Almost Hitched

by Kylie Gilmore

  Her throat got tight, her eyes hot. “Ian,” she said softly, “we still need to—”

  “We’ll do whatever we need to do. I’m calling it, Kate. Experiment’s over. I’m all in.”

  “But—”

  His other hand cupped her jaw, framing her face with his hands. “Trial run is over. Love wins.” He gazed deep into her eyes. “We both win.”

  She was speechless. She couldn’t believe he took that leap of faith without any data to back him up. She hadn’t even presented her findings. They still had three topics to get through.

  His lips met hers, warm and tender, and her brain shut down. She melted against him, relief flooding her. His arms wrapped around her waist, and his lips pressed against her hair as he enfolded her in a long embrace. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed tight.

  A few moments later, he pulled back and met her eyes. “We good now?”

  She nodded, too choked up to manage anything else.

  He took her hand and started walking back toward his office.

  She finally found her voice. “I’m sorry I called you a bonobo.”

  “Ditto.”

  “Can I still share my experimental findings with you?”

  “I’d love to hear them.”

  “They’re set in an animal framework, but we are primates, you know.”

  He stopped short, and she saw the moment understanding dawned. “Two chimps in love that we don’t know. That’s what you meant! You’ve been observing us like two chimps.”

  She beamed, so glad he really got her.

  “You know I’m the alpha chimp,” he said, continuing their walk.

  “That’s not always a good thing,” she muttered.

  “Oo-oo-oo-ah-ah!” Ian’s chimp impersonation was quite good. Kate flushed as heads turned. Then he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her, carrying her against his front. She wrapped her arms and legs around him like a chimp. “There’s my little monkey,” he crooned in her ear.

  “There’s my giant monkey,” she returned.

  “Damn right.”

  She buried her face in his neck, breathing him in. Love won. For the first time since she’d arrived in Boston, her entire body relaxed. Just in time too. There were a number of wedding planning items coming up very soon. She’d been hoping things between them would go well enough to actually follow through. Tomorrow she had a girls’ day out in Clover Park (her sister’s idea) for wedding gown shopping with her sister, mom, and mother-in-law. Ian only knew it was a girls’ day out, not the purpose of the outing, and he still didn’t know about the party.

  She lifted her head. “Amber has arranged for our engagement party the Saturday before I go back to Chicago.”

  He stopped short. “In two weeks?”

  “Yes.”

  “Since when has this been planned?”

  “Since March?”

  “Is that a question?”

  “No?”

  He sighed and murmured, “Always a surprise.”

  “I didn’t want to mention it and add bias or undue pressure to our captivity experiment. Also, the purpose of girls’ day out is to find a wedding gown.”

  “Ah,” he said, and then much louder, “captivity!” His shoulders shook, and she realized he was laughing. “Monkeys! Is that what you’ve been working on your laptop all this time? Data and monkey observations?”

  “Of course not. I’m a serious physicist. I have important work to do.”

  “I want to see what you’ve got on us tonight.”

  “I’ll prepare a report.”

  “You do that, Kate. I’d really like to read it.”

  She hugged him tight with her arms and legs, knowing she’d pleased him.

  ~ ~ ~

  Ian was not pleased. He’d returned home after work to find a ten-page report waiting for him with detailed observations on him and suggested solutions to his issues. Territoriality? Alpha displays? Perceived high-value items? Maybe he needed shaving cream and underwear! Mixed-nut fetish? Animal drive? Well, that wasn’t too bad. Wait, what was this? Hostile tone and stance? This was how Kate saw him?

  “Hostile?” he barked. “I’m not hostile!”

  She pushed her glasses up. “These are merely observations of real-life events.”

  He scanned the report, searching for anything complimentary at all. Nothing on him. But everything on the female was most complimentary. Female adapted to environment. Female used resources well. Completely biased!

  He turned to her sitting next to him on the sofa, looking all superior. “This report is flawed. In fact, your whole experiment is flawed.”

