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

“I never said how much that meant to me.”


“Most guys won’t take on a woman who has another man’s baby. Another man’s fourteen-year-old? Come on. You’d have to be crazy, right?”


“Well, ladies and gentlemen, Leonard is a little bit crazy. I mean, come on, we all love her, but who’s crazy enough to put up with Mam twenty-four hours a day!”


Little giggles erupted again here and there.


They locked eyes. Mike swallowed at the film of tears in his stepfather’s gaze.


“You were right. You’re not my dad. You never will be. But you stepped in, when my dad couldn’t be here with us anymore. You never tried to replace him, but you did fill the void that he’d left behind. And you never once asked for us to forget him. You’ve made my mam happy, and you’ve made me the man I am today.”


Mam started to sniffle between them, and Mike resolutely stared past her.


Chapter 34