3. Clint
This was one of the last days I had before school started to enjoy a slow, easy morning. To surround myself with the scents of coffee and sugar, and sit back and watch the commuters rushing around like little worker bees.
As Madeline Kahn would say, always coming and going and going and coming… And always too soon.
I grabbed my drink from the barista and gave him a nod, my mind already drifting again.
Normally I’d be singing to myself—and anyone else in ear range—while I soaked in the morning, but I was too worried about my daughter, Dee. She’d collapsed at her dance recital this weekend, and we didn’t know why. Heart problems, the ER said. She’s out of the woods for now, but you need to follow up with your primary care provider.
Not the worst news I could have gotten, by far, but I would have preferred better. A simple low blood sugar, make sure she drinks more orange juice before performing or something easy to solve.
Not this?—
“Watch it.” A pleasant voice interrupted my thoughts, and I blinked a few times to bring myself back to the coffee shop.
The woman standing in front of me had long blond hair, piled in perfectly coiffed curls on top of her head, and her lips were painted bright red and quirked with curiosity and concern as she studied me. “You okay, space case?” Aubrey asked.
Running into her nearly always brightened my day, though I’d rather not literally collide with her.
I also wasn’t ready to dump all of this on her. I’d rather distract myself with her gossip. “A little distracted, but good.”
“Uh-huh.” She had a coffee too—how did I completely miss her being here?—and she used her free hand to steer me toward a table at the back of the dining room. “Tell me what’s in your brain.”
“Nothing. Really.” I held out her chair for her and pushed it in as she sat, then took my own seat. “I heard Sylvie is in town. She’s getting married? Seriously?” I usually didn’t pay attention to gossip, but hearing Sylvie’s name made me perk up. If someone was talking shit about Aubrey’s little sister, I’d have to rearrange some attitudes.
Aubrey gave an amused snort. “Gotta love the rumor mill. Yeah, she’s staying with me for the next month or so.”
“That’s kind of huge. Spill.” Anything to take my mind off my issue for a few minutes. Not that I minded listening to Aubrey. Ever.
She shrugged. Once upon a time I’d entertained so many fantasies about kissing those shoulders. Sliding down one or both of those thick red and white sundress straps, and seeing if I could lick away her freckles.
“Not much to tell,” Aubrey said. “You’ve probably already heard it all.”
“Not really. I mean, we have a fiancé that came out of nowhere, and Sylvie acting in a very un-Sylvie-like way, showing up with no warning. Wanting to get married in a month. Fill in the blanks for me.”
“I don’t have any more details than you do, except that she’s inviting Grandma.” For an instant, Aubrey’s expression soured. “Oh, and she was up at dawn this morning, working in my guest room, so if she’s been body-snatched, they returned her to get her job done. If you don’t want to tell me what’s going on, tell me to fuck off.”
She wasn’t going to drop the subject of me. Not that I wanted her to. I needed to talk this out, as much as I hated sharing.
My dry chuckle ended in a sigh. “Dee had a recital this weekend.” She attended a dance school near her mom’s—my ex—up in the rich part of the mountains. “She collapsed on stage.”
“Oh my God, is she all right?” Aubrey’s concern was immediate and tangible. “She must be, or you wouldn’t be here. Tell me she’s okay.”
“She’s fine.” We assumed. I hated not knowing. “She’s home right now sulking because she’s not allowed to practice this morning.”
“In other words, she’s not actually fine.”
Picking apart the words to tell Aubrey about this forced me to slot my thoughts into neat rows. Something to be grateful for. “It was her heart. We saw her doctor yesterday, and he said it may be some sort of cardiomyopathy. Probably not terminal or anything like that, but it’s going to take testing to figure out the details.”
“Thank God she’s okay. Probably isn’t reassuring, and testing… I’m sorry. There’s more, isn’t there?”
I didn’t know how she’d figured that out, but there was. “Testing costs money, and my insurance isn’t going to cover nearly enough. Regina isn’t going to chip in or add Dee to her insurance unless I let Dee go live with her full time.” Just saying it made me furious all over again.
Aubrey’s face contorted with rage. “What the fuck? She’s using her daughter’s fucking health as a bargaining chip?”
