First Comes Marriage (Aster Bay #3)

Chapter Nine

Charlotte Graham lived in the same two-bedroom Cape a block away from the industrial park that she’d lived in all of Baz’s life. Despite Baz’s repeated offer to buy her something nicer, something bigger, something in a better part of town, his mother adamantly refused. “This house is my home,” she’d say. “I don’t need anything fancy.”

What she never understood was that she might not have needed it, but he needed her to have it, to know he’d made her life better, that he’d provided the security and ease his father never did. But Charlotte Graham didn’t care all that much for ease, as evidenced by the fact she continued to work as a hair stylist, completely ignoring Baz’s repeated pleas to let him help her retire.

Ethan’s truck pulled into the driveway along the side of Baz’s mother’s house and Baz made a mental note to send the landscaper by to trim the hedges. His mother might not have let him truly take care of her the way he wanted to, but she at least allowed him the small gesture of hiring a landscaper to look after the lawn and flower garden at the front of the house. She’d fought him at first, but all it took was one slip and fall on the icy front walk for her to relent and accept the help.

“Should I—I mean, do you want me to—I’d be happy to come in and—” Sabrina stumbled through the words.

Baz shook his head sharply as he hopped out of the truck. “You go talk to your aunt.”

She glanced uneasily at Ethan, before climbing out after Baz. She gripped his forearm so he couldn’t walk away, lowering her voice to keep Ethan from hearing. “What are you going to tell your mom?”

“What do you want me to tell her?”

Her lips parted as though she would speak, but no sound came out. She blinked rapidly a few times, each flutter of her eyelashes winding some hidden coil in his chest, tighter and tighter with each moment she hesitated. “You should tell her the truth.”

“What truth is that?” He stepped closer and dropped his voice low. “Should I tell her that I know the way you press against me when I kiss you, or how it feels to wake up with you in my arms?” He wasn’t sure if the blush rising beneath the smattering of freckles across her cheekbones was a victory or another temptation. “Or that we got drunk in a bar in Vegas and lost our fucking minds? That this whole thing was a way to get back at your sister? Which truth are we telling today, Sabrina?”

He hated the flash of hurt in her eyes, but it was necessary. If he was going to survive this marriage—however brief it may be—he needed to remember that it was all a stupid mistake. Sabrina didn’t want him, just like her sister hadn’t wanted him. And the fact she made his dick hard didn’t mean he wanted her either. Biology wasn’t enough to build a marriage on.

He scraped his hand over his jaw. “I’ll come get you when I’m done here and help you bring your things back to your aunt’s.”

He strode away from her, towards his mother’s house. He didn’t want to see any more of Sabrina’s reactions. If she was upset that he was planning to send her home to her aunt, he didn’t want to know. And, quite frankly, if she wasn’t upset, he didn’t want to know that either .

“Oh, good, you’re home!”

They turned to see Sabrina’s aunt and Baz’s mother standing arm in arm on the front step.

Baz tilted his chin at Ethan, who waved his goodbye and got the hell out of dodge. Lucky bastard.

When Baz reached the front step, Sabrina right behind him, his mother pulled him down into a hug, hands pressed to his cheeks like she used to do when he was a boy. She practically bounced on the balls of her feet when she asked, “Did you just get back?”

Fuck. She already knows.

“You know?” he asked.

“Maybe, but tell us anyway.”

Christ, her smile was wide enough to look like it must hurt.

He scrubbed his hand over his face, but barely got past his eyes before his mother gasped, taking hold of his hand and pulling it towards her to get a better look. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, it’s true! You got married!”

“Mom, it’s not—”

She squealed and threw her arms around him, jumping up and down while he stood frozen to the spot. “I can’t believe it! Helen White said you’d done it, but I didn’t believe it. Oh, honey, I’m so damn happy for you. And with Sabrina! Who would have thought?” she laughed. She released him and jogged down the front step, pulling Sabrina into a hug, swaying with her in her arms in the middle of the driveway.

Sabrina’s aunt held out her arms to him and, despite his better judgment, he let her fold him into a hug of her own.

“Hi, Mrs. Page.”

