Xeni Read online

  An unfamiliar New York number scrolled across the screen. Thinking it might be Ms. Jordan, she answered.

  “Hi. This is Xeni.”

  “Hi Xeni. It’s Liz. I’m Mason’s cousin. The one who’s seventeen months pregnant.”

  “Oh, hi. How are you?”

  “I was just calling to ask you the same thing.”

  “I’m fine,” Xeni chuckled a little. Astronauts could see that was a lie from space. “Thank you. I’m guessing Mason told you our amazing plan?”

  “Yeah, I’m looped in. He gave us our to-do list. But it occurred to me that you don’t exactly have a girl squad to help with last-minute bachelorette duties. A bride needs her clique. What can I help you with?”

  “Oh no. It’s okay. It’s the middle of the week. I know you guys are busy. And you have your kids, born and unborn.”

  Liz laughed. “P’s at daycare until five and the other one goes where I go for a few more weeks and then like five years after that. The bakery is covered and I’m going to whip up a cake tomorrow morning. Oh, that reminds me. Do you have any food allergies?”

  “No, but I am somewhat of a vegetarian. I eat seafood, and I’ll eat chicken if I have no other option, but I prefer not to.”

  “Okay great. Veggie options on the menu. I make a mean apple cake with vanilla cinnamon frosting. Perfect for a fall wedding. Sound good?”

  Xeni’s stomach actually started growling. “That sounds amazing.”

  “Perfect. What else do you need?”

  Xeni didn’t want to bother Liz or any of Mason’s friends with things she could handle on her own, but… “Actually, yeah. I was going to find some place to get an inexpensive dress. I’d love some recommendations.”

  “How about this? I finish up around two and I can come with you.”

  “Sure. That would be great.”

  “And listen, I know this all seems like a lot, but Mason is a good guy. If you need a man that comes with terms and conditions, you couldn’t find anyone better than him.”

  “You know, in all this, he’s actually the least of my worries,” Xeni said and she wasn’t at all shocked that she meant it. So far, dealing with Mason had been the easy part. She ended her call with Liz then drove back to her aunt’s house to start looking for that fucking jewelry.

  6

  A quiet chuckle slipped from Xeni’s lips as she pulled around the front of Kinderack’s local Target. Liz was waiting, sitting on one of the red concrete orbs by the entrance. She spotted Xeni and waved. Xeni pulled into one of the many empty parking spaces, then quickly walked across the lot to meet her shopping companion.

  “Thanks for meeting me.”

  “It’s my pleasure. I’d hug you, but…” Liz motioned toward her large belly.

  “It’s all good. When are you due?” Xeni asked as they headed through the sliding double doors. A security guard that couldn’t have been more than eighteen smiled and nodded at them.

  “In a few weeks. This kid is ready now, though. I can feel it.”

  “I can’t imagine what that must feel like.” Xeni had been pregnant twice before, each time for a whole hot second, but she’d never reached the point where the woes of the third trimester were even close to a thing.

  They walked further into the store, passed the remains of a back-to-school display and stopped in the women’s clothing section. “I say that like this isn’t the easy part. Once they come out, you realize you’ve made a terrible mistake and you have a whole ass human to take care of. I’m kidding. I love my daughter so much.”

  “Oh, I do get that part. I teach kindergarten.”

  “Oh okay. So you do get it,” Liz laughed. “That I can’t imagine. I’m terrible with other people’s kids. Dealing with a few dozen of them at once? No way. P is like the weirdest kid, but she’s my weirdo.”

  “No, that totally makes sense. Every school year, it takes a little while to get the kids settled in the classroom, get them used to being away from home, from their parents, their nannies. But once things are rolling, those kids are my favorites. They become my babies. Last year I wanted to fight the kids across the hall. Sass mouthing me every day at recess.”

  Liz let out a high pitched “Ha!”

  “Can’t fight toddlers, but you think about it from time to time.” Xeni let a wistful sigh. Thoughts of all the start-of-school drama she was missing at that very moment made her chest feel a little tight. She pushed the feelings down and turned to a rack of corduroy, spaghetti-strap dresses.

