“I was supposed to make dinner.” I sounded petulant, like a kid whose toy had been taken away, except Diesel and Marigold weren’t toys, they were… they were everything. “I was gonna make my chicken casserole again. It’s his favorite.”
“Diesel’s?” Miss Sara frowned. “Really?”
“It’s a very good casserole,” I informed her. “It has cheddar bacon biscuits on top.”
“Oh.” She frowned harder. “But I thought Diesel—”
“He’s probably giving her a bath by now. She sleeps so much better when she’s had one.” Another breeze blew through the yard. “Wonder if it’s gonna storm again. He should probably put the white noise app on, just in case.” I made a motion to grab my phone from my pocket so I could text him, but at the last minute, I remembered why I shouldn’t.
“I’m sure Diesel knows what to do,” Miss Sara soothed. “He seems like a great dad, from all you’ve said. I’m sure he can handle it.”
“Of course he can! He always could. He never actually needed me. He just thought he did.” And it had been nice to feel needed. And wanted. “I don’t care what kind of idiot this judge is, there’s no way he won’t look at Diesel and see he’s the best choice, even without my name on the marriage certificate.”
Sara frowned again. “Yes, let’s get back to that part now. How does one become accidentally married, Parrish? I know a thing or two about law, and I’m fairly certain that’s not legal.”
“Well.” I’d spent a lot of time pondering that very question on the ride back to town. “I’m not a hundred percent sure. They put a bunch of forms in front of us—affidavits and petitions and whatnot—that were mostly a formality. I thought Diesel was paying attention to everything, ’cause he was sitting there frowning and nodding, so I just signed where he signed.” I winced. “Uncle Beau would kill me if he knew that. First thing he ever taught me about business was not to sign anything I hadn’t read.”
Miss Sara shook her head and turned back to her gardening. “For good reason.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m not usually this much of an idiot.” Worry for Diesel had short-circuited my brain, that was all.
“Keep going,” she prompted. “Get to the rest.”
“You’re not gonna like the rest.” I ran both hands through my hair. “In my defense, I was a little distracted. See, the lawyers explained things—this form is about Marigold’s education, this one is your prenup, this form simply confirms your intent to get married, and so on—and they asked me some questions, like, ‘Do you enter into this contract willingly, Mr. Partridge?’ And ‘Do you understand this is a legally binding agreement?’ And I said yes, because of course. And they asked if we’d be reciting our own vows, and I said heck, no, ’cause I couldn’t imagine I’d ever wanna do that, even for a fake wedding that would never happen, and Diesel said, ‘Just skip that whole part, please.’”
Miss Sara muttered something that sounded a lot like, “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” but couldn’t have been, ’cause I’d never heard her cuss before.
“Pardon?”
“I said please hand me the rake. The… the little rake. In the bucket. I need to aerate the soil before I plant those tulips for next spring.”
“Oh.” I got her out the rake and handed it to her. “Anyway, Diesel kept getting more and more anxious. I thought—” My voice cracked and I cleared my throat. “I thought it was just about the lawyers, you know? He’s been so prickly for days about that. And I figured he was worried they were Beau’s people, not his own, and maybe he wasn’t getting a fair shake. Every time they brought out another form, he’d sit up straighter and tug his collar a little harder. By the end, his eyes were glazed over, and all I could think was that I had to get him out of there, so I did.” I hesitated, then added, “They congratulated us, when it was all said and done. But I thought they meant congratulations on finishing up all the paperwork.” I wriggled my fingers in a tiny jazz-hands movement. “Yay!”
Miss Sara watched me with her mouth hanging open.
I shrugged sheepishly. “I mean, in retrospect it all seems a bit obvious, but at the time it was really overwhelming.” I pulled at a clump of grass. “And then we went out for lunch, and even after we found our… our marriage