  “What? That’s impossible! I was very careful to keep an objective distance from two chimps in love that I never met.”

  “Then why do I look like a snarling ape and you look like a well-adjusted completely harmonious chimp?”

  She pushed her hair behind her ears. “Like I said, those are just observations of real-life events.”

  “I’m not hostile!”

  “Perhaps some video feedback would be useful.”

  He ground his teeth. “I’m not territorial either. In fact, I don’t think you could find a much more laid-back guy than me.”

  She snorted.

  “You used all my shaving cream,” he said.

  “Which I replaced.”

  “You threw out my boxer briefs.”

  “Which I replaced with an alternative.”

  “You ate all the cashews.”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. I believe it’s your perceived lack of resources causing this territoriality problem. If you could just make a list of what you consider high value, I could stockpile those items and—”

  “Any guy would be irritated living with you!”

  She blinked and her lips pressed into a flat line. “Perhaps you’re right. I’ve never lived with a man before. Perhaps I’m ill-suited to such an arrangement.” She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them.

  Now he felt like an ass. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “You’re not ill-suited or whatever. We’ll work it out.”

  She looked up at him. “Perhaps a couples therapist could help us establish effective communication systems. It’s in all the literature.”

  “We don’t need that. We communicate just fine.”

  She straightened. “Maybe it’s good that we’ll have a little time apart tomorrow.” She took off her glasses and cleaned them industriously with the end of her T-shirt. “It will give us both some perspective and a chance to calm down enough for a rational conversation.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that. She was probably right, but he had a feeling if he agreed that some time apart would be good, she might take it the wrong way. So he said nothing.

  Kate slid her glasses back on. “Maybe I’ll spend the night in Clover Park too.”

  She was taking his car to drive down tomorrow. He could either go with her and wait around while she did all her girl stuff, or he could let her go and maybe her sister would make her see reason in her biased view of their captivity experiment. He quickly decided the best thing to do was agree with whatever she said.

  “Sure, if that’s what you want,” he said. “I’ll catch up on some paperwork. Have fun.”

  She stood abruptly. “I need to call my sister.”

  He let her go. She probably wanted to firm up the details for the weekend. Kate liked a planned agenda.

  He slouched down on the sofa, put his feet up on the coffee table, and pulled out his cell phone to play some games. Captivity experiment. He shook his head.

  Kate went into the bedroom and shut the door. A few moments later, he caught snippets of Kate’s side of the conversation. “Complete break…all in…refuses couples therapy…won’t fall in line.”

  He sat up straight, his feet hitting the floor. Fall in line! If anyone was going to fall in line in this relationship, it was Kate. She had
to adapt to him a whole helluva lot better before she had anything to say about him adapting to her! He put up with a lot!

  She got quiet for a while, so she must’ve been listening. He hoped Amber was setting her straight. Then he heard her say, “That would be a long list.”

  He crossed to the door and pounded on it. He was surprised when it swung open. He thought he’d have to convince her to open it.

  “Oh, fine,” Kate said into the phone, “but I already told you everything.” She sighed. “Here.” She handed him the phone. Great. Now his sister-in-law would ream him out.

  He snatched the phone and barked, “My fiancée should be the one talking to me!”

  “Hey now,” Barry said. “Let’s take it down a notch.”

  Kate brushed by him and returned to the living room. She pulled out her laptop and started typing, probably observing more of his hostility.

  “Why are you butting in?” Ian asked.

  “Amber loves you guys. She wants you both to be happy. Kate helped her over a rough patch in our relationship. That meant a lot to her.”

  “So Amber put you up to it?”

  “She thought a man-to-man talk would help.”

  “You are so whipped.”

  “Happily so.”

  Ian scrubbed a hand over his face. He did not want to be turning this into a whole family thing.

  “She feels you’re hostile,” Barry said.

  “I’m not—”

  “You’re loud. Women take that to heart.”

  He studied Kate, who was looking serious, typing like crazy. He’d never thought of her as all that sensitive, but maybe under her serious scientific exterior, she was. And he’d been beating his chest like a gorilla.