“Knock that off. It’s Aunt Lucy.” She squeezed him tighter. “Shouldn’t you two be on your honeymoon?”

Then the two women switched and he was back in his mother’s embrace as Aunt Lucy gripped Sabrina’s arms, her eyes welling with tears. “You got married ! Oh, dear heart, I couldn’t believe it when your mother called!”

“Mom knows?” Sabrina’s voice wobbled and she looked like she was ready to faint but her aunt didn’t seem to notice.

“Of course, she does. She’s none too happy she found out about it from your sister, but she’ll come around.” Her aunt pulled back, holding Sabrina by the arms. “Let me get a look at you, all grown up and married to such a handsome young man,” she said, shooting a grin at Sebastian.

“It’s complicated.” Baz stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep himself from reaching for Sabrina.

“Well, of course, it’s complicated ,” his mother laughed. “You almost married her sister! I imagine it’s plenty complicated, but that doesn’t make it any less wonderful.” She squeezed his arm before pulling away from him and holding open the front door, urging everyone inside. “I’ve got a bottle of champagne somewhere, I’m sure of it, just waiting for a special occasion.”

“Don’t open the champagne, Mom,” he groaned as they all filed into the kitchen.

“It’s not every day my only child gets married! If I want to open the champagne, I’m going to open the damn champagne.” Her top half disappeared inside the fridge for a moment, before she reappeared, bottle of champagne in hand and a triumphant grin on her face.

Baz sighed and took a seat at the kitchen table beside Sabrina as his mother twisted the cap off the cheap champagne and poured them each a glass.

“Helen White and I arranged for your things to be moved into your husband’s condo. Now you two can get right into the business of married life, no need to delay for silly details,” Aunt Lucy said as she handed Sabrina a glass of champagne.

“You really shouldn’t have done that, Auntie.” Sabrina leaned back in her chair, massaging a spot low on her stomach with the heel of her hand.

“It was no trouble at all. Gavin West—he’s a professor over at the university, and good friends with your young man here, you see—was happy to loan us his spare key. And Helen really can be quite convincing when she wants to be.” Aunt Lucy laughed as she set a glass of champagne in front of Baz. “Thank heavens for us all she only uses her powers for good, isn’t that right, Charlotte? We moved you all in but stopped short of putting your things away. I told Helen I didn’t think Sebastian would appreciate us rummaging about in his drawers, even if it was for a good cause.”

Thank God for small miracles.

“Oh! And I told Norm—he’s the head of the Merchants’ Association, you know—to leave your permits with me. I’ve got them right here.” Aunt Lucy dug in her purse on the kitchen counter as she kept talking, Baz’s mother looking at him and Sabrina with such affection he thought he might be sick. “Helen thought Sebastian might use a PO box for his mail and I didn’t want them to get lost in some silly mix-up because I didn’t know the right address. Speaking of which, I really must get your new address so I can update my book.”

“Permits?” Sabrina asked, digging her hand harder into her abdomen.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his eye glued to the spot.

She gave him a tight nod, but he couldn’t help the feeling that she was lying. Something was wrong—something other than their family members popping champagne to celebrate their drunken mistake.

“Your business permits. You see, once Ruthie Greene and I told Norm how you’d selflessly volunteered to go to the conference on the Association’s behalf, he softened a bit towards your application. But then Helen told him that you and Sebastian had gotten married, so he had no doubt that you’d be staying in town long term.” Aunt Lucy handed an envelope to Sabrina and took up a position leaning against the counter next to his mother. “And then Helen pointed out that we already have a lingerie shop and a boudoir photography studio in town—oh, and that adult store that I keep meaning to stop by—” Baz shuddered “—well, once she’d said all that, he could hardly deny your application simply because you teach people to make clay genitalia.”

Baz’s eyes snapped to the older woman. “Excuse me?”

“Auntie,” Sabrina groaned.

“What? That’s what they are, dear heart. A clay penis is still a penis.”

Baz surveyed his mother, who didn’t seem the least bit phased by this insane conversation.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised, darling,” his mother said, clucking her tongue. “There’s no need to hide it from me. Lucy and I have been getting to know each other all morning waiting for you two to return. I know all about my daughter-in-law’s business.”

