When We're Thirty

by Casey Dembowski

  He’d had her looked into? Who did this man think he was? Hannah waited a moment before answering him. Her response needed to be perfect and not the string of profanities she wanted to hurl at him.

  “There’s no harm in taking a step back if, perhaps, you feel you two rushed things,” Jonathan continued before she could respond.

  “Will and I are happy, sir.” She added the salutation after a beat, hoping it sounded as petulant as it felt. “There was no mistake in our decision.”

  “Be that as it may, I can’t have my son risking half his fortune because the girl he once fancied himself in love with decided to glance his way.”

  She trained her expression to neutral, though her heart pounded—both because of the delicate situation and the implication that Will was indeed in love with her. Jonathan would not rattle her. She would not give him the satisfaction.

  “And if you actually love each other, why not annul the marriage now and give it a go the old-fashioned way? Then get married again with a prenuptial agreement in place. No harm done.”

  Hannah swallowed the rage boiling inside her. “I do love your son.”

  “And the fact that you could gain a significant manner of wealth if this marriage should go south in a year, a few years, or if an heir were to come of it, had nothing to do with the brash decision to marry him?”

  “I didn’t marry Will for his money.” Hannah’s pulse pounded in her head. She’d expected plenty of things from that weekend, but Jonathan’s attempt to overturn the marriage wasn’t one of them. “I was doing just fine on my own.”

  “Ah, so ‘just fine’ is now underpaid editor for a no-name magazine that doesn’t even offer health insurance? Interesting.”

  Hannah didn’t know if she was more insulted at the dig at her integrity and her livelihood or at the fact that he had figured her out in less than twenty-four hours. “I have loved your son for close to a decade. Three months ago, that love turned romantic. He asked me to marry him. I said yes, but I didn’t want to spend two years of our lives planning a wedding. He agreed. End of story.”

  “I’m sure that’s not the end of the story.” His tone was icy and contemptuous. He wasn’t playing polite now. He wanted those papers signed.

  “And if I sign the papers?”

  “You can date William, if you like.” Jonathan Thorne wasn’t a frivolous man, but his comment held all the attributes of a good shrug.

  Hannah realized then that he didn’t care about the aftermath. He wanted his son’s money—his money—handed down and protected, and he wanted to discredit Will. Could this still be about the board position?

  “Or go out and find your true love and forget any of this happened,” Jonathan said. “You’ll both be better for it. If anything, I’m sure of that. William is too much heart. He always has been. You and I both know this—that is how he ended up in Iowa, after all.”

  She did know that, and it was precisely why she loved him. The world needed more men to lead with their hearts. Hannah stood up, finished with Jonathan and his insinuations and presumptions, and dropped the annulment papers back on his desk. “I know who Will is. Nothing you do is going to make me change my mind about him.”

  THE DOOR CREAKED OPEN, and with it came a rush of warmer air from the hallway and Will. Hannah finished her Chaturanga, transitioning into an imperfect Upward-Facing Dog. She smiled at her absentee partner in crime. His eyes were alert with post-run high, but there were bags where there hadn’t been before. A snarky remark about how he’d left her to the wolves died on her lips.

  “How was your run?” she asked instead, pushing back into Downward-Facing Dog.

  “It ended up being more of an errand. As I was heading out, Dad asked me to pick up some stuff at the farmers market. It’s only about two miles away, down by the beach.” He stripped off his shirt, revealing a nearly flat stomach and speckles of chest hair. Hannah’s insides stirred. Will shirtless wasn’t a new sight, but this was a new Will—a manlier Will, with those defined hip bones sticking out of his too-short running shorts. Her husband was hot.

  She stood up from her pose and adjusted her cami, wrapping her arms around her waist to stop from running her hand down Will’s chest. The yoga had cleared her head, but it had also brought on a fabulous or terrible idea. She hadn’t decided until he entered. Jonathan was going to do anything he could to pick apart their relationship. Will had told her as much, but she hadn’t understood before. They needed to be better. They needed to be believable. They needed to be in love.

