Chapter 7

"You know we have about twenty minutes before the rest of them show up right?" I said to the silent seething man next to me. He hadn't said a word since we left my brother on his knees on the side of the road.

You touch my wife again and I will slit your mouth wide open and leave you with a permanent grin.

"Paxton, you know eventually, you are going to have to explain this shit to me." I sighed slowly getting out of his Jeep when we pulled up in front of his house. I followed him in, slamming the door behind me in frustration when he went on ignoring me. He spun around to face me. "Talk!" I shouted.

"This is not how this was supposed to go, but fuck okay, it's here now." He rubbed his face and growled, stalking back over to me. "Six years ago your dad got shot responding to a domestic violence case on the edge of town. Do you remember that?"

Okay… confused… "Yes of course I remember that, I had to take a month out of school just to come and take care of the boys. Jackson was going through a divorce and Sam almost lost the company."

"Yes, exactly and you know my parents died a long time ago." He said waving his hand around to skip telling the story I knew well. 

Paxton's parents died a long time ago. A drunk driver, who owned the largest search engine on the web right now, hit them. No name need to be dropped, but the settlement left to Paxton was a stupid amount of a lot. 

"They needed a bailout of trouble and I helped them out. The accident and close call on poverty freaked your dad out and so..." he raised his arm and gestured with his hand as if I was supposed to know what was coming next.

"WHAT? So, what?" I shouted at him, shaking his shoulders.

"So, in order to keep you financially clear no matter what happened to the family, we are legally married." He whispered, watching my face.

What?!

I took three breaths and shook my head, unable to comprehend this at all. "No. This is impossible, literally impossible. Shouldn't I at least be kind of involved in that sort of process?" I laughed, refusing to believe it was true.

He was joking. He had to be. And yet… 

He was not joking.

"They said they were going to tell you when you got home from school!" he said, rubbing his face with both of his hands, clearly not joking. He was serious. This was serious.

"Well, it's not valid without my signature! I wasn't there!" I argued, throwing up my hands. "That is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard!" I seethed.

Paxton looked at me as if I was a new brand of stupid. "Your father is the chief of police in the only, very tiny, police / courthouse in Darrington. Do you really think he couldn't make it happen without you being around? All you would need is the records clerk Miss. Harper, who is old as dirt and practically raised your father, to do him a favor."

Oh, my Gods. Oh, my Gods!

I sat heavily on the floor since there wasn't a chair near me. Oh, my god! Suddenly, everything made sense, keeping me at the house, having me watched, Paxton… no, wait, Paxton in this story made little sense.

"But you… you encouraged me to go on a date…" I looked up at him, only just realizing he was hovering over me concerned. I probably looked ready to throw up. I felt ready to throw up.

He helped me up to my feet and nodded, keeping a hold of my hands. "I didn't want you to find out and just see this as another way that they were controlling your life. I was going to get it annulled …"

"Was?" I watched his face, but he gave nothing away to how that sentence was going to end.

"Look—" there was a knock on the front door that made us both jump. "Just act like you have known for a while and how betrayed you are. We can buy some time and you can stay here as my wife."

I gave him a blank look. 

He rolled his eyes at me and gave a small growl of frustration. "For show, woman! I will sleep on the couch!"

Well, I didn't have to pretend to feel betrayed. He started for the door, but I grabbed his wrist and shook my head. "Let me do this." He searched my eyes for a second before nodding once.

I swung open the door with an equal wrath that produced the saying 'hell hath no fury…'. Sam, Ash, Jeremy and daddy were staring back at me, obviously not expecting me to be the one answering the door. "Yes?"

Daddy's eyes darkened. "Parker, come outside."

I glared at each one of them and folded my arms. "No."

"Parker, we are not fucking joking, move out of the fucking way!" Ash snapped, starting forward and grabbing my wrists. There was a shotgun cock behind me and I smiled evilly.

"You come into my house and try to hurt my husband, I will have every right to shoot you." I gave them a look that showed I was not playing around. "And so will Paxton, my husband, who by the way you all signed as witness on my marriage certificate. There is nothing even the chief of police can do to get out of that one."

"Your what?" Daddy snapped looking at the boys and back at me.

"Oh yes, I know. I have known for a while, I just think it is time to actually make a home with my husband, don't you?" His face was getting redder and redder and it made me smile wider. "Live together, share a bed, pop out a few grandbabies? Wouldn't you like that daddy?"

"That wasn't what this was supposed to be!" Jeremy snapped, making my gaze turn to him.

"Then tell me, what did you plan for it to be?" I asked coldly. "A good way to keep me under control or did you truly believe in your own fucked up delusional way that you were helping me?" I heard a throat clear behind me and I grinned winking over my shoulder. "No offense, baby."

"How could you let him do this?" Jeremy seethed, looking ready to take his chance with the shotgun Paxton had ready for them.

I stood straight and pointed a finger right at him. "You need to calm your shit there, Mr. I think you better search your own secrets before you throw judgment around. Why don't you go tell Jackson just why it is that Kim seems to always be around these days?"

Jeremy jerked as if I punched him. The boys and daddy all looked his way. He spit on to the front steps before turning away with his hands up. "Fine, stay with the man-whore; see how well your marriage is going to go when he can't keep his prick in his pants!"

I pointed toward Jeremy's retreating figure. "You better follow him, if he grows the balls to tell Jackson, then there will be blood spilled."

Sam growled, but turned and followed Jeremy with Ash, looking more confused than anything, taking up the tail. Daddy stayed, looking up at me. "Parker, baby—"

"See that's the problem daddy, I am not a baby anymore. I'm not a princess. I am a grown woman who, without consent, is now in a grown woman's marriage to a grown man. Because of you. Because you can't seem to believe that I can take care of myself. Now you're forced to live with that choice you made for me." I gave him a sad smile and took a step back, closing the door on my dad.

The shotgun was being set down slowly, and I felt like I was going to fall again. I felt his powerful arms go around me, lifting me under my legs and behind my back, ironically bridal style. He carried me to his room, laying me in the bed. "I am sorry for not telling you everything sooner." He whispered. I nodded at him but my eyes were blurry now and I was shaking pretty badly. He moved away, but I clutched him to me.

"Don't leave please. I just turned my back on my family; I can't be alone right now." He laid me on his chest and I fell asleep within minutes.

The next morning, