Married in Vegas (The Townsends Book 3)

by Angie Campbell

  “He married you, didn’t he?” Lisa said with a laugh.

  “Very funny, Lisa,” she grumbled and took off across the yard like a woman on a mission.

  Elaine shook her head with a chuckle. “For Mark’s sake, maybe you shouldn’t have called her attention to that. She’s going to eat him for lunch.”

  “Trust me, he can take it,” Mindi chuckled, watching her sister and her husband from across the yard. “Knowing Mark, he’ll probably even enjoy it.”

  “Are you crazy. Why did you just do that? Are you trying to break your neck?” Jenny asked, smacking Mark on the arm, then wincing.

  “Hey, I’m fine. Calm down,” he said, yanking his shirt off over his head, literally slinging sweat.

  “I’ll make you think calm down,” she huffed, balling her hands on her hips. “And put your shirt back on. You don’t have Luke’s skin. You’re going to be red as a lobster by the end of the day. Your hair may be only strawberry blonde, but you have the typical skin of a red head.”

  “I’m going to put sun screen on. It’s an SPF thirty. Do you think you could help me?” he asked, a huge smile splitting his face.

  Jenny just gave him a dirty look and asked, “Where’s it at?”

  “In the seat of my truck,” he said pulling her with him, toward it.

  He reached in the open window and grabbed the sun screen lying in the seat and handed it to her. At first when he turned his back to her, she just stood there staring at him. She still hadn’t managed to touch him a whole lot and the thought of rubbing her hands all over his back was enough to make her really nervous.

  He turned just enough to look at her over his shoulder and smirked at her. “Hey, are you back there?”

  “Sorry.” She could hear the humor in his voice and it made her blush. She was grateful he had his back turned to her and had only managed to catch a small glimpse of her.

  She squirted some in her hand, then tossed the bottle back in the seat of the truck. When she got done, he turned around and asked her, with a devilish grin, “Do you want to put it on my chest, as well?”

  She just shook her head at him. “You can do that part.”

  When she started to walk off, he called out to her, “Hey, come here. I need something else from you.”

  Not being suspicious, she put herself within arm’s reach, and he reached out and grabbed her. She knew the second his arms wrapped around her, she had been had. “Need something else, huh?”

  “Yeah, I need a kiss.” Without any more warning than that, he leaned over and kissed her. By the time he let go of her, she was breathless and trying to remember why she had come over to talk to him to start with.

  After a few seconds, her brain started working again. “Please, no more dropping off the roof. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  “Do you really care so much?” he asked, sounding a little vulnerable.

  “Mark, you know I care. My problem isn’t a question of how I feel for you. It’s overcoming the...” She stopped and shook her head. “Just, please, be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  He couldn’t help himself. When she turned around to walk off again, he spun her around and kissed her once more. This time when he let her go, she was completely dazed.

  When she walked back over to the others, Elaine looked over at the other two, and trying not to laugh, said, “Yeah. You were right. He can take it.”

  Lisa was still laughing when she turned to see her youngest brother Tony, riding what had to be Izzy’s bike toward a ramp made out of building supplies.

  “Oh gee. Apparently, Mark’s not the only crazy one here today,” she mumbled, just in time to see him crash. He had managed to scrape his left leg up pretty bad when he went skidding through the dirt and rocks. “The difference here is, Tony’s stunt didn’t turn out so well.”

  By the time he had made it to his feet, Jamie was headed across the yard to him. He was no longer wincing just from the pain from scratching himself up. He could tell by the look on his mom’s face, he was in trouble.

  “What are you doing? Are you trying to break your neck?” Jamie asked, glaring at her youngest son.

  “No,” Tony said, sounding really small.

  She crossed her arms in front of her and glared down at him. “What did you think you were doing?”

  “Nathan and Gabe dared me,” he said, glancing over at his brothers, who were now trying to look like they had no idea what was going on in front of them.

  “I don’t care. You could have seriously hurt yourself. You were lucky your crazy ramp stayed together long enough for you to jump it,” she said, shaking her head at him. “Come on. Let’s go get you cleaned up. Nathan and Gabe, go help Alex and Hunter in the back. They’re picking scraps up out of the yard. Maybe if I put you to work, you’ll stay out of trouble for a while.”

  ******

  By the time they quit for the day, they had finished the roof and had got over half the siding done. They had started really early in the morning, so they could get as much done as they could before it started getting really hot and had worked until it got too dark to continue. They had only stopped for lunch long enough to eat sandwiches, and now everybody had worked up a large appetite. Everybody was now ready for a big barbecue and had moved over to Carl and Jamie’s.

  Carl and Phillip were grilling and everyone else was working on potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob and salad with leaf lettuce, tomatoes and carrots. There were so many people in the backyard, there was barely any room to move around. But if Mark didn’t stop grabbing her and kissing her she was going to find some way to drag him off and have her way with him. It seemed like, every time she got within arm’s reach, he would grab her and kiss her like he was doing the best he could to make her forget her own name.