  “Well, are we at least having something yummy for whatever this midafternoon meal is?” she asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

  “Everything Renata makes is yummy,” he said, looking up from the pile of clothes he was digging through.

  She gave him a dubious look.

  “Everything besides the coffee.” He sat down next to her, the brush of his bare arm once again causing the hair on hers to stand up. “Are you okay? You seem a little weird,” he said, balling a clean shirt in his hands.

  There was her opening, but Hannah still didn’t have the words. She wasn’t even sure what she was asking. She straightened her shoulders and rested her hand on Will’s chest.

  He went rigid at her touch.

  After another moment, she ran her hand up over his shoulder and down his arm, finally linking their fingers. “We need to do a better job of convincing everyone we’re in love.”

  “We have the papers.” His voice was breathy but steady. He didn’t look directly at her. “No one can dispute our marriage.”

  “Oh, I’m sure there’s no doubt that we’re legally married. But we’re supposed to be madly in love, so much so that we got married in less than three months.” She scooted closer to him. Their knees touched. Everything touched. “Kiss me.”

  Will leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers for a brief moment. It was nice enough, like the kisses they had shared lately, but that kiss wasn’t going to convince anyone. It barely convinced Hannah.

  “Kiss me like I’m someone you actually want to have sex with.”

  “That might be difficult.” An amused and yet wary expression played across his features.

  “Just do it.” Hannah put both her hands against his chest. His heart beat a steady course under her touch. She leaned in when he didn’t move, parting his lips with her own. Will deepened the kiss almost immediately, his tongue greeting hers. Hannah’s body lit up as his hands found the soft skin between her waistband and her cami. She pushed herself closer to him, her hands climbing up his torso, over his shoulders, and wrapping around him. His muscles tightened as her hands passed over them, Will’s kiss becoming more urgent with each caress.

  This was exactly how she imagined Will’s kiss to be. Their chemistry was not going to be an issue. She started to retreat, her mind winning over her body. They needed to take this slow. It had only been two out of fifty-two weeks. But Will pulled her back in, his hand coming around her neck and tangling her hair. She breathed him in. Hot and a good kisser. Did she want to sleep with Will? Yes, yes she did.

  Will broke away, and Hannah scooted back. Her heart pounded. Adrenaline coursed through her veins. He was too good at following directions. Will’s eyes bored into her, questioning, wanting.

  “Yeah, that’s what we need to show people,” she said, still breathless.

  Will shook his head, his mouth quirking at the corners. “We can’t do that in polite company.”

  “You know what I mean,” Hannah said, shoving his shoulder playfully.

  “Maybe we should start by sharing a bed when we get back to the city. You know, before we complicate things.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. He was trying so hard to be a gentleman, which was adorable. “Are we going to complicate things?”

  His cheeks pinkened. “Maybe... eventually.”

  She giggled, feeling the kiss in every part of her body. She would have dreams about that kiss—dirty, sweaty dreams. “Okay, hubs,
let’s share a bed.”

  Chapter 23

  Hannah

  Hannah’s hand tingled as she pulled open the door of the physical therapy office. It was really happening—PT, the doctors, all of it. Daniel had booked her an appointment with a coveted orthopedic surgeon. That wasn’t until January, but after waiting over a year, two months seemed like nothing. And it meant she got to give physical therapy a try with Madison. She hadn’t pegged Madison as a PT, but aside from being a future Thorne, she also came highly recommended.

  There was no receptionist when Hannah walked in. The sign on the door had indicated it was after-hours, but Madison had definitely said six o’clock. She pulled out her phone to check her calendar but instead found a text from Kate.

  Come on, you have to let me put Father Thorne on the podcast. He handed you freakin’ annulment papers. Who does that? No one, Hannah. No. One.

  Kate was seriously low on material if she was asking to put Will and Hannah’s Hamptons adventure on Bitching about Boyfriends. Hannah sent back a pair of emojis, the eye roll and the raised hand.

