Page 27 of The Handyman and The Drama Queen (Myths, Legends, and Southern Charm #1)

Stone

It took a lot to shock my boy senseless, so I was patient as he just stared at me like English was his tenth language and he was having to work at processing what I’d said. His lack of immediate snark said I’d given him the romance he’d demanded, but reality seemed to have smacked him right upside the head.

Unfortunately, while I was incredibly patient, the fog around us grew brighter and then dimmed, a sign from Stephanie that the spell would be wearing off shortly.

I wasn’t sure if the subtle change snapped Ezra out of his thoughts or if he’d finally processed everything, but he sighed and blinked before smiling down at me. “You just had to have the most romantic engagement story to tell everyone in town.”

Ha.

That was a yes.

But I shrugged, playing it off to make him get all dramatic and glare at me. “Yeah. It’s important in a town like this.”

Rolling his eyes, Ezra sighed. “One where everyone is either dead or not human.”

Basically.

“It’s still going to be a good story, though.” Eventually.

Ezra finally smiled and nodded. “It’s the best.”

Leaning over, he gave me a kiss and seemed to swallow past a lump in his throat. “Yes. There isn’t anything else I want more in this life or the next but to belong to you.”

“For eternity?” There was no doubt in my mind that we’d be together in our next life as well, but I wanted to make sure he could feel it too.

“For eternity.” Tugging on my hands, he tucked himself against me as I stood and wrapped his arms around my waist. “You’re stuck with me now. No takebacks.”

“So romantic.” My teasing got a snicker out of him, but I kissed his head again and nodded. “The handfasting is supposed to bind us together in this life and the next, baby. I can’t wait to be bound to you for all eternity.”

Rubbing his cheek against my neck, Ezra hid for a moment. “It’s okay if that’s kind of scary, right?”

My baby.

“Yes. The best things in life always start out scary, baby. The trick is just to tackle them together.” I knew it wouldn’t always be smooth sailing…that would be boring…but we could handle anything together.

“You can’t tell anyone I was scared, though. You have to tell it like I was strong and romantic too.” Lifting his head, he glared at me. “Strong and romantic and very glad everyone came to celebrate with us.”

No looking stupid, got it.

“Without a doubt.” Kissing him, I managed not to laugh, but the way he narrowed his eyes at me said it was a bit too obvious. “Are you ready to belong to me forever, baby?”

He huffed. “I think the better question is are you ready to handle me forever?”

Oh, without a doubt.

Unfortunately, before I could say anything else to make him fiery, the magic faded and the fog around us lifted. Stephanie was standing there looking like she’d spent the past five minutes tapping her foot, but she didn’t shake us, so I thought she’d done pretty well.

“Well?”

Okay, fairly well.

“He said yes.” Kissing Ezra’s cheek, I moved beside him and took his hand. “We have a handfasting to get to.”

She rolled her eyes as Ezra snickered. “Yeah, like I’m the one who’s dragging out the inevitable.”

As she turned and started marching toward the backyard again, she mumbled something about already knowing we were perfect together.

“She’s more of a handful than me.” Ezra shook his head. “I’m starting to see why I don’t annoy you.”

I wasn’t sure if I could laugh at that or not, but heading toward the backyard seemed like the right call. Especially as more people started heading in that direction and I could hear a buzz of excitement in the back. “Are you saying my family is a handful?”

My sexy boy was trying to decide if he could do something drastic to me, but he held himself back…mostly because we’d gotten an audience again. “Absolutely.”

Looking relaxed and confident, he took my hand. “Ready?”

“Absolutely.” That got me an eyeroll but he was back to being his wonderfully dramatic self as we made our way to our handfasting and his worst nightmare.

People.

Lots and lots of people.

There must have been another bus I hadn’t seen because I’d clearly underestimated how many people had come.

Ezra thought so too because, as he kept a pleasant look on his face, he whispered softly to me. “What the fuck, Stone?”

“Agreed.” There were people everywhere from the back of the house to the tree line, and they were covering every inch of the grass Ezra was so proud of. He didn’t say anything about that but he let out a sigh as he glanced down. “I know a good lawn guy. He’s not human either. He can fix it.”

He had just enough fae in him to be slightly nuts and really good with plants.

“Thank you.” He aimed a sweet, almost romantic expression in my direction but I could see the threats in his eyes. “You’re very good to me.”

I’d better be good to him seemed to be what he was trying not to say.

“Always.” The fact that I managed to keep a straight face made me the best Dom ever. “Let’s go say hello to everyone.”

Well, at lot of them at least.

Thankfully, most seemed to realize we couldn’t talk to everyone and they hung back, giving us smiles and waves. That seemed easier for Ezra to handle and his stress seemed to be fading to a more manageable level, but my mother took that moment to finally come over.

Her beaming smile had both of us wanting to roll our eyes, but we were polite and played along nicely.

“This is so exciting.” She managed to look happy and relaxed, not seeming to have a care in the world even though she’d ambushed us both. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Duh.

Ezra’s inner teenager must’ve been mirroring mine because his head cocked and I could see him barely holding back his snark. “That’s…wonderful.”

He was going to need a big reward later…he hadn’t even blinked when she’d walked up dressed as a hippy flower child that would’ve looked right at home in an old Wiccan movie.