  “So what are we looking for? How can I help?” Liz asked. “I suggested Target because you give off a pretty chill vibe, but not like pottery-instructor-who-thinks-they’re-woke-but-belongs-to-the-local-country-club. A lot of the boutiques in town are like that. Old White lady expensive in this very particular way. Plus, they never have my size.”

  Xeni didn’t have a hard time believing that. Liz had to be close to six feet tall and, even without the baby who was currently renting her womb, she was rocking some serious curves. Xeni knew what it was like being Black and trying to shop in certain parts of L.A.. She imagined Liz had enough awkward, slightly racist stories to tell.

  “Probably smart to come to a big chain store too. Small town. Small stores. Lots of questions.”

  “Oh, you think you’re going to escape the questions? If that’s what you’re hoping for, you should probably leave town now,” Liz teased.

  “Ugh. Too much to ask for? Can’t just swoop in, marry someone, claim an inheritance and leave?”

  “Uh, no. I arrived here on textbook shady circumstances and my husband, Silas, basically just drove me around the first day and introduced me to everyone to get all the speculation out of the way. He knew people would start showing up at the farm to meet me and after we got engaged, they did.”

  Xeni chuckled a little. “What were the shady circumstances?”

  “I used to be in corporate litigation and a former client tried to have me killed.” She said it all calm and cool, like she hadn’t just mentioned attempted murder. “Silas’s brother stashed me here until things blew over. Well—until that client blackmailed me and had me fired.”

  “Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Honey, that’s beyond shady. I’m just going through drama with my mom and my aunties. Someone tried to kill you?”

  Liz stepped close and dramatically took Xeni’s hand between her warm palms. “That’s why I came with you today,” she said, her tone only half joking. “If anyone knows what it’s like to find themselves, a city bitch through and through, in Kinderack County married to a half Scotsman who’s bigger than barn, it’s me.”

  “So you’re not from here?”

  Liz dropped her hands and turned back to the racks. “Girl, no. I’m from the Bronx. Been here over three years and my sister still hasn’t forgiven me. She hates driving up here.”

  “Well, I’m not staying, but if for some reason I bump my head and decide farm living is the life for me, you’re the first person I’m talking to.”

  “I don’t know. It didn’t take that much persuading for me. Let me stop lying. Silas didn’t even have to ask. Moving up here was my idea.”

  “Yeah, but it sounds like you’re pretty in love and from the looks of things,” Xeni shot a meaningful look toward her Liz’s pregnant belly, “making the most of it.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that. It took me a whole hot three days to start falling for Silas, but if there’s one thing those McInroy boys have in common, it’s their big hearts. I’m not saying you’re gonna wanna make this for real, but Mason will get in there, right in the center of your chest and make himself nice and comfortable. He’s a real sweetie.”

  “Does the giant everything run in the fam?”

  “Well, I don’t know if Mason’s packing everything, but yeah.”

  “Sorry. I wasn’t talking dick size. I just meant, I didn’t know if Mason’s overall dimensions were an anomaly. I take it Silas is a big man too.”

  “Both their dads and their m
oms are not small people. Silas has a twin. Not as swole, but just as tall.” Liz took out her phone and showed her a family photo from their wedding. Yeah, her husband and his brother were pretty large. Pretty hot too. Xeni swallowed, not sure what to make of the fact that Mason was bigger than them both. And how that fact made her a little warm between her legs.

  “Oh yeah, okay. Definitely a family thing.”

  “Makes me worry about Palila,” Liz said, slipping her phone back in her purse. “At this rate, she’ll be pushing seven feet before she hits middle school.”

  “She’s a cute kid.”

  “Thank you. Okay, let’s shop. What do you want?”

  “Good question. I’m guessing this is all happening at the farm?”

  “I suggested we just do it at our house. We’re right on the property and we just finished the downstairs remodel. We have a huge porch and you can look out over the apple orchards. All very Instagrammable if you want us to take pictures.”

