He took my coat, hung it up, and then took hold of my hips, a smirk tugging at his lips. “I wasn’t talking about candy,” he said, his eyes locked on me like lasers.
“I know,” I whispered.
He kissed me and guided me to his sofa, and it’s a damn good thing I wasn’t chocolate. Because I would have melted right into the white fabric of his couch. What a mess that would have been.
CHAPTER 25
CATARINA
Dustin had a late afternoon workout,so I had the house to myself for a few hours.
I called Pheobe to catch up, a little bit, then logged into my work computer for a while and got up-to-date on a few journals I had been needing to read. Because of the time Dustin and I needed to spend together to get to know each other for our big visa interview coming up, I rolled back my work schedule slightly. I missed my patients, but I also worked in one of the top hospitals in the country so I knew they would be in good hands no matter who was taking care of them.
After a while of reading and lounging, I had to admit I wasn’t exactly hating the housewife life. Though I wondered if it was only a temporary feeling. I had the kind of mind where I could spend one, maybe two days without working, but by day three I felt antsy. I guessed it wasn’t workaholism if you loved your work.
Since I had some extra time, I organized the bottles of liquor that were in Dustin’s bar, then did the same for his bookshelf. I was surprised to find he had a big section of non-fiction psychology.
Then, because I was in a good mood, I went all out and cooked a big plate of paella—seafood with rice—and sliced some traditional Spanishjamón y queso, then popped a bottle of delicious, dark red wine and started sipping a glass just before he came in.
When Dustin rolled through the door as the evening set in, a look of surprise crossed his face. “What’s that smell?” he said.
I was sitting with my legs up on the couch, reading a book. “Hey! I made dinner. Surprise.”
He set his bag down tentatively and took off his shoes.
“Did you . . . mess something up? Or something?” he asked.
“No, but I did organize your liquor bottles in the house bar so top shelf is actually on the top shelf now. And I put the books on your shelf in author order, by genre. It was an OCD moment. I didn’t know if that was my place, but it was bugging me.”
He sat down on the couch next to me and stared at me like I was an alien.
“Do I have something on my face?”
“No,” he chuckled. “But I do just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” I shrugged.
“I just wasn’t expecting all this.”
“Well, maybe you should raise your expectations.”
“I could. But then you wouldn’t be able to constantly make my day with your little surprises.”
“We’ve finally got some momentum going in this marriage, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I mean, a puck bunny dress up, a delicious meal . . . how will I ever repay you?”
“Maybe you’ll repay me by realizing that it’s just fun to do nice things for people.” I was about to say,you could tell me about the woman you were thinking of earlier,but I held my tongue.
We ate dinner and he said it was the best paella he’d eaten in his life. We finished the bottle of wine and had another half-bottle, and then we fell asleep on the couch, watchingGhost, with Dustin’s big arm draped around me as we slept.
Though worry crept in for the call we needed to have tomorrow.
Although my family had seen the viral video, I’d done a fantastic job during the first month of making only small talk and keeping the conversation light when they asked about Dustin.
When are we going to meet him?My Aunt Sabrina had texted at least ten times.
The truth was, I had been putting off this call. I was fine with lying to the immigration office all day about the depth—and the rationale—behind our quick marriage. But my family—especially my aunt—had a penchant for sniffing out the truth when it came to matters like this. And I felt horrible lying to them. But two thoughts saved me:
