“What?” Liz laughed.
“You’re not gonna trick me into falling for all this. Your beautiful farm life with a hot buff husband and two-point-five kids and seventeen dogs. Not me, bitch.”
Liz laughed even harder. “Girl, I was just taking a walk down memory lane.”
“Mmmhmm.” Just then, the first notes floated through the air. Xeni could have sworn they were a smooth half mile away, but she could hear the music perfectly. No wonder he suggested she join Liz. After a few seconds, she realized he was playing the same song he’d played for her on the piano. ‘My Romance.’
“Oh, he’s switching it up a bit tonight?” Liz said.
“Oh yeah?”
“He usually plays hymns, patriotic jams. Ends with Amazing Grace. This is a bit different.”
“He played it for me earlier today.” Xeni didn’t mean for her voice to have such a dreamy touch to it.
“How are things going for you and him? I know it’s only been a few days, but you’ve been spending a lot of time together.”
“Good, I guess. This will definitely be a story for my journal or an attention grabbing thread on Twitter.”
“And that’s all?”
“That’s all.”
Xeni was grateful that Liz let the conversation die then. In the morning, she’d be back to dealing with complicated family affairs. For now, she just wanted to enjoy the moment. The song came to an end, but not two breaths later he started up another tune. It took Xeni a moment, then she recognized the early seventies love song by Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose.
“Wow, he’s really laying it on thick tonight,” Liz teased before she started singing along quietly. “It’s too late to turn back now…” Xeni knew the words too. She recited them in her head, reminding herself they meant nothing. Mason wasn’t falling in love with her. She wasn’t falling in love with him. They were just your average married couple who were growing closer and closer, feeling more and more comfortable opening up to each other. They also couldn’t keep their hands off each other, which also meant nothing. Before it ended, her phone started going off in her bag. It was her mom’s ringtone.
“That’s my mom. I should get that.”
“Go ahead.”
Xeni pulled out her phone. “Mommy, hold on one sec.” She stepped over the dog and made her way back down the porch steps. “Hi,” she said when she made her way around the side of the house.
“What is that sound? It’s awful”
“Uh. Actually—” For some reason her mom’s comment set her on edge, made her feel defensive of Mason and his craft. A voice in the back of Xeni’s head told her to shut the fuck up right now, but her poor judgement kept her mouth right on moving. “I have to tell you something and I know you’re going to be hot pissed, but I promise I got it under control.”
“What did you do? You’re not pregnant are you?”
“No, mom. What you’re hearing? It’s bagpipes. It’s my husband actually. He plays the bagpipes.”
“What do you mean, your husband?”
“I got married.”
“Sable put you up to this, didn’t she? She said she was gonna find you a man and look—”
“Mommy, no,” Xeni lied. “It just kind of happened. His name is Mason, he works at a farm cafe in the next town over.”
“Dante, come in here. Your daughter is on my phone saying she got married to some man who plays the bagpipes?”
“What now?” she heard her dad grumble in the background.
“She got married.”
She heard the ambient noise that let her know her mom had put her on speaker. “I thought you went out there to take care of the house,” her step-dad said.
“I know it sounds crazy. It was crazy, but he’s pretty great.”
