practically threw mine at my face.

“Hey,” I said, catching the menu. “We’re trying to make it look like we all get along now.”

“I can’t spend a lifetime hating McGraws, only to now start liking McGraws,” Amity said. “My Calloway spirit will not allow it.”

“You liked Mac well enough,” I reminded her.

She sniffed, and lifted her chin. “That was temporary insanity.”

“Anyway!” Harmony said, her face full of forced cheerfulness. “We’re here for dinner.”

“What’s good here?” I asked, looking at the menu.

“Everything,” Amity said. “You think I serve shitty food?”

“No,” I said. “Not at all, I’m just asking what you like?”

“All of it. Or I wouldn’t serve it.”

“Just bring us two specials,” Harmony said, handing her menu back to Amity.

Amity looked me up and down like I was road kill or something worse. “I don’t know if he deserves the special,” she said, her hand on her hip.

“Amity, please,” Harmony pleaded. “Just bring him something you think he’ll like.”

“Fine,” Amity said, and spun away, her red ponytail swinging behind her.

“Forgive my sisters,” Harmony said, rolling out a napkin on her lap. “They just want to have my back, and their last memory of you was back in high school when I didn’t…think too highly of you.”

“Ah, it all comes back to the pantry punch,” I said.

“Except now you know I didn’t really punch you.”

Right. I’d kissed her instead. A kiss so profound she’d held a grudge for the entire school year. Damn, I wished I remembered that kiss now.

“Is that why you don’t want me to kiss you?” I asked her. “Does it bring up bad memories?”

She leaned in over the table and whispered, “We shouldn’t be kissing, because people who are only fake married shouldn’t kiss each other. It causes migraines with other symptoms like confusion and congestion.”

I leaned over the table to get even closer to her. Our mouths were inches apart and I could see tiny flecks of brown in her green eyes. “I’m the doctor in this marriage, and I’ll tell you what you can take to prevent migraines.”

“What?”

“Orgasms.”

“Here you go!” Amity said, slapping two plates on our table.

In front of Harmony, she put a turkey dinner special, with stuffing and cranberry relish and herbed carrots.

On my plate, I got a dinner of…garnishes?

Pickles. Orange slices. Parsley. A radish. White onions, all set on a bed of lettuce.

“Amity,” Harmony groaned.

“What? I’m out of specials,” she said with a shrug.

“You could have brought him a burger or something,” Harmony said.

“This is heart healthy,” Amity said, with a thin slice of a smile in my direction.

“It’s wonderful,” I said, and picked up an orange slice to bite into it. “Filled with vitamin C, too.”

After dinner, we picked up the animals and drove separately back to the ranch, with me right behind her. I could see the shadow of Bruce’s head occasionally as she honked at something, and I imagined Harmony talking to them.

Was she saying bad things about me?

Was I really worried about a goose and a blind dog’s opinion of me?

At home, we parked beside the house in the light from the windows, and I helped her get the animals up the front steps and into the house.

Mrs. Walker was gone for the night and the only lights that were on were the lamps on the end tables and the fire that had been banked behind the screen in the fireplace.

Beside me, Harmony sighed a happy sigh, and I looked at her, surprised.

“It’s just so quiet,” she said. “I mean, I knew my house was loud, but I guess I never realized how loud.”

“Well, this one hasn’t always been this quiet,” I said. I put my keys, wallet, and phone on the table by the door that seemed to be there just for keys and wallets and phones. “When I was young it was total chaos.”

“Well, five boys,” she said, shrugging out of her coat and handing it to me.

“I can’t even tell you the number of fights Seth and Eli and Mac got into.” I hung her coat on the rack and followed her into the living room.

“Not you?” she asked, as she moved toward the fireplace like it called to her.

“Not much of a fighter. I always tried to talk my way through everything. Though one time, I did accidentally break Carter’s thumb. Something he likes to remind me of every year around Christmas.”

She seemed reluctant to leave my company, which was good. Because I was equally reluctant for her to leave. I stepped up to the fire and pushed aside the screen, to stir up the embers and add a few logs to it.

“You broke his thumb at Christmas?”

“He reached for a present of mine under the tree, and he claims it was to hand it to me, but I knew we were both after the new Mario Cart video game and he was checking all my presents to make sure it wasn’t going to anyone but him.”

Satisfied with the fire, I put back the poker and stood up.

“That’s a blood thirsty Christmas.”

“Well,” I laughed, and sat back on the couch, stretching my legs out and making sure there was plenty of room if she chose to sit on the other side of it.

“Well, what?” she asked, leaning against the arm of the couch. The fire flickered over her features, turning her skin to gold. The way she crossed her arms made the most of her breasts and the memory of them in my hands, my mouth, rolled through me like a fire ball.

Right. What was I saying?

“Well, one year my brother Eli got a bb gun and that was an actual Bloody Christmas,” I said.

She shifted on the arm of the couch, letting one leg swing. Not committing to staying, but not leaving either. “Our house growing up was just non-stop talking. When we’re all together we just talk over each other and constantly interrupt, we’re telling stories and asking questions.”

“Sounds nice,” I said.

“I guess,” she said after a second. “I mean, I love them. But they never shut up.”

“Well, I’m glad this house can be a quiet place for you,” I said.

“So weird, right?” she said. “This house being a refuge for a Calloway. I’m sure our forefathers are rolling in their graves.”

“You know, I never agreed with my dad, about anything, really, but what he said in his will was right, it’s time for this feud to be over.”

She nodded, her eyes glancing at me and then back at the fire.

“And,” I continued, totally pushing my luck. “It took me a second to come around, but…I’m glad it’s us that’s ending it.”

“You don’t mean that,” she said with a laugh. “You weren’t going to spend the night here, much less the next three months being fake married to a Calloway.”

“I’m glad the universe intervened to make me stay.”

“About what you said earlier…I have been avoiding you,” she confessed. “What happened on our wedding night…Well, we got a little carried away. And I just don’t think doing that-”

“Having orgasms,” I supplied.

She blushed, even in the firelight I could tell that. “I think sex, much like kissing, would complicate things. Don’t you?”

Truthfully, yes.

I’d had a run-in with Harmony Calloway back in high school that had obviously hurt her feelings. My purpose now was to secure the future of this town and leave. If we added casual sex, then I might hurt her feelings again and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

Especially because I was starting to really like her.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay?”

“I’m not going to sit here and say I don’t want you, Harmony. And if you’re being honest, I think that attraction goes both ways. But I’ll respect your boundaries. Out there,” I said, pointing to the window. “We’re a couple in love. In here, we’re just…”

“Friends?”

The word felt wrong, despite having just admitted that I really liked Harmony. Who she was as a daughter, a sister and neighbor. It didn’t feel like it fit us.

“Partners,” I said instead.