He thinks for a second and then says, “I’ll bring you in. When you find out your boss has gone missing tomorrow, it will shock and upset you, of course, and then you can quit because your new husband is too worried about you continuing to work in a place that may be unsafe.”
“How do I explain you to people?”
“I’m an old friend of the family who recently came back into your life. Sparks flew. You’re madly in love with me.” He gives me a wink that has me smiling like the lovesick woman he’s just painted me as. “We decided to elope because we couldn’t wait any longer.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best, but if I manage to pull this off, then we get to go shopping tomorrow for some Christmas decorations.”
He groans like I’ve just signed us up for caroling with one of the local churches. “Fine, if you insist.”
“I do.” I look around at the undecorated inside of the house. “You can’t even tell Christmas is a few days away.”
“Exactly,” he says, walking into the kitchen. “Don’t think that wasn’t planned.”
“I’ll make a Christmas lover of you yet. We can even do matching sweaters and make cookies together.”
He groans again while I stop to make sure Nutmeg has plenty of food and water. “It’s still okay if I keep my cat?”
“I’m not going to make you give up your damn cat.” He eyes the black bundle that’s cuddled up on one of the chairs in the living room. “I don’t mind having him around.”
I don’t even try to hide my grin.
“Okay, enough gloating. Let’s go get the rest of your stuff. Your stepsister will be so thrilled to see us again. What’s the deal with her anyway?”
“It’s a long story.” I turn my back and look in the fridge for a bottle of water, hoping he’ll just drop it. It’s not an explanation I want to give today. When I shut the door and take a drink, he’s still looking at me.
Finally, he says, “I’d like to hear about that one day.”
I nod my head and take another drink. “Okay, let’s get this over with. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she won’t be home.”
We do not get lucky. As soon as I unlock the door, her annoyed face is glaring at me from the kitchen. She smirks at me, her eyes lit up with smug gloating, before she says, “Your boyfriend get tired of you already? Can’t say I blame him.”
She’s barely started her harsh laugh when Aleksandr steps in with the boxes we brought and wraps an arm around me. “Husband, actually.”
Shelly’s mouth drops open. “What?”
Aleksandr kisses the top of my head and holds me tighter. “We decided to just go for it. Life is short, and I didn’t want to waste another second of not having Holly as my wife.” He shoots me a grin. “I finally convinced her to elope with me.”
I’ve got to hand it to him. The man is good. I almost believe the lie, or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. Either way, it feels good to be held by him, and seeing my stepsister’s pinched face is icing on the damn cake.
“I didn’t even know about you until yesterday, and now you expect me to believe that you’ve run off and gotten married?”
“Believe it or don’t believe it. I don’t give a shit. We are married, though, and we’re getting my wife’s things.”
Shelly turns her angry gaze on me. “So you’re just bailing on rent?”
“Please, you never wanted me here anyway. You’ve made that abundantly clear. Besides, now Billy can move in with you. I’m sure he’ll love that.”
I can tell by Shelly’s face that inviting her lazy-ass boyfriend to live with her is not going to happen anytime soon. Ignoring her as best I can, I grab Aleksandr’s hand and lead him into my room. He starts to build the boxes while I look around and figure out what I’m going to take with me. The bed was already here when I moved in, and the other stuff I just picked up from used stores, and it all looks like it’s not going to survive much longer.
“I just want to bring my books and personal things,” I say, pointing to the bookshelf that’s stuffed so full the shelves dip in the middle.
“I’ll start on the books,” he says, already grabbing a stack while I walk over to my small dresser and start shoving clothes into a box. My face heats up when I empty my underwear drawer and realize how unsexy every single thing I own is. I bite back a groan and shove my gingerbread cookie panties under a pile of socks and quickly close the lid. When I look over to make sure Aleksandr didn’t see, he’s reading the back of the first book in one of my favorite fantasy series.
“Do you mind if I read this?” he asks, surprising the hell out of me.
“Of course. I mean, they’re kind of yours now too. You can read any of them you want.”
He gives me a small smile and finishes packing the last row of books while I fill another box with some of my childhood things that I don’t want to part with. The last thing I pack is a photo album from when I was young. Taking in the now pretty much empty room, I realize that I don’t have much to show for twenty-three years of living.