“I’m more than capable of taking a drink on my own.” I take the bottle from him and hold it away from my lips, starting to tilt it.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking a drink.”
“By not putting your mouth on the bottle?”
“But your mouth was on the bottle.”
“So?” He shrugs. “We’re bound to share saliva at some point. Might as well ease in with sharing a bottle of wine.”
“What makes you think we’re going to share saliva at some point?”
“Please,” he scoffs. “It’s written all over our story.”
“We don’t have a story.”
“Oh we do.” He nods. “It’s forming right now. Some might think it’s slightly unbelievable, but with just enough alcohol in the system, you can confuse a financier with a fiancé. Trust me…you know.”
The amount of teasing this man does on the daily. I’m unsure how he can just keep coming up with new things over and over again.
“I’d prefer not to talk about it, as has been stated in the rules.”
“Right, forgot about that one. Anyway, just slap your spit on that bottle and I’ll lick it right off.”
“There is something seriously wrong with you,” I say as I place my lips on the bottle and take a sip. When I’m done, I’m met with his huge smile. “Don’t say anything.”
“Not a word.” He grabs the bottle from me and presses his lips to it, taking a swig for himself. When he’s done, he kisses the air in my direction, with an added wink.
I just shake my head, because there is no controlling him, and even though it’s against the rules, I find it oddly entertaining. Maybe there’s something wrong with me.
“So, you’ve lived here your whole life,” he says as a statement, not a question. “Can I ask why you live with your aunt? Are your parents still around?”
I shake my head. “Never met my mom. When my dad passed, I moved in with Aunt Kitty, and well, it’s just been us ever since. She doesn’t have any other family members besides me, so we’re all each other has.”
Apparently, there is an aunt and uncle and cousins out there somewhere, but Aunt Kitty thinks they moved to Germany many years ago and she lost contact. We’ve always been a close-knit family, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to haveother aunts or uncles, or even cousins in my life. Would it have been better having a larger family? I’ll never really know.
“You two seem close.”
“We are, but we also bicker a lot. She’s a bit eccentric at times, like my dad, which means the town doesn’t take us seriously.”
“Why the hell not?”
I take the bottle from him and sip again. “Because as much as I love this town, it has a snobbish air about it. It’s an expensive tourist town, like the Massachusetts version of the Hamptons, and well, they don’t really understand why Aunt Kitty rides around the front yard with a hobby horse, or why my dad had a million different jobs while living here. We were designed to live in one of those quirky small towns where everyone is in each other’s business, but they also help out at the same time. Gossip flies around here like wildfire, but attached to it is judgment and shaming.”
“Shit, really? I didn’t know.” He looks toward the windows. “Who is judging and shaming? I’ll go have a talk with them, tell them what’s what.”
“Uh-huh, and what exactly would you say?”
Jabbing his finger to the ground, he says, “I’d tell them you don’t judge and shame my fiancée who is not my fiancée but maybe could be my fiancée, or you’ll have to answer to me.”
“Ooh…scary.” I pretend to shiver.
“I know. No one is going to mess with that.”
I laugh and take the bottle from him. “What about you, do you have any siblings?”
“I have a sister who is traveling the world. Her name is Elizabeth and she’s dating a woman named Hannah. My dad absolutely hates it, but I honestly believe it’s one of the greatest things ever. Elizabeth was picked on her whole life, never really fit in, then she went to university and met Hannah, and it’s likemy real sister finally appeared. She’s happy and living her best life.”