“I know. I’m furious about it.” I’d tucked the anger aside so that Dee wouldn’t have to deal with it, but talking about it brought the feeling back again. “I’ve been racking my brain for a solution that doesn’t involve me getting arrested”—there were a lot of possibilities there, but Dee lost in every scenario—“and I can’t find anything but giving Regina what she wants. I haven’t figured out how to tell Dee.”
Aubrey squeezed her coffee cup so hard the sides squished, and hot liquid splashed us both. She eeped and I helped her clean it up.
“I’ve had the same reaction over and over in the past couple of days,” I said.
“It’s just so fucked up. I swear if that woman was here, I’d punch her in the smug face. Or the tit. Maybe not the tit. My fist would bounce off the silicone and I’d end up punching myself.”
I almost smiled at the cartoon-like visual. Not that Regina was well-endowed. She was a dancer, and had actually had breast reduction. But she still had implants to give her that perfect shape. One of those benefits of coming from a wealthy Utah family—she got whatever she wanted, including perfectly small tits and the right to steal my daughter from me.
“There has to be something you can do. Something we can do.” Deep creases marred Aubrey’s forehead.
“Magic me some amazing health insurance. Now.” There was that or I could win the lottery. Neither seemed likely.
Aubrey twisted her mouth into a scowl, and went to drink her coffee. Her frown deepened as she raised a cup too destroyed to drink from, then set it back down.
I slid her my drink, and she took a sip. Silence settled between us.
“I’d give you my insurance if I could,” Aubrey said after a few minutes.
“Yeah. That would be cool.”
Her grandfather had founded one of the largest insurers in the state. Even though Aubrey didn’t like dealing with her extended family, she took advantage of the best-policy-even-money-couldn’t-buy policy she got because of who she was related to.
I didn’t blame her for that.
She took another drink of my coffee, and I did the same.
“Let’s get married.”
I nearly choked on my drink, and stared at her in disbelief. “What did you just say?” I must have heard her wrong.
Once upon a time, I’d dreamed of asking her to marry me. I was young and dumb and that was way back when. I’d learned since that she and I were better off friends. I would have lost her long before now if we’d taken things further.
But when she said those words let’s get married, a rush of heat and hope spread through my body.
I shut the reaction down without another thought.
“Let’s get married,” she said again. “You can have my insurance if we do.”
“No.”
She jutted out her lower lip in the sexiest pout. “Don’t you love me?” Her expression went back to normal. “Seriously though. Think about this for a moment as a real idea, rather than joke. Tell me why it won’t work.”
“We don’t love each other.” Good answer, me. Not.
“We like each other, and that’s more than a lot of married people can say.”
I couldn’t argue the logic. “What would we tell Dee? She adores you. And if she thinks we’re married… No.” I couldn’t break Dee’s heart like that.
Though, was that worse than telling her she had to go live with her mom and rarely see me?
“That’s fair.” Aubrey nodded. “But hear me out. We take the afternoon to pick up the license and stand in front of a judge. It’s only for legal purposes. Gives us the paperwork to show the insurance company. We don’t have to tell anyone.”
My heart sank at those last words. Honestly… this wasn’t a bad idea.
“You can’t let Regina win. Not ever, but especially not with this. She’s using Dee’s life as a bargaining chip. That’s so fucked up, I’m sick even saying it.”
“You’re right.” I would do anything for Dee, and fake-marrying Aubrey was far from a bad thing. Really, it wasn’t far from the top of the good things list. The worst part of the idea was that it wouldn’t be re— Nope. There were no bad parts. “Will it work?”
“Insurance will go into effect at the start of next month. If you can hold out for two weeks…”
I already had to wait at least that long to get on the calendars for all of the tests the doctor had ordered. A strange blend of hope and doubt swelled inside.
It would be fun to go down on one knee, but people talked…
Instead, I reached across the table and grasped Aubrey’s fingers. “Aubrey Lantrey, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
She grinned. “What are you doing this afternoon?”
“Tying the knot with the most incredible woman I know.”
“I hope she doesn’t mind sharing you with me.” Aubrey winked.
My chuckle was half relief, half uncertainty. Was this a bad idea? It felt too easy, but it didn’t matter how I examined the idea, I didn’t see flaws in it. “We just have to make sure we keep it from Dee.”