“So when is the wedding?” Kelsie’s wheels were turning, obviously a mile ahead on the wedding plans.
“I told him no.”
“And why did you do that?”
“Because he doesn’t love me.”
“Think about it. You’ll have more than a lot of marriages starting out. Besides, who says he doesn’t love you?”
“He’s never said he does.”
“I didn’t know I loved Zach or that he loved me. Yet I think we did marry for love. We just didn’t recognize it for what it was.”
Mac mulled over Kelsie’s words, then rejected them as ludicrous. Sure, the sex between her and Bruiser scorched right to their souls. They had chemistry, and they had common interests. But Mac secretly believed in romance and love and all that mushy crap. She wanted a forever love. Maybe her expectations weren’t the least bit realistic. Maybe she should lower them.
“Do you guys have mutual goals in life?”
Mac jumped, startled out of her musing. She didn’t really have any goals anymore. Since neither of them lived their own lives but their versions of what others expected, they were a sorry pair.
So why was she even considering it?
For Elliot?
Or was Elliot a way to justify something she wanted to do for herself?
* * * * *
When Mac pulled in her driveway later that evening, Elliot leaped up from where he’d been sitting on the front porch. He wore a hooded sweatshirt, which had to be too warm for the weather, a baseball cap, and baggy jeans, not the fashionable kind popular with some kids, but ones that were a size too big.
“Elliot? What are you doing here?” Mac glanced around. Bruiser couldn’t have brought him. He had flown out yesterday morning to the East Coast for the game—not that she was keeping track of his schedule or anything. He wouldn’t be back until late tonight.
“I needed to get out, and Bruiser is gone.” Elliot smiled hopefully at her while he fidgeted with a strap on his backpack.
“It’s almost eight thirty. Does your aunt know you’re here?” Mac wouldn’t be swayed by the kid’s attempt to charm her.
Elliot shuffled his feet and stared at the ground. “Uh, not really.” Then he glanced up quickly with an engaging grin. “I was bored. I came to see you.”
“How did you get here?” Mac unlocked her front door and Elliot followed her in.
“I rode the bus.”
“Elliot, you need to call your aunt, then I’m taking you back home.”
Elliot plopped down in on the step. “I’m not going. I’ll just run away again.”
“Please, I can’t keep you here.”
“Because you don’t want to.” Elliot sniffled and rubbed what little was left of his nose. Mac handed him a tissue.
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is that simple. Why don’t you just marry Bruiser? We can be a family.” Elliot perked up and managed a lopsided grin that reminded her oddly of Bruiser.
Mac gave him her best evil eye. “Wherever did you come up with an idea like that?”
Elliot pursed his lips and shrugged, putting on an innocent act. “Just thought it sounded good.”
“Did Bruiser put you up to this?”
The kid regarded her with a puzzled frown. “Uh, no, why would he?” He pushed his glasses up higher on his nose.
It was Mac’s turn to be flustered. “No reason.”
“I heard Aunt Ruth talking to someone on the phone. She said she’d transfer guardianship to Bruiser because he has the means to help me, while they don’t, but she needs to make sure that the atmosphere is adequate.”
“And that means he needs to be married?”
“Yeah, and settled down. I mean he’d have to stop his modeling and stuff.”
“I see.” Mac thrust her phone at him.
“Aunt Ruth says modeling half-naked is the devil’s work.”
Mac nodded, trying not to laugh at the image of Bruiser doing the devil’s work complete with pitchfork and pointed tail.
“So why don’t you marry him?”
“It’s complicated.”
“That’s what all adults say when it’s really pretty easy.”
Okay, this conversation needed to end now. Right now. Elliot was essentially a runaway. “Call your aunt. Let her know I’ll be bringing you home right away.”
“I made a friend at school.” Elliot changed the subject so quickly Mac took a moment to catch up.
“Good for you.”
“We play chess together.”
Mac smiled, happy to see Elliot adjusting well but refusing to fall for his attempt to distract her. “Good, good. Now call her.”
Mac went into the kitchen and waited for Elliot to finish his call, then she picked up her car keys. “Let’s go.”
“She’s mean to me. My uncle stares at me really funny, and not just because of how I look.”
Mac hesitated, the hair rising on the back of her neck. “How does he stare at you?”
“Just—weird. I can’t really explain it. Like he thinks I’m a sinner he has to save.”
Mac hoped like hell that’s all it was.
A lone tear ran down Elliot’s cheek. “I miss my mom and dad. Mom always read to me at night from the classics, and Dad helped me with my science projects. These people don’t believe in reading anything but the Bible.”
“Well, the Bible is a good book.” Mac was trying hard to be positive.
“So are a lot of other books.”
“What did your aunt say on the phone?”
“They didn’t know I was gone, but now that they do, I think I’m in trouble.”
“I’m sure you are. Elliot, you can’t run off like that. Promise you won’t do it again.”
“If you’ll marry Bruiser.”
“That’s blackmail.”
Elliot nodded, a slight grin on his splotchy face. “Will you?”
“I’ll think about it.” Mac sighed. “Come on, let’s go.”
Elliot threw his arms around her and hugged her. She hugged him back, as the clever little boy burrowed deeper into her heart.
“I love you, Mac.” He grinned at her and skipped ahead to the car, happier than she’d ever seen him, singing a song that sounded suspiciously like “Love and Marriage.”
Elliot loved her, Bruiser wanted to marry her, and she was currently unemployed. She needed to find a way to dig herself out of this complicated hole. It