  “Shit yeah, I want pictures. I told Mason, if we have to do this, we’re doing it right. There will definitely be digital documentation.”

  “Are you doing okay though? Like, with all of this? Mason was pretty jumpy when he told us the news.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. He’s kind of excited, I think? He really needs this money.”

  “Listen. Student loans are a bitch. There’s just way more shit on my end, but if this whole circus can help clean up his student loan debt, I can be a temporary wife for that,” Xeni said. She glanced over at Liz and caught the way her smile faded. “Is it not student loans?”

  “No, it is. In a way. I think if you ask Mason, he’ll tell you.”

  “But it’s nothing, like bad, is it?”

  Liz looked up at the ceiling. “Umm, bad in the it's-shitty-he’s-going-through-this-crap kind of way, but no, he didn’t do anything bad. He doesn’t owe the mob or anything.”

  “Okay, good.”

  “It’s just a situation. I’m sure he’ll tell you. Just ask.”

  “I will.” Sure, she and Mason had just met and she believed Liz that he wasn’t in any kind of trouble that would land him in cement shoes, but she still wanted to know. She wanted to enjoy their sham wedding and, for now, she was fucking done with secrets.

  “Oh, how about this?” Xeni stood back and looked at the dress Liz had pulled off the rack.

  “Okay, yeah. That’s perfect.”

  After she’d purchased all her last-minute wedding necessities, Xeni and Liz had plopped down at the Starbucks kiosk and continued to get to know each other. Xeni liked Liz a lot. They were getting along so well, they lost track of time and they both had to rush back into town, Liz to pick up her daughter and Xeni to get their marriage license. The town clerk’s office was oddly busy when she arrived. She took a seat and waited for her turn to see Deborah.

  While she waited, she pulled up her group chat with the girls again. Damn this time difference. They were all still at work. At least her afternoon with Liz had shaken her out of her funk. Oh, she was still plenty pissed at her mom and she couldn’t get a handle on what she was feeling toward her aunt at the moment, but she wasn’t feeling so cold and closed off. She wanted to tell her friends what was going on, she just didn’t know how.

  Missing you hos.

  No one responded right away, but then a text alert from Sloan popped up. Xeni had hard and fast rules about not befriending the parents of students that attended Whippoorwill, but she was so glad she’d opened herself to hanging with Sloan when she’d moved to L.A.. Sloan was busy with her family and her career in medicine, but she always made time for Xeni. She was a good friend.

  * * *

  Hey foxy lady!

  How are you doing?

  Everything okay?

  Yeah, I’m doing okay.

  A little hectic around here,

  but I’ll get through it.

  I bet. Moving is the worst.

  I can’t imagine trying to “move”

  while grieving and then it’s not even your stuff.

  I wish I was there to help you.

  * * *

  Yeah that, Xeni thought. So far, she’d managed to move everything in her aunt’s bedroom around in search of her grandmother’s jewelry, but she hadn’t actually sorted anything. She had to wait because something in her gut told her now wasn’t the time for actually cleaning and sorting. Not yet.

  * * *

  It’s a lot, but I’ll get it sorted out.

  I miss you.

  How are Rowan and the girls?

  A picture of her friend’s husband holding their adorable four-month-old popped up on the screen. The daughters from her marriage to her douchebag ex were in the bottom of the frame, trying to get the baby’s attention. Xeni chest warmed as she clicked on the photo and let it take up the whole screen. She loved Sloan and she loved Sloan’s family. Seeing them together gave her hope. The hubby, three kids and a house with a pool in Westwood life was not for her, but they were good people who filled their house with love and that gave Xeni hope for humankind.

  She minimized the picture, then pulled up her most recent emojis. Just then her phone started to vibrate. The screen went black and Mason’s name scrolled across it.

  Xeni stepped into the hallway and hit ACCEPT. “Hey. I’m picking up the license right now.”

