Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
“My parents are freaking out to meet him. Dad’s publicly congratulated us on his social media, saying how happy he is I found my person, but they’re also confused as to why they never met him pre-wedding and haven’t since. I just…what if they get attached to him? What if he gets attached to them? There’s so much shit we didn’t think about, and now that it’s put into play, we can’t change our minds.” It was all I’d been thinking about.
“It’ll be okay. The two of you will figure it out. And the thing is, people get attached all the time and divorces happen all the time. So if you and Parker end up going your separate ways, they’ll deal with the same thing anyone else does in a divorce.”
“Yeah, but most people get married and plan on it working out. We know it won’t—wait, what do you mean if we go our separate ways? I’m not staying married to him. I’m not in love with him.”
“Maybe you will be by the end.”
I huffed. “Nope. I can’t see that happening.”
He shrugged. “I never said it would. Just maybe.”
“Okay, but what would make you say that at all?” I didn’t know why I was obsessing about this, and clearly from the way Vaughn looked at me, he didn’t either.
“I don’t know, man. Forget I said it. Can we eat now, or are you going to obsessively talk about your husband?”
Well, when he put it like that… I definitely wasn’t going to talk about Parker anymore.
A couple of minutes later, I asked, “Have you ever been to his bakery?” Thankfully, Vaughn wasn’t in my head to realize I’d sworn off discussing Parker yet hadn’t stopped thinking about him the whole time.
* * *
I’d just left Vaughn and had climbed into my car when my cell rang. I groaned when Mom flashed on the screen, but I knew better than not to answer it. I’d played that game in Vegas, and it didn’t typically fly. Plus, I was home now and she could be anywhere, showing up at any moment. It didn’t matter how old you were, moms were like that. At least mine was.
“Hello,” I said, and was immediately interrupted.
“Elliott Delgado Weaver, I’ve been patient enough. If you don’t bring that husband of yours to the house, I’m going to show up at your place and meet him myself. Your father has been pretending to know his son-in-law when he hasn’t spoken a word to the man. Do you know how many times he’s been asked about your marriage? Too many to count, and he’s supporting you and saying how happy we are for you—which we are if this is real the way you say it is, but I don’t understand why we haven’t met him. I’m not going to accept it anymore!”
Shit. She was right. Not for the first time, I was reminded how lucky I was to have them. That was part of the reason I didn’t want them to meet Parker. I felt too guilty about this whole thing. “I know, Mama. I’m sorry. You middle-named me and everything. I know how serious this is.” My parents had wanted me to have part of my Cuban heritage in my name, so they’d given me my mom’s maiden name as my middle one.
“Why don’t you want us to meet him?”
“That’s not how it is. I promise. We just didn’t expect the news to get out. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but once we made the decision to get married, we thought we would be able to slowly work everyone into it because we know it’s fast and that people might have concerns.”
She sighed. “I guess, but…you’re mi niño. I was supposed to meet him first. That’s how it works. You know how I am. Dating is a family experience for me, and I didn’t get that.”
I closed my eyes, trying not to spill the truth right then. It wasn’t fair to Parker. We’d made a plan, and I owed it to him to stick to it. “I know, Mama.” Fuck, I hated this. “I’ll talk to Parker about his work schedule to see if we can come this weekend. Dad will be home?” Sometimes he had to go to DC for work.
“Yeah, he’ll be home. I’ll see you this weekend.”
“See you then. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
We ended the call, and I banged my head against the steering wheel a few times as if that would make it so none of this had happened.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t work.
I drove over to Beach Buns rather than waiting to see Parker at home tonight because he lived with me and he was my husband so that was a thing that happened.
He went in at the ass-crack of dawn every day, so he usually got off around two or three in the afternoon, though often he worked late. If there was one thing I learned about Parker in the short time we’d been married—Jesus, that was so fucking crazy to think—it was how much he truly loved baking and his bakery.