  It really wasn’t her intention to growl at Mindi when she asked for help taking all the sides out to the backyard, but she caught her off guard while she was still trying to work herself through the fog in her head from the last time he had grabbed her. “What?”

  “Gee-whiz. What is your problem?” Mindi asked, giving her sister a strange look. “You are really crabby. Mark must not be doing his job right. That’s kind of surprising.”

  “That would depend on what you consider his job to be,” Jenny said, fighting not to snarl at her sister.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, trying not to laugh. She could tell her sister was really frustrated.

  “Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it,” Jenny said, trying to shrug it off.

  “Jenny, what’s wrong?”

  “He’s making me crazy. All he’ll do is kiss me. And right now, he’s doing quite a lot of that,” she snarled, in spite of her effort not to.

  “What do you mean?” her sister asked, sounding a little puzzled.

  “I have to start it.”

  “Wait. Are you telling me, you two haven’t made love yet?” she asked, giving her sister a strange look.

  “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. He refuses to take the lead. I have to start it or ask for it. Or something. You know how he is. He’s being all noble.” she said, dragging the words out, sounding frustrated. “He’s waiting for me to make the decision to actually have sex with him. Which, honestly, I love that. It makes me feel like there really is more to this for him than just sex. But you know how terrified I am.”

  “Then kiss him. Start it. I know you want to.”

  “You know it’s not that easy,” she huffed. “What part of, I’m still terrified, did you not get?”

  “Jenny, you’re married to the man. Stop thinking about it so much. Just give in to what your heart wants. You’re making yourself miserable.” After a second thought, she added, “Heck, you’re making me crazy.”

  Jenny just gave her sister a dirty look and walked out the back door. Knowing Mindi was right, just made her that much more irritated.

  ******

  About fifteen minutes later, after they had all gotten sit
down to eat, Zane brought up a topic she wasn’t sure she was ready to talk about. “Hey, Sis, you were dating Mike Collins before you and Mark went to Vegas, and came back married, right?”

  Jenny gave her brother a strained look, wondering where he was going with this. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, he stopped me at the store earlier, and asked if I really thought you and Mark would stay married for long,” Zane answered, sounding serious for once. That just made her even more uneasy. “I was just wondering how serious your relationship with him had been.”

  She shrugged, wishing she could feel as unconcerned as the gesture suggested. “Zane, you know me. No more so than any of the others. Why?”

  “I think you and Mark better expect trouble. He’s not happy. I think he thought your relationship was more serious than you did. And for the record, I told him I figured you two would stay together. That you had been in love with each other for a while now. He didn’t like my answer,” he added with a wince.

  “Great, Zane,” she grumbled. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to him. I’m sure I’m going to have to, even if I don’t really want to. It’s probably going to be worse than it would have.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, truly looking contrite. “I didn’t know I was supposed to keep things a secret.”

  “Oh, that’s not it, and I’m not mad. I just really don’t want to deal with him.”

  “Don’t worry. I can deal with him for you,” Mark said, sounding irritated.

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea. You might end up hurting him.”

  “I’m not going to let him aggravate you. I have every right to protect you, and I’m going to. You are my wife, whether he likes it or not.”

  There was that possessive tone again. “Mark, I don’t want you causing yourself trouble over him. Let me handle it. If he won’t listen, I’ll let you know. I’ll talk to him in a public place, so there are other people around.”

  Mark was nearly growling when he answered her. “If he hurts you, I’ll kill him.”

  Jenny took a deep breath. “Mark, I don’t think he would do that. I’ve never noticed anything that would give me reason to think he would get violent.”

  “You’re wrong about that,” Zane interrupted. “He’s been charged with assault before. Nothing ever came of it, because the victim recanted.”

  She shrugged her shoulders, still not feeling alarmed over the matter. She just didn’t want to deal with the situation because she felt like she should have broken things off with him before she got married to someone else. “She was probably just angry, and once she calmed down, she recanted because it wasn’t true.”

  “I don’t think so,” he said, still persisting. “I was the one that took her statement. She was terrified. Not angry. I think he threatened her.”

  “Surely not,” she said, this time not feeling quite so certain.

  “Okay, enough of that. That’s too serious a topic for a family barbecue. Luke’s birthday is tomorrow so we have a cake,” Jamie said with a grin. When she heard Luke groan, she just grinned bigger. She knew Luke really didn’t like celebrating his birthday. He would rather wait and celebrate everybody else’s.

  Just then they saw Mindi coming across the yard with the cake. Luke just looked at her and shook his head. He knew she had to have been behind this. When she reached him and sit the cake down in front of him, he pulled her down in his lap and whispered in her ear, “I’m going to get you for this.”

  She just looked at him and grinned. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  Zane saw the exchange and couldn’t stop himself from asking, “What are you two talking about?”

  Mindi just looked at him, and grinned. “That’s none of your business, Nosey. We are married, after all.”

  Zane groaned with a shake of his head. “You two are always so sappy, it about gives a body diabetes.”