  Barry went on. “Come down on Saturday. That’s an order, not a request.”

  “Or what?”

  “Or Amber will kick your ass.”

  Ian laughed, though his petite sister-in-law was tough when she needed to be. “In that case, I’d better brush up on my kung fu.”

  Barry chuckled.

  “We’re fine,” Ian said, “but thanks.”

  “Listen,” Barry said, his voice lowering, “you helped me out with Amber, remember? You told me to ditch the Hawaiian shirts. You encouraged me to get back to my acting roots to get a much-needed confidence boost. It helped Amber see me in a new light. Now I want to return the favor. I’m on your side.”

  He blew out a breath. “She wants to have a girls’ weekend, so that’s what she’s going to get.”

  “She wants you.”

  “She said—forget it. I don’t want to talk to you about this. I know you mean well, but no. I gotta go.” He went to hang up, but he still heard his brother’s last buttinski move.

  “She’s worth it!” Barry called.

  Ian rolled his eyes and hung up. Seriously. Just because Barry was happily married, happily whipped, happily everything didn’t mean Ian wanted him as a go-between. He and Kate would be fine. She said she wanted a weekend away for perspective, so he’d give her what she wanted.

  He turned and gazed at Kate—his unique, aggravating, sexy-as-all-hell fiancée. Then he crossed to her, returned her cell phone, and sat next to her on the sofa.

  She quickly shut the laptop and set it on the coffee table. He was sure she’d been working on more hostile chimp observations on him.

  He took her hand. “I’m sorry for my hostile tone.”

  “You’re forgiven.”

  “Are you writing more stuff about me?”

  “Barry suggested I create a bug report on our relationship. You know, a list of the flaws so we can work through them in a systematic way. I told him it would be a long list.”

  He stifled a groan. Classic software engineer solution to the problem. He could only imagine what was on her long list.

  Kate went on. “You should work on your report as well to address any bugs from your perspective. We can tackle them when I return from my weekend away.”

  “Okay.” He might be able to think of a few. Bug report number one: my fiancée enjoys observing me like a chimp.

  “We only have thirty days to get it right,” she said in a flat tone. She retrieved her laptop. “Actually, seventeen days left to get it right.” This was true. She flew back to Chicago at the end of the month. “Or not,” she added.

  He felt a little queasy, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. Was it the running-out-of-time thing? Her flat tone, like she’d already given up? The fact that she had a long list of relationship flaws to catalogue, by which she probably meant Ian flaws?

  But wait, the whole reason she was going to Clover Park was to shop for a wedding gown. That had to be good. She must ultimately believe that they’d work things out. Right?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kate drove to Clover Park with an unwanted passenger—Doom. The impending sense of doom clinging to her was so strong, crushing her tender heart, it felt like a physical presence in the car.

  Ian should not have let her go so easily. Knowing they only had seventeen days left (as she’d reminded him) before another long separation, possibly even a year separation if she got the Geneva fellowship, he should have wanted to join her this weekend. Instead, paperwork had taken priority. And not just any paperwork. Morgan’s paperwork for a grant application. He’d informed her this morning he’d be meeting with Morgan over coffee to go over it.

  Stop it, she told herself. It’s just work.

  He chose working with Morgan over you, Doom said from the passenger seat.

  No, it was all last minute. Ian didn’t plan any of that. He was assistant director of the lab. He’d likely meet up with anyone who needed it on a Saturday morning coffee date.

  She ground her teeth. Not a date.

  He had a choice, Doom said. He chose her.

  She turned the radio to NPR and forced herself to focus on the voices. She hated feeling like this, twitchy and jealous and stupid. Yes, she felt stupid. Here she was heading for her first ever girls’ day out to shop for a wedding gown while her fiancé got together with his ex.

  Stupid. She either trusted him or she didn’t. She always had before. This engagement thing suddenly felt like too much pressure. How could anyone hold up under all that heavy expectation? If only there were clear-cut simple rules to follow to ensure a happy future. She thrived in environments where she understood the boundaries and rules. That was the way she’d been raised. And that was the way of physics.

