and soon enough the Easy Bake Oven beeps indicating the cakes are ready. I carefully take them out and turn them onto a baking sheet, a little surprised that Cason’s cottage is so well equipped, but guessing the other women had something to do with it. I do like how they all take care of one another here. It’s also really sweet and supportive that they all want to come to the reception in my parents’ garden. Personally, I’m dreading it.
After letting the cakes cool, the boys generously spread the icing. The second they’re done, they’re digging into them like they’ve been living off rations and I smile, so happy that I kept this old toy.
Once they devoured every morsel, I send them back to the bathroom to get washed up and I check the clock. “How about we all settle in for a movie, and get them to wind down after all that chocolate?”
“Great idea,” Cason says. “I have a few here from the last time they stayed over.”
“I think it’s great that you spend so much time with them.”
“I’m on the road so much, I don’t get to spend nearly as much time with them as I’d like.”
“Is it hard for the guys, hard on the relationships, being on the road all the time?”
“They find a way to make it work. Right now, with Khloe being so young, Katee travels with Luke. It was easier for Nina. She can write anywhere, right? But for those with careers keeping them in place, and when the kids are of school age, it can be a bit harder.”
“So you think long distance relationships can work?” I ask, and he nods.
“Seems to for these guys. It might not be for everyone though.”
I put the dishes in the sink and follow him into the living room, wondering if he could do long distance. He roots through the movies and pulls out a classic. “Just that if I were married to you, well technically I am, I wouldn’t want to be away from you for very long.”
I smile, but my heart is bouncing around inside my chest like a rubber ball. “Well, we are still in the honeymoon stage.”
He chuckles. “You know that lasts for two years, right?”
I angle my head and eye him. “What? Why would you know anything about that?”
“My sister is a romance writer.” He rolls his eyes. “She loves to fill me with all these facts I never need to know. But according to her, the honeymoon stage lasts for two years, then the deeper relationship really develops, and that can be a make or break point for couples.”
“I guess it’s not like we’ll ever have to worry about that. We’re on a deadline, right?” I say. Why did I pose that as a question?
Oh, because you want more, Kinsley, and you want him to say he does, too.
He frowns, and opens his mouth like he wants to say something, but I’ll never know what it is, because just then the boys come racing back into the room, hyped up on sugar, and eager to go.
Cason pats the sofa and they plop down between us, and I angle my head to see Cason. His brow is still furrowed, worried lines around his mouth. What is going through his head? Did my question scare him, make him run the other way, his usual reaction as we close in on the two-week mark? Or is it possible that he was going to challenge that deadline, tell me he wants more? God, I need to know. I really, really need to know.
Then open your mouth and ask!
17
Cason
“You, my sweet wife, look amazing.”
Fuck, man. I love calling her that and want to continue calling her that long after our thirty days are up, which are closing in on us quickly. As she stands in front of the mirror in my bedroom, she scrunches up her nose in concern and turns left and right, looking herself over.
“We’re just setting ourselves up for disaster, Cason. Nothing good can come from this.”
I shrug, but I’m not dismissing her worries. I understand them. “I don’t know, maybe they’ll see that inner light inside you glowing like I do, and realize you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.”
“They’ll never approve of me choosing to be a chef over a lawyer,” she says.
Okay, what I was getting at was her choice in a husband, but that answer will do, for now. We can talk about that choice when