More than I do, apparently.

“I believe the only stipulation is that you don’t display the penises in the store window,” Aunt Lucy concluded.

Sabrina shifted in her seat, wincing as she did. What the hell is going on?

“I don’t display the penises anywhere,” she said through gritted teeth. “I smash them.”

Aunt Lucy froze. “Well, that seems a bit harsh.”

“Enough about the penises,” Baz’s mother said, taking up the seat on the other side of him and gripping his hand. “Tell me how this happened.”

“Seems like a waste of a perfectly good penis,” Aunt Lucy muttered to herself as she took another sip of her champagne.

“There’s not much to tell,” Baz hedged.

“Oh, don’t be coy with me,” his mother said with a knowing look. “You left here a few days ago a confirmed bachelor and now I have a daughter-in-law!”

What could he say? Sabrina liked margaritas and didn’t get along with her family. She wore skirts that drove him out of his damn mind and was afraid of flying. She still smelled like wildflowers and he couldn’t stop thinking about the freckles on her clavicle and she’d only married him because they were both drunk off their asses and she wanted to get back at her sister.

Christ, what had he gotten himself into?

How could he look his mother in the eye and tell her that his marriage was a mistake, that it wasn’t real?

“There’s quite a bit of an age difference between you two, isn’t there?” his mother prompted.

“Twelve years,” Sabrina said with a slight grimace as he said, “She’s not as young as Tessa or Kyla.”

His mother laughed. “Well, no, I suppose she isn’t. Gavin and Jamie did fall for lovely young women, though. I’m sure your wife will get along perfectly fine with them all.”

My wife. His mouth went dry. He’d long ago given up on the idea of ever calling someone by that particular title, but hearing his mother say it, hearing her speculate about how well Sabrina would get along with his friends, he couldn’t deny how much he liked it.

You stupid asshole.

“How’d it happen?” Aunt Lucy leaned forward eagerly. “Did you see each other on the plane and old feelings came rushing back? You know, I always thought you protested a bit too much when Holly said you had a crush on him. And now, all these years later, to think you two were the ones who were meant to be together all along!”

A puff of air left Sabrina’s lips as she dug her hand into her side.

Enough. He didn’t know what was wrong, but there was no denying something wasn’t right, and if Sabrina wasn’t going to tell him in front of the welcome wagon, then he would have to take her somewhere she would.

Baz got to his feet, sliding his arm around Sabrina’s waist and helping her to her feet. “We’re tired from the flight. If you'll excuse us.”

“Oh, yes, you poor things,” his mother said, getting to her feet. “All that excitement and travel.”

“You must be exhausted,” Aunt Lucy said. “Let me drive you back to Sebastian’s.”

“We’ll call a car,” Baz said, leading Sabrina to the front door.

She’d gone pale, her eyes hazy. As he placed the order on the app on his phone, he wondered if he ought to call an ambulance instead.

“You good?” he asked, his lips against her ear so only she could hear.

“Fine.” She gave him that tight nod again, but her jaw was clenched, hand clasped to her side. The appendix was on the lower right side, wasn’t it? Or was he thinking of the gallbladder? Some expendable organ known to cause dramatic emergency room visits, surely.

“Now, I know, you’ll want your privacy as you settle in as newlyweds. I promise, I won’t stop by unannounced.” His mother followed behind them as they made their way to the door. “I think you’ll agree we don’t need a repeat of that time I came home early the summer before you started college and found you and—”

“Mom, please.” Having his mother walk in on him with his head between Cindy Parker’s legs had been bad enough, he didn’t need to relive the experience.

His mother laughed. “You get my point. But maybe you two could come up for air long enough to join me for dinner next weekend.”

“Maybe,” he hedged.

“I have to go to Brookline next weekend,” Sabrina said, but he wasn’t sure if she was serious or just trying to shake the invitation.

“Alright, I won’t push. ”

On the front step, Aunt Lucy snagged Sabrina’s hand, pulling her off to the side of the driveway for a hushed conversation. Baz’s eyes stayed on her the entire time, scanning for signs of—he didn’t know what he was looking for, but he knew something was wrong.