  “There you are,” Madison said, stepping into the lobby. She wrapped Hannah in a hug. “I was just getting set up.”

  Hannah followed Madison back into the main room. Bikes lined one wall, exam benches another. Exercise equipment was scattered throughout the space. Madison handed Hannah some paperwork before taking a seat on top of a balance ball.

  Hannah sat on the mat in front of Madison and rummaged through her wallet until she found her newly printed insurance card. “Your boss doesn’t mind our session being after hours?”

  “Nah, I cleared it with her. She’s a hard-ass, but I told her you were family.” Madison grinned. “It was close enough to the truth, at least.”

  Hannah felt herself relax as she filled out the forms, writing in the drab details. There was no primer with Madison. She’d jumped right in, happy to accept Hannah since that first morning coffee run. A week later, Madison texted Hannah more than Kate.

  “You know, I met Jon here,” Madison said. She rolled almost off the ball and held a tricep dip.

  “Really?” Hannah asked, transcribing her ID number.

  “Yeah, he hurt his shoulder playing tennis.” She glanced back at a grouping of equipment. “We fell in love over TheraBands and the rowing machine. I was sitting on that bench when he kissed me for the first time. It shook my whole world.”

  “That’s adorable.”

  Madison rolled back into a seated position. “You must know what it’s like. I mean, William’s kiss must have really been something for you to marry him so fast.”

  Hannah blushed about five shades of red—of course Madison would fish for details. “Our first kiss was in college, but our second kiss...” Hannah paused. It was best to stick to the truth as much as possible. “It was actually kind of clunky and unexpected, but there was a spark.”

  “Ah, the spark. Can’t deny it.”

  “No, you can’t,” Hannah said, handing over the completed paperwork.

  Madison looked over the paperwork. “You hurt your knee in a car accident, right?” Hannah nodded, and Madison wrote a few notes in the margins. “Did you know what grade the tear was?”

  “Two?”

  Madison scribbled another note. “Well, I think the key here is to properly build up the muscles around your knee, giving you a good foundation for healing. Since you haven’t had any official PT, we’ll start slow and see where your triggers are. We’ll meet once a week here, but you’ll have homework to do every day, and I will know if you don’t do it.”

  Hannah laughed. Madison’s boss clearly wasn’t the only hard-ass on staff. “Homework. Got it.”

  “All right, hop on that bike for a quick warm-up.”

  Madison sat on the bike next to her, alternating between a slow cycle and resting her head against the handlebars.

  “Can I ask you a personal question?” Madison asked from her headrest.

  “Sure.”

  “I know you knew William before...” She waved at the open air in front of her. “But how did you just marry him without missing a beat?”

  Hannah considered her answer. The truth and the lie, in this case, were the same—because it was Will. Will was and always had been her person. It was as simple and as complex as that.

  “There was definitely a beat,” she said. “But Will and I, we had all these missed opportunities in college. Ones we didn’t even know about. Then he was there, standing in line for funnel cake, and it was like this part of myself fell back into place. And that was before it was ever romantic.”

  “It couldn’t have been anything else,” Madison said, a wistful smile on her face.

  Hannah shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. I mean, he was fresh off heartbreak, and I was in a relationship. It could’ve gone a different way, I suppose.”

  “That didn’t scare you? His broken heart?”

  Hannah had learned Madison was in love with love and fate and destiny. Otherwise, she would’ve suspected she was trying to pick apart the story, to find the flaw that would pull it all apart.

  “I guess it scared me a little,” she said, glancing over at her future sister-in-law. “But we didn’t go from out-of-touch friends to lovers in an instant. And as we got closer and shared a bit more about our feelings for each other—from then and now—I knew Will could never use me as a rebound. We’re about more than that.”

  “Clearly.” Madison smiled and went back to pedaling. “Pick up the pace a bit. Focus on how your knee feels.”

  Hannah pedaled for a minute, training her thoughts on her injury. She hoped she remembered these answers. She’d have to fill Will in and make sure Kate understood the timeline of their supposed relationship too.

