It's the summer break, and for the first time in his life, Mike would rather stay in the bloody classroom.<br><br>It's wedding season, and Mike is doomed to spend all summer sipping cheap champagne and pretending he likes tiny portions of posh food. From the passive-aggressive torment of Mike's mother-in-law to the insulting incredulity of his colleagues over what his mysterious husband actually looks like, Mike would voluntarily teach sex education to fourteen-year-olds for the rest of his life if it would only get him out of one more wedding. Even his husband in a kilt isn't going to save this one.<br><br>But there's nothing like watching someone else get hitched to remind him of where he's come from ... and where he's determined to go from here.

Married Ones

Stephen’s voice was gentle, and Mike shook the hand off, only to take it in his own and squeeze.


“Come on,” he said. “I lost the coin toss. Direct me to that curry house of your’n.”


“I accidentally threw it out of my hand and into his face.”


“Bloody does, Aunt Alicia did it, too.”


Mike laughed properly then, and caught Stephen at the car to shove him against the bodywork and kiss him.


“Bugger the lot of them,” he said fiercely. “They don’t want to be a part of our new family, they canshove it.”


Stephen grinned. “Can I bugger you instead?”


Typically, for the first week of the summer holidays, it pissed it down.


Chapter 13