His mother came up beside him, sliding her arm around his waist and resting her head against his shoulder. “I’m so happy for you, Sebastian. You know, after everything that happened with Holly, I thought you’d given up on finding true love. And you seemed happy enough, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want more for you.”

He glanced at his mother before returning his attention to Sabrina. “What do you mean?”

“I wanted you to know the kind of love that changes you, the kind that lights a fire in your belly and keeps on burning, come hell or high water. To know what it’s like to have someone look at you like maybe you’re magic, and for you to feel the same about them. And now you have that.”

His gut twisted, bile rising at the back of his throat as he swallowed down the truth and gave her a short nod. How could he tell her that he didn’t have any of those things? All he had was a set of cheap wedding rings and the fuzzy memory of his wedding night to a woman whose family had already decided he wasn’t good enough, a woman who he hadn’t spoken to in ten years and who damn near had a panic attack at the mere idea of being his wife.

Across the driveway, Sabrina’s eyes met his. Her face had gone gray, her brow crinkled as she winced again. He was across the pavement, pulling her into his side, before she could even lift her hand to press against her abdomen. She melted against him with a little exhale of relief that made him feel ten feet tall.

He pressed his lips to her forehead. “It’s time to go.”

** *

“I guess at least they didn’t also try to unpack my things.” Sabrina nudged one of the boxes stacked neatly in the corner of Baz’s living room. Her entire life crammed into a handful of boxes and old suitcases. If she hadn’t finally gotten a reprieve from the period cramps from hell, she’d be inclined to feel sorry for herself, but as it was, all she wanted to do was figure out which box her aunt had packed her pads in before the cramps returned.

And Sebastian seemed to have calmed down now that she wasn’t white as a sheet and two seconds away from cursing every female hormone in her body. But for a while there, as they’d driven home from his mother’s house together in the back seat of some guy’s Toyota Camry, he’d seemed rattled. Most people wouldn’t have noticed the cracks in his stoic demeanor, but she’d clocked the way his eyes kept flitting to her, his lips pressed together into a flat line every time she shifted in her seat, the crease between his brows when she flinched as another cramp took hold.

Now, Sebastian stood in the middle of the living room, a good ten feet away from her, as though he were afraid of getting too close. A wild laugh bubbled up in Sabrina’s chest and she clamped her lips shut to keep it contained. Her husband didn’t want to get close to her—at least not when she wasn’t on the brink of passing out from period pain. What the hell had her life even become?

He turned in a circle, hands on his hips, as though trying to decide what to do next, before letting out a grunt and gathering up two of the boxes like they weighed nothing at all. He took the boxes and headed down the hallway off the living room, Sabrina following on his heels. As they walked, he tilted his head towards a closed door on one side of the hall. “Bathroom’s through there. ”

He pushed open a door on the other side of the hall, leading her into a sparsely decorated bedroom. He set the boxes on the floor and headed back out to the living room for more. The room was clean and bright, a large window overlooking the bay letting in plenty of natural light. The queen-sized bed in the center of the room looked like it had never been slept in, and the dresser drawers were, unsurprisingly, empty.

Sebastian returned, setting down another pair of boxes.

“You don’t need to do that,” she said. He arched an eyebrow at her and shook his head, turning back towards the living room. She followed after him. “I mean, if I’m not staying, there’s no point in moving me into the guest room.”

His step faltered, but he continued on moving the boxes.

Sabrina huffed out a frustrated breath and leaned back against the hallway wall, watching as he worked.

He dropped the box in his hands inside the door of the guest room and turned on her, planting his hands on his hips. “My mom and your aunt. They seemed…”

“Happy?” He grunted in agreement, and she slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. The cramps may have stopped for now, but they would be back. They always came back. And their brief, unexpected appearance earlier coupled with the insanity of that conversation at Sebastian’s mother’s house had drained any energy she had left. “Aunt Lucy is the only one who’s never seemed disappointed in me, you know?”

She hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

Sebastian stared at her for a long, silent moment, something working behind his eyes as a muscle in his jaw ticked. Finally he cleared his throat and looked away. “It’ll probably take a few days at least for my lawyer to figure out the annulment. Maybe until then we could…”

“What?”