  “Excellent. We’ve run into a small snag. I just spoke to Mrs. Pummel and the Reverend left this morning to officiate a wedding in Vermont. He won’t be back until Monday.”

  “Crap. Do you know anyone else?”

  “Not really a churchgoing man, but I’ll put the feelers out.”

  “I’ll call Bess. She might know someone.”

  “Okay, you do that.”

  “Thanks for giving Liz my number. We had a great time.”

  “That’s good to hear. I didn’t want you to have to go it alone.”

  Xeni’s cheeks started to warm out of nowhere, but she ignored it. It wasn’t important. “I appreciate that.”

  “Erm, do you maybe want to come by the farm for dinner tonight? No reason for you to be alone at Ms. Sable’s house.”

  “Thanks for the invite, but I have to find something for my mom and I kinda want to see if I can do it tonight so I don’t have to think about it tomorrow. It’ll be our wedding day after all. Wanna get this off my plate so I can focus on you and that dreamy accent all day long.” Xeni smacked herself in the forehead as soon as the words left her mouth. THIS. WAS WHY. SHE DIDN’T. TALK! TO MEN!

  “Oh, it’s dreamy is it?”

  “Hey, look at the time. I gotta go.”

  Xeni squeezed her eyes closed at the sound of his rumbling laugh. His laugh was kind of dreamy too.

  “You secure the license and I’ll see what can be done about a pastor. Worst case scenario, I’ll have my cousin ordained over the internet.”

  “Deal. I’ll be in touch.”

  They said their goodbyes and a few minutes later, Xeni had their marriage license in hand.

  “Give us a call if you have any questions,” Deborah said.

  “I actually do. I know this town is small, but Reverend Pummel can’t be the only man of the cloth around. We need someone to perform the ceremony tomorrow. Do you know anyone who might be available on such short notice?” Xeni knew the answer would be no. Twenty-fours just wasn’t enough time. Maybe an online certification was the way to go.

  “I’ll do it,” Deborah said, all dry and casual like.

  “You will?”

  “If you do it after five-thirty, yeah.”

  “Okay, great. If we have to wait twenty-hours and that’ll put us around four-thirty, another hour won’t kill us.”

  “No if. Twenty-four hours or that marriage is void. Twenty-four hours. No less, not even by a minute.”

  “Okay,” Xeni said, fully admonished. She didn’t want to see what Deborah was like when she was losing at poker. “We can do five-thirty. We’re doing it at Silas and Liz Mc
Inroy’s hou—”

  “I know where they live.”

  “Okay. We’ll see you then.”

  “See you then.”

  Xeni tripled checked that she had all of their paperwork, then practically skipped back out to the car. She waited until she was behind the wheel before she texted Mason the good news.

  Deborah’s gonna do it!

  We just have to get married after 5:30.

  Mason responded right away with a gif of Rocky and Apollo Creed frolicking in the ocean. Xeni snorted and almost reconsidered his dinner invitation. Almost.

  Fresh from the shower, Mason tossed his towel on his broken recliner and then stretched out on his bed, ass naked. He had to be up early the next morning, like every morning. Breakfast rush waited for no man. Usually after a long shower at the end of a long day, he was asleep before he hit the mattress, but now he was wide awake. And he only had one thing on his mind.

  Well two things, but one person was the reason behind all of it.

  He knew Xeni had a lot on her plate, things more demanding than his asshole of a father, but he wished she had come by for dinner. Like a fool, he kept listening for Silas’s doorbell to ring while they all watched Palila make a mess of her peas and mashed potatoes. Xeni was smart and resourceful. If she changed her mind, she’d find her way over to their farm house.

  But she didn’t show. And why would she? Along with being smart and resourceful, she didn’t seem like a bullshitter. If she said she was busy, she was busy. And if she has something to handle, something to do with her mother and Ms. Sable? Well that he could definitely believe. He should have offered to help her. He didn’t know the ins and outs of Ms. Sable’s private business, but he had been to her home dozens of times over the years, spent hours with at her piano.

  He at least had a sense of her house and two pairs of hands were better than one.