“Yes. It’s been wonderful so far.” I hoped it would continue too. “What did you do?”

Ezra’s shoulders jerked but he managed not to laugh. One of the younger assembly members beside my mother started coughing, though, which seemed to have Ezra deciding they were going to be best friends judging by the smirk that flashed across his face.

I hadn’t met the guy often enough to know him, and his attitude seemed completely at odds with the suit he was wearing, but he seemed to be just as interesting as Ezra if I was reading him right.

They were going to be trouble.

Hoping they’d both behave, I focused on my mother and tried to hurry her drama along. “I’m sure everyone is excited to know too.”

Because they were all inching closer.

“Marson, you tell them.” Looking at the assembly member who had his coughs under control for the time being, she beamed. “They’re going to be so surprised.”

Huh?

Ezra’s head moved to the other side, so I knew it wasn’t just me that was curious about what was going on.

What had she done?

Besides the handfasting and helping Ezra?

And inviting half the town without telling us.

And busing people in.

And renting porta-potties and the food truck.

Okay, I wasn’t going to complain about getting my tacos back.

“I know you’ve both been frustrated with what probably seemed like a lack of progress in Ezra’s situation.” The understatement with that was so ridiculous half the audience rolled their eyes, but Marson seemed to be good at ignoring drama. “We’re still working through it. There are a lot more…people affected than we first expected.”

Had she gotten someone else killed?

“Fucking hell.” Ezra’s quiet exclamation got nods from everyone around us. “That’s terrible.”

Marson’s expression tightened for a moment, giving away his thoughts, but he pushed it away faster than I expected. When he was smiling again, he looked like he was forcing himself to think of the positive. “But we’re here today with some happy news.”

So not our handfasting?

I’d seen the circle laid out perfectly before everyone had piled around us, but no one else seemed to think it needed to be addressed.

Had we been the only ones to not know about it?

“I have something for you both.” Pulling a folded piece of paper from his breast pocket, Marson held it out between us, probably not sure if Ezra was solid enough to hold the paper.

Ezra didn’t seem sure either, but he carefully kept his hand close to the page as I opened it. At first, I didn’t understand the legalese the letter was written in, but Ezra sucked in a breath, getting it before I did. “Really?”

“Really?” I sounded stupid mirroring Ezra as it finally hit, but I wasn’t sure I was reading it right.

Marson didn’t seem to mind and chuckled. “Really.”

Thankfully, his cheeky response wasn’t his only response. “The council has reverted the right to the property to Ezra and it’s being put into a trust so it can’t be sold away again without his express permission.”

Ezra was just standing there blinking, so I knew the conversation was up to me for the moment. “But there’s something about the parcel number and the size of the land.”

There was no way Ezra’s house was on twenty acres.

We’d walked the boundary of the property and I’d seen how he reacted when he got too close to the edge. “He can’t go past the…”

I started to gesture but Marson jumped back in as my mother did nothing but sigh. “Elizabeth was the real estate agent who handled dividing up the original property. It was one of her first sales and possibly the first time she committed fraud.”

That long ago?

“I…” I didn’t know what to say, honestly.

Marson nodded. “We’re going to be sorting through this for years, but the one thing we were able to do was to use the original deed to have the land re-blessed. Ezra is now tied to both plots of land and it should make it possible for him to use both.”

That left us speechless for several long moments before Ezra swallowed. “Thank you. Thank you for working on that for us.”

Most people around us didn’t seem to understand the emotional impact of what they’d done, but Marson looked filled with remorse for a few long moments before it was gone in a flash. He clearly wanted to apologize for something. “You’re welcome. We’re going to keep making progress on this and I’ll probably have more news for you soon. But this was what we wanted to be able to surprise you with today.”

“It’s a wonderful gift. Thank you.” Finally finding my own voice, I reached out to shake his hand. “Thank you.”

Before we could sink too deep into the emotion of the moment, my mother sighed again. The dramatic and romance-infused sound had Ezra trying not to smile again. “My gift for your handfasting will never compare, but this was perfect.”

Now she admitted why everyone was there?

Did she think we’d talked about this?

Ezra blinked at her a few times and smiled politely once he realized I didn’t have the words for her nonsense. “Yours is going to be perfect in another way, but we won’t worry about that yet.”

He was good at being polite when he wanted to be…but I was incredibly glad I got to see the real Ezra.

My mother just sighed again and looked like she was performing in a bad rom-com. “You’re so sweet. Oh, I can see why Stone loves you to eternity and back.”

Ezra squeezed my hand, but before we had to come up with a reasonable response, she jumped closer and gave us both careful hugs. “No time for that now, though. We have one decision to make.”

Like asking if we wanted to get handfasted?

No.

“Would you like the handfasting to be first or the ceremony to give Ezra his form back?” Somehow she thought that was reasonable to spring on us, but she really needed to ask us questions that were easier to answer and in the right order.

I wasn’t sure if it was something I should decide or not, but Ezra answered quietly and with more confidence than I expected. “My form, please.”

He glanced up at me, staring at me like he wasn’t sure I was real. “Then our handfasting.”

I just wanted to be bound to him, so I nodded. “Anything you want, baby.”

Still focused on me and looking like he’d tuned everything else out but us, he nodded. “For eternity.”

For time and all eternity.