Chapter Sixteen #2
Wincing, Sage pulled the phone away from her ear.
“One second, Mom. I’m putting you on speaker.
” She put the phone on the coffee table and touched the speaker icon.
“Matt’s here as well.” Sage patted the couch, including Matt in this conversation.
She’d expected a text or an email from her parents.
Apparently, finding out that their only child intended to marry required a phone call.
“Matt?” Jasmine Hall asked sounding confused.
“Sage, what is going on?” Her father broke in. “And keep it succinct. This call is costing us a fortune.”
“Roy, let the girl talk,” her mother chastised. “I want to know exactly what is going on. Sage, you said you weren’t going to marry Preston when we left. What’s changed? Did he quit driving and take the desk job?”
“Well, I’m still not marrying Preston.” Sage wrinkled her nose at the reminder of her ex-fiancé.
She’d forgotten her promise to call him.
So much had transpired since they arrived that calling Preston had slipped her mind.
She felt momentarily guilty, but the phone lines worked both ways.
If he were worried, he could call her, and she hadn’t heard from him. “I’m marrying Matt.”
“Matt? The boy from college?” her mother asked.
“What boy from college?” Roy grumbled.
“You know. She invited him for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner a few times.”
“The white boy?”
“Don’t call him that,” her mother admonished in a hushed tone.
“Well, that’s what he is,” her father replied unrepentantly.
Sage dropped her head into her hand. “Mom, Dad, could we—”
“Honey, you’ve got to give us a minute to catch up. Why are you in such a hurry to get married? Did that accident addle your brain? Roy, I told you we should have gone home. What kind of parents—”
“Mom, I’m fine. I would have been out of the hospital by the time you made it home. I’m marrying Matt because…well, because I love him.”
Matt squeezed her hand. “And I love her. I feel like I always have.”
Her parents began talking at the same time. She couldn’t tell if they were talking to her or each other. “Mom, Dad, slow down.”
Finally, her mother said, “And you can’t wait until we get home to interrogate the boy?”
“First, he’s a man, not a boy. Second, you interrogated him for each holiday he attended. And, no, we want to get married now.”
“But what’s the hurry? When you were engaged to Preston, you kept putting the wedding off.”
“Because this time I’m sure.”
“Well, then,” her father said.
“Sage, we’ve always let you make your own decisions. And if you’re sure this is what you want…then you have our support.”
Sage grinned at Matt. He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss.
“Matt, expect another interrogation when we get home,” Roy warned.
Sage scrunched her nose. “Well, that’s another thing…
.” She took a deep breath and prepared to tell her parents that she was moving.
It was difficult to explain since she had to leave out the part about Matt being a werewolf and needing to be in the Stone Pack territory.
Instead, she focused on her job opportunity—failing to mention that she had yet to apply for the job.
After twenty minutes, she finally had to remind her father about the price of international calling after which he promptly ended the call. “Whew!” she said, her eyes meeting Matt’s. Then she laughed. “That went well.”
“I’ll trust your judgement.” He kissed her. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She kissed him and stood.
“I feel guilty. I’m going online to apply for the librarian job.
” And she would call Preston. Not because she owed him anything but because she had promised that she would.
She didn’t expect much to come of the conversation.
And she wasn’t excited about it. Of late, their conversation had been circular.
She only hoped that informing him of her impending marriage would finally put an end to his hope that they would get back together.
“Wait.” He caught her hand. “Would you…. What do you think of me getting a job with Dade’s construction company?”
She frowned. “As what?”
“Well, I don’t know much about construction, so I guess at first I’d be doing simple tasks.” He shrugged. “Fetching and carrying heavy loads maybe.”
“You’d be happy doing that? What about your degree?”
“I didn’t hate my job before, but I can’t imagine going back to a desk job now. I don’t want to spend my days cooped up in an office. Or worse, a windowless cubicle.”
She rubbed at the spot where he’d marked her. She’d hopped up in the morning and raced to a mirror to see it, but there was nothing to see. His saliva had completely healed the bite. “Do you think…that I will grow to hate the library?”
He shook his head. “No because you love your career. It’s your passion. For me, though I was successful, my job was simply a means to a paycheck. I didn’t give it a thought when I wasn’t in the office.”
“Still…. You’ll be happy working construction?”
“I think so. And if I don’t like it, I can try something else.” He squeezed her hand. “Like maybe…a fly-fishing instructor, or a forest ranger, or a hiking tour guide.”
“Or an ornithologist. Or an arborist.”
“Landscaper!”
Sage laughed. “Do you have even the slightest interest in any of those jobs?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m excited to try something new.”
Satisfied that he was truly content, she gave him a hug and kissed his neck. He growled and closed his arms around her. Sage giggled and pulled away. “After I get this application done,” she said before dashing off to find her laptop.