“Mom, we have to tell you something,” he said as soon as his mother pulled back from hugging Marybeth, relieved that he could finally share the best thing in his life with his family.
“What is it, sweetheart?” she asked with that warm smile that had always made him feel like he was her most favorite person in the world. It was the same smile that she gave all her children, but that never made it feel any less special.
He looked down at Marybeth to find his wife throwing Patrick a curious look before he focused back on his mother. “Mom, Marybeth and I got married,” he announced unable to stop himself from sighing with satisfaction.
It really did feel great to finally-
“Oh, sweetie, there’s really no need to hide who you are,” she said, her smile turning somewhat pitying as she reached up and cupped his cheek.
“I’m not hiding who I am,” he bit out evenly as he glared down at his mother. “Marybeth and I got married three weeks ago.”
His mother dropped her hand away with an exasperated sigh. “Sweetheart, there’s really no need to lie to me. I love you no matter what.”
“Woman,” he bit out, forcing himself to take a deep breath before he continued and said something that he would regret later when his father hunted him down and beat the shit out of him for making his mother cry, “for the last time, I’m not gay!”
“Darrin Bradford, we did not raise you to be ashamed of who you are!” she whispered softly, but no less firmly, the same way that she had when he was a kid and she was trying not to draw attention to the fact that she was seconds away from spanking him into the next decade.
“I’m not ashamed of who I am! For the love of all that’s holy, woman, I’m not-”
“I’m going to grab something to eat,” Marybeth suddenly said, cutting him off and cluing him into the fact that he’d married a disloyal woman.
“Are you not going to come to my defense?” he demanded as the treacherous woman pulled her hand away and deftly snatched his wallet out of his back pocket.
“No, not really,” she said, sounding bored as she relieved his wallet of twenty dollars before she tossed it back to him.
“We took vows, woman!”
Blinking, she looked up at him and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Marybeth,” he snarled her name in warning, but just like all those other times that she’d screwed him over for her own amusement, she ignored him.
“Darrin,” she said, sighing his name heavily in a way that let him know just how much she was enjoying this, “it’s okay. She knows.”
Eyes locked on his devious wife, he snarled the only warning that she would get. “Don’t.”
“Darrin, Darrin, Darrin,” she said, tsking as she shook her head sadly as she reached up and cupped his face, “don’t hide who you are. Embrace the real you.”
“I hate you,” he said, glaring down at his wife.
“You know that you don’t mean that,” she said, giving his cheek a condescending pat before she dropped her hands away.
“Oh, but I really do,” he said, glaring down at her even as he smiled that smile that he knew she would interpret correctly.
Her eyes narrowed in an assessing manor as she glared right back up at him, obviously trying to decide if it was worth pushing him on this matter. After a minute and a groan, she reached back up, cupped his face rather violently, yanked him down and kissed him, right there in front of his mother and for the world to see.
Christ, he loved this woman.
He never wanted to let her go and if he had his way, he never would. Tilting his head, he deepened the kiss as his arms came around her generously curved body and pulled her close. For six years he’d waited patiently for the day when he was allowed to hold her in public like this and now that he had her in his arms he would do anything to whisk her back to their room where he’d pull her closer, kiss her harder, strip her out of her clothes and of course, get away from the crazed woman hitting him with her purse!
“Ow! Why the hell are you hitting me, woman?” he demanded with a wince as he stepped away from his wife and ducked out of the way of the next swing.
“Marybeth is your best friend and deserves better than to be dragged into this!” she hissed as she glared daggers at him. “If you’re not comfortable admitting who you are, that’s fine, but you do not drag sweet Marybeth into this!”
Too stunned to speak, he glanced down at his wife only to find her biting back a yawn as she glanced over her shoulder towards the hotel gift shop. “I’m going to go grab something to drink,” she muttered, sounding bored while he stood there somehow resisting the urge to drag her over his lap and spank her beautiful ass.
“Oh, a drink sounds like a wonderful idea,” his mother said, smiling approvingly before she murmured a goodbye to Patrick and shot him a pitying look and walked off, leaving him with the man still staring up at him.
“I’m not gay,” he said, for some reason needing to say the words.
“No, no of course you’re not,” Patrick murmured, not really sounding like he meant it.
“I’m not.”
Patrick blinked up at him. “Of course you’re not.”
Eyes narrowing on the placating bastard, he snapped, “I’m not!”
Patrick cleared his throat uncomfortably before he explained with a helpless shrug, “Look, you don’t have to worry about it. I didn’t want to hurt your mother’s feelings, but you’re really not my type.”
He snorted at that, he really had to. “Like you ever had a chance with me.”
“Sorry, I’m just not into….,” he started to say, only to let his words trail off as he gestured lazily towards Darrin and gave him another one of those damn shrugs that was really starting to piss him off.
Before he could sprout any more bullshit, and they both knew that he was full of shit, Darrin held up his hand and shook his head with a long, sad sigh, “Let’s not play this game since we both know that I’m way out of your league.”
“Butch is out,” Patrick said with a shrug as he pulled his phone out, clearly dismissing him, but he refused to be dismissed, especially by this little bastard lying his ass off.
“I’m not butch,” he bit out, glaring down at the bastard giving him the brush off.
“Uh huh, whatever you say,” Patrick murmured, absently shooting him an indifferent smile before he returned his attention back to the small cellphone in his hands.