  She switched the radio to a hard rock station and blasted it. She needed to get out of her head on this three-hour drive or she’d never be able to deal with her mother. That always required maximum effort. Her mom pushed all her buttons, especially since she’d fallen in love with Ian. Not being able to say “I love you” to Ian in the beginning of their relationship like a normal person made her realize her upbringing had been abnormally cold. She’d finally broken through that emotional barrier after Ian had been hospitalized as a result of her bad cooking (food poisoning from undercooked turkey). Seeing him unconscious in the ambulance had pushed the love words right out of her mouth.

  Words she’d never, ever heard from her own mom. Or dad. Dammit. Why had she let Amber invite her mom?

  By the time Kate parked in the well-to-do town of Greenport, Connecticut, where they’d be meeting for lunch followed by shopping at the nearby bridal boutiques, she was a little on edge. Okay, a lot.

  She located Le Jardin, the nice French restaurant where her sister had made reservations, and went inside. Amber waved to her from where the women were already seated at a square table with a white tablecloth. She took her place next to Amber, who, being the fabulous older sister she was, immediately poured Kate a glass of chilled chardonnay and filled her in on the conversation.

  Half a glass of wine later, her mind wandered. So here I am being a bride. The women were talking about Violet and the preschools that Amber was looking into for the fall. Her mom, a petite woman with severely short gray hair, wir
e-framed glasses, and sharp elf-like features, sat across from her. Kate supposed she was fortunate to have some of her dad’s softer features. She had her mom’s sharp cheekbones and small upturned nose but her dad’s full lips and rounded chin. Next to her mom was her mother-in-law-to-be Susan. Kate suddenly wished Ian was with them. He was so good at making conversation fun, always teasing and making funny little jokes. People often thought because she had a serious demeanor that they had to speak to her in a serious way, but she really appreciated when they didn’t because it was nice to have a break from herself.

  She finished her wine on a near empty stomach, which had the pleasant effect of shoving the impending sense of doom off a cliff. She smiled to herself. The cure for all relationship worries! Silly chimp. She bit back a giggle at her own monkey joke. And then Susan surprised her.

  “Look at us gabbing on and on about Violet when it’s Kate’s special day,” Susan said, smiling kindly at Kate. “Let’s order some champagne and have a toast.”

  “Great idea!” Amber said, flagging the waitress down. So far they’d only had bread and a first course of salad.

  “Thank you, Susan,” Kate said. “That’s kind of you.”

  Susan’s warm brown eyes gazed at her lovingly. So much like Ian’s. He was so lucky to have a mom with warm loving eyes. “You’re family now.”

  Her mom, Maxine, spoke up in her tight clipped voice. “Technically Kate isn’t family until after the marriage certificate has been filed at the courthouse. Kate, will you be keeping your last name? I strongly suggest it for professional reasons.”

  “Yes, I’ll be keeping Lewis,” Kate replied. “I figured for our kids we’d do the hyphenated last name like Amber and Barry did to avoid confusion.”

  “Lewis-Furnukle is a mouthful,” her mom stated.

  “We do okay with it,” Amber said.

  “I kept my maiden name,” Susan said. “I quite agree Furnukle is a mouthful.”

  Amber giggled, and Kate snorted, fighting back a laugh. Her sister was so inappropriate. Ha-ha-ha.

  “Whatever you’re comfortable with, sweetheart,” Susan added.

  I can take the whole Furnukle.

  “Thank you,” Kate said with a straight face. Amber was still grinning. Kate kept her eyes on Susan and not her giggly sister. She didn’t want her mother-in-law to think she was always taking a mouthful of her son’s Furnukle. Even if she did on a regular basis. She felt herself flush remembering the last time. Ian gripping her hair, telling her he was going to fuck her mouth. Such a dirty talker. She pressed her cold water glass to her forehead.