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

“Don’t need any of that bollocks in science,” Mike had said genially.


“I’m not the one who runs up a literal butcher’s bill, sweetie,” came the not-so-genial reply.


So uncharitable as it was—especially given it was his own stepsister—Mike really wasn’t up for the wedding on the day it arrived. He had a box in his hall ready to go back to the school, and only ten days before he’d have to turn up and suffer through one of those terminally dull training days before the spotty monstrosities were crammed back through the gates. Spending one of those ten days in another sodding tuxedo was the last thing he had in mind.


And even worse, it was the same day as Stephen’s clinic results were due.


“Don’t be a twat about it,” Mike said on their way over to his mam’s house on the morning of the big day. “Whenever they call, just slip out and take it.”


“Don’t tell me how to deal with it, alright?”


Chapter 42