“Not tell them.”

“You’re serious? You want to pretend to be married? ”

“We are married,” he reminded her, taking a step closer. He reached his hand out to her and pulled her to her feet, leaving only a few inches between them.

She nodded, processing his proposal. “And I’d live here?”

“You stay here in the guest room. Bathroom across the hall is all yours.” He tilted his chin towards the wall behind the guest bed’s headboard. “I have an en suite in my room.”

“So we’d be like roommates. Just for a few days?”

“Until the annulment is settled. Then we can tell everyone we realized we rushed into things.”

“They’ll still be disappointed. But maybe not as disappointed as they’ll be when they find out this whole thing was the result of one too many margaritas.”

“One?”

“Hey.” She punched him lightly on the bicep, laughing.

The jostling of her abdomen sent another cramp shooting through her side and she pressed her hand to it, hissing. His brows pulled together as his eyes zeroed in on the spot on her side, his lips pulling into a frown.

She waved him off. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“You’re not.” He brushed the back of his hand over her forehead as though he were checking for a fever.

A shiver ran down her spine at the touch. “I will be,” she said, busying herself with fluffing the curtains. As if she’d ever fluffed curtains before in her life. But she needed to do something with her hands. Caring, concerned Sebastian was a version of him she wasn’t prepared for. “See? You don’t want to stay married to me. I can’t even laugh without falling apart,” she joked.

“You don’t have to tell me what it is, but maybe you should see a doctor about it.”

She snorted. “If you know of one who takes self-pay patients without bankrupting them, let me know.”

His stony silence was deafening. She glanced over her shoulder to find him scrubbing his hand through his hair, messing up all that coiffed perfection. “You don’t have health insurance?”

“I will. As soon as I open my studio. And save up for a few months. Three months. Four, tops. Definitely by Christmas.” And now you’re rambling. Great.

He planted his hands on his hips and hung his head, sighing. When he looked back up at her, his jaw was tense but there was a softness to his eyes that raised goosebumps on her skin.

“I’ll add you to my policy in the morning.”

“What?”

“You’re my wife, Sabrina,” he growled, and oh shit, that growly thing did terrible, wonderful things to her.

“What about the annulment?”

“You’ll stay on my policy until you can buy your own. Until Christmas. The annulment can wait until then.”

“Why would you do that for me?”

He looked away, his Adam’s apple bobbing with his swallow. “You’re in pain. You should see a doctor.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice choked with an emotion she was afraid to name. Gratitude and surprise and something dangerously close to letting herself feel things for this man she’d tried so hard not to feel anything for. She moved closer to him, but stopped short of hugging him, despite the way her arms ached to wrap around him.

He gave one small, tight nod, and adjusted a box, as though he, too, needed something to distract himself. “Next weekend. You’re going to Brookline?”

“My mother has demanded that I attend her annual Labor Day party. She wants the whole family together to celebrate Hol—”

She swallowed the rest of the sentence. She wasn’t sure if she should talk to him about her sister, which was ironic considering they wouldn’t be married if she hadn’t gotten drunk and babbled about Holly in the first place. His eyes scanned her face, settling on the gold chains around her neck. He hooked a finger beneath the longest chain, catching the small ceramic charm and moving it to the center of her chest, where he gently placed the cool pottery against her skin.

When he looked back up at her, his eyes were shuttered.

“What about Holly?”

Sabrina cleared her throat, suddenly all too aware of that charm lying in the dip of her clavicle, of how much she liked having his hands on the jewelry she’d made. On her.

“She made partner.”

He looked as though he wanted to say something, and she found herself rocking towards him on the balls of her feet, hungry for whatever words he might give her.

Across the room, tucked in her purse, her phone rang. She closed her eyes, dropping back on her heels. “That’s probably Mom now.”

“Answer it.”

“She’s going to expect you to come to the party too. But I can skip it. It wouldn’t be the first time I let her down,” she said, forcing a chuckle.

“Answer it.” He stepped away from her, putting distance between them as he dug his hands into his pants pockets. She hated every inch of that space, of the blank look in his eyes. “You can tell her I look forward to seeing her again.”