  “Zane tends to think everything is his business. Didn’t you know?” Phillip asked, unintentionally putting himself in the line of fire. Christy was sitting beside him, and Zane just grinned and winked at her.

  “So, Phillip. Jenny’s married now. Isn’t it your turn?”

  Phillip just growled, “Don’t start, Zane. Or would you like me to ask a certain someone if they are ready to marry you? I think it’s your turn next.”

  Zane just snarled, “What certain someone would you be referring to? I’m not in love with anyone.”

  Phillip waited till everyone stopped laughing or coughing to reply. There was two or three sitting at the table who had been unfortunate enough to take a bite at the wrong time and had almost choked. “Really, Zane? You still haven’t figured it out?”

  That caused Zane to look over at Amanda, who was so red, she could have doubled as a fire engine.

  “Phillip, I think you’ve lost your mind.”

  “Go ahead, Zane. Deny it all you want. It’ll sneak up on you one of these days.”

  “Look who’s talking.”

  “Shut up, Zane,” his brother snarled back.

  “You first.”

  “Okay you two, enough arguing. Everybody already knows you two need your heads smacked together,” Jamie said, giving them both a dirty look.

  Chapter 8

  Sunday, July 14

  Mark and Jenny had just finished eating lasagna for dinner, which had turned out to be one of Mark’s favorite meals. They were just getting done loading the dishwasher when they heard a strange hissing sound coming from under the counter. Mark looked down and noticed water coming out from under the cabinet door and running into the floor.

  “We have a busted pipe,” he groaned, rubbing his hand over his face.

  He knelt down and opened the cabinet door to check it out. When the water sprayed right in his face, it surprised him enough, it knocked him on his butt. “Crap.”

  “Are you okay,” she asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

  He looked up at her and gave her a dirty look. “Funny, huh?”

  He held his hand up trying to dodge the spray, so he could get under the counter to turn the valve off. Unfortunately, he discovered, the valve was what had broken. He was going to have to turn the water off outside. He jumped up and turned to Jenny. “I’ll be right back,” he grumbled as he ran out the back door.

  She decided to go to the garage to get the towels they had brought from her apartment to use to mop up the water. They had never unpacked them, but she remembered they were in a box by their self. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too hard to find.

  When she got back to the kitchen with the towels she found Mark just coming through the back door. She was walking over to the kitchen table and looked up just in time to see him yank his wet t-shirt up over his head and toss it on the counter. Her breath caught in her throat and her feet slipped out from under her. She landed on her butt and the towels landed a few feet behind her where she had tossed them trying to catch herself. “Ow.”

  Mark walked over and looked down at her. His expression was both humor and concern. “Are you okay?”

  “Funny, huh,” she asked, turning his words around on him.

  “You laughed first.”

  “Fine,” she huffed. “Will you just help me up?”

  He reached down and took her hand to pull her up, but lost his footing and fell, almost landing on top of her. He managed to catch himself just before he squashed her. He sat back, knelt between her knees. “Seriously, are you okay? I thought I was going to smash you.”

  Before he knew what was happening, she had come up off the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck and was kissing him. He never thought he’d be grateful for a busted water valve.

  He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back. This definitely counted as her starting it, and he had no intentions of letting up until he had her where he wanted her. He pulled back a little and looked her in the eyes. “Just so you know, Angel, this is you starting it, and I don’t intend to stop this time.”

  “Than
k goodness,” she breathed. “When you took your shirt off, I thought I was going to faint from the blood rushing through my body.”

  He chuckled and lowered his head to suck her bottom lip between his teeth. She groaned and tightened her hold on him. He had to tell himself not to move too fast. He didn’t want to scare her into backing off. The problem was, she was all he had wanted for the last four years. His brain may have been telling him one thing, but his body wasn’t cooperating very well. He was wanting to feel her skin against his, and he couldn’t get her shirt off fast enough. He brought his hands down to her waist and yanked her t-shirt out of the waistband of her jeans. He ran his hands up under her shirt and felt her body start to tremble.

  His hands were all thumbs all of the sudden. He had moved his mouth to her ear to ask for help when he heard someone clear their throat. “Crap.” He had forgotten he had called his dad to go get a replacement valve to bring over, so he could help change it out.

  “Sorry. I did knock. The door was unlocked.” His dad was about the same shade of red as Jenny was.

  She had buried her face in his chest, and he could feel the heat from her cheek where it was pressed against his skin. He heard her groan at his dad’s words and couldn’t help but laugh.

  He leaned over and whispered in her ear, where his dad wouldn’t hear, “We will finish this later.”

  He heard her groan again. When she looked up at him he could see she was just as frustrated as he was.

  ******

  It didn’t take very long for them to get the valve changed, and the water back on. Once that was done, his dad left them to finish cleaning up the mess. Mark thought his dad looked like he might still have been embarrassed at finding him in the process of trying to rip his wife’s clothes off her in the middle of the kitchen floor. That would explain why he had taken off so fast.