Chapter 10 #2
“Exactly.” I could practically hear her grin.
“Anyway, you’ve been on my mind all day.
I got Harper back to sleep, climbed into bed, and then I started wondering how bedtime with Leena went.
Then I started wondering how you were doing, which somehow turned into me hiding in my bathroom wondering if you were hiding in yours. ”
I glanced around the marble bathroom. “Technically, it’s Mikko’s bathroom.”
She was silent for a moment, which was very un-Stevie of her. “…in Mikko’s bedroom?”
“Master suites do typically have an en suite bathroom, so yes.”
“Okay, but why are you in Mikko’s bedroom?”
“Because his parents are sleeping in the guest room.”
Another pause, then the sound of footsteps on the other end of the line. “I’m pacing. Oh my god, Shannon. Does he have multiple guest rooms?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Then where are you sleeping?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And now you understand why I’m currently hiding in his bathroom.”
“Do his parents know you’re only kind of married? Or are we selling them on this too?”
I slid down the vanity until I was sitting on the heated floor, resting the back of my head against the cabinet.
“You tell me which sounds less insane. ‘Hey Mom, I got married but only for a few months so I can lie to my team and have her and Leena travel with me,’ or ‘Surprise! I got married today, and I didn’t invite you.’”
“When you put it that way, you’re screwed. Both sound insane.”
“I’m realizing that now.”
“So, back to the bedroom. I guess that means we went with the latter avenue of Crazy Street.”
“Yep.”
“Okay, but how long are they here for? How long do we need to hold this charade?”
I laughed, rubbing a hand over my forehead. “They fly home tomorrow, so only tonight. His mom has been here helping him with Leena, and his dad came so he could fly back to Helsinki with her tomorrow. She uses a wheelchair, so it’s difficult to travel alone.”
“So you walked into your brand-new fake marriage and immediately met your in-laws. How’d that work out?”
I traced a finger through the gray veining in the marble tile. “His mom reminds me of Lori.”
“And his dad?”
“I may have implied he has an inferiority complex.”
Stevie groaned. “Shannon.”
“In my defense—”
“No.”
I smiled. “He does.”
“You’d known him for, what, an hour?”
“Closer to five minutes.”
“Unbelievable.”
“I’m a bitch, not a liar, right?”
She let out a sharp laugh. “So, now you’re hiding in your husband’s bathroom because you can’t go back out there and face this big, scary, slightly stupid thing you’ve done.”
My smile slipped, and I rested my forehead against my knees. “This whole time, I’ve been telling myself this marriage was just paperwork and not that much different from helping with Lori. But Stevie… I’m going to have to act married in front of other people.”
“So you’re not freaking out because your husband is a total hottie waiting in bed for you right now.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “That is an entirely separate issue.”
Stevie’s laugh echoed through the speaker. “I knew it.”
“What am I gonna do, Stevie?”
“About which part? Because I can Google annulments right now. Surely there’s a 24-hour return policy or something.”
“That’s not a thing.”
She huffed. “Well, maybe it should be. What if you saved yourself for your wedding night only to find out your husband has a micro-peen?”
My whole body shook with laughter, the heaviness lifting off me with each exhale. “Oh my god, I hate you.”
“For what it’s worth, I doubt Mikko has a micro-peen. His hands are huge.”
“Stop,” I whispered between muffled laughs. “I’m hanging up on you.”
“Okay. Well, if you change your mind, I’m two and a half hours away. Faster if I speed, and my minivan is surprisingly aerodynamic.”
“I’m fine. This is for Leena, and she deserves it.”
“You know, you deserve good things too, right? Happiness, and all that? Just because we’re women doesn’t mean we have to spend our lives serving everyone else, Shannon.”
“Hey pot, it’s kettle calling. Have you started bathing daily, or is that only for the kids still?”
“Okay, rude,” Stevie said. “And I’ll have you know, I took a bath tonight.
But honestly, it wasn’t great. My boobs were above the water and I got the surprise of my life when a toy floated to the surface, looking an awful lot like poop.
Who in their right mind put a brown toy inside a bath bomb for children? ”
I chuckled again, rubbing at my cheeks that were sore from laughing so hard. “You know you’re crazy, right?”
“Well aware.”
A deep sigh escaped me, my head leaning back against the vanity. “I need to go back out there, don’t I?”
“Yep. He either knows you’re hiding from him or thinks you’re having a case of raging diarrhea. Could be either, at this point.”
I shook my head, laughing one more time. “Goodnight.”
“I love you.”
Instantly, tears sprang to my eyes. I wiped them away, refusing to let them fall. “Gross emotions.”
Stevie laughed again, but it sounded watery, too. “Go read a book and sleep in a bed I’m sure feels like it’s made of clouds. Then text me in the morning.”
When she laid it out like that, it sounded doable.
Read.
Sleep.
Text her in the morning.
No different from any other night.
We said goodbye, and I changed into my pajamas, then walked out of the bathroom.
It took me about two seconds to realize none of what Stevie had said would be that simple.
Mikko sat on the edge of the bed, holding a paperback book.
A thin pair of wire-rimmed glasses sat on his nose, making him somehow even more attractive than before.
My breath left my body in one fell swoop, making it hard for me to ignore the fact that Mikko Laaksonen was the most attractive man I’d ever seen. And I’d just married him.
He closed his paperback and set it on the bed next to him. “Everything okay?”
“Mmhmm,” I mumbled, then turned my back on him to rummage through my belongings for my pillow. “I can sleep on the floor.”
“No.”
I peeked over my shoulder to find Mikko now on his feet, walking toward me. “No?”
“I’m sleeping on the floor.”
That made me turn around, the nervousness leaving my body. “I’m not making you sleep on the floor of your own house, Mikko.”