  “Any pain?” Madison asked.

  Hannah shook her head.

  “Good. So, to be clear, you broke up with your boyfriend to be with Will?”

  Hannah rolled her eyes at the intensity with which Madison had asked the question. Holding it in to focus on her job must have been killer.

  “Yes and no,” Hannah said, aware she was treading a fine line and this story could go completely off the rails. “Brian and I had been ending almost since we started. When Will showed up, and I realized how I felt—how I never felt that way about Brian—it was an easy choice. And it’s not like I woke up with one boyfriend and went to bed with a different one. Even though everything happened so fast, it was still slow.”

  “So, what? Like forty-eight hours before you jumped his bones?”

  If only. They were closer to that in the week since they started sharing a bed. It had been agonizing. She felt every movement of his throughout the night. She woke up sweaty from vivid, mostly naked dreams to find the star of them with his arms wrapped around her, his bare chest warm against her back. The other night when he’d leaned in and kissed her goodnight, she had wanted to pull him down on top of her. He’d even lingered over the kiss, their bodies gravitating toward each other. Hannah felt her cheeks brighten at the memories. Another night, one with more drinks and less editing, and it might have gone another way. But they were carefully treading the line of uncomplicated for now.

  Madison stared at her expectantly. Hannah tried to imagine their proposal in a more romantic fashion—one where it wasn’t so clearly platonic, where the lines were already blurred. They wouldn’t have waited very long, if at all. She met Madison’s gaze head-on. “Sixty-three-and-a-half hours.”

  Chapter 24

  Hannah

  The city was already awake, though the sun was barely rising on Central Park East. Hannah had gotten used to the relative quiet of Queens. She could go out for an early-morning jog, and the neighborhood would be stirring with her—teachers bustling to get to school, corporate types walking their dogs, and millennials like herself pounding the pavement. It was rarely quiet on Central Park East, but there was something nice about the scene outside her window. It was different than the one she had in Queens and different than
the one she watched each night from work, and yet they all offered her the same comfort. It was her city; they were her people.

  She sipped her coffee, letting the mix of vanilla and hazelnut draw her closer to being awake and warm. She burrowed deeper into her college hoodie. God, she wanted to be in bed. She’d gone right from PT to a show—because that’s what her knee needed—and then Riley kept her late last night to go over a too-long and too-detailed list of everything Hannah might need to know in her absence. Hannah hadn’t said they’d survived her first maternity leave and they would survive this one, but the truth was that they would. They’d gone over the list twice, and after the next day, Riley would turn her attention to all things baby—supposedly. Hannah had her doubts.

  Her phone vibrated, and she glanced down at the text from Madison. Did you have any questions about the exercises I gave you?

  Of course Madison was up. She was probably doing interval workouts in her living room. No, I got them. Still on for Tuesday night?

  You mean for date night with the brothers Thorne? Hell yes!

  Hannah laughed. She didn’t know what was so exciting about dinner with both Jon and Will, but Madison had been practically bouncing since Hannah suggested it at the end of their session. It would be nice to have a break. November had already kicked into high gear a week into Deafening Silence’s annual “30 Concerts in 30 Days” event. The schedule had been set for weeks, but Hannah had no idea how she was going to manage it.

  A yawn wracked Hannah’s body. As much as she enjoyed her nightly dream romps with her husband, the truth was that she’d forgotten what living with Will was like. In her memory, everything about Will was rosy and happy and silly. He had promised her when they wrote their marriage rules that he now picked up his socks. And that much seemed true. His dirty socks were in the hamper every morning since she moved in. She pulled herself to her feet and came back inside. Irritation sparked as she walked through the living room. Will’s suit jacket had been flung across the back of the couch, and a collection of ties covered one of the kitchen-nook chairs. Binx batted at one, his nail catching it before Hannah could shoo him away. Great. A thread had pulled from the silk fabric, and Hannah dreaded showing Will what Binx had done—again. But she’d told him to put them away every day since Binx had wrecked the first one, and he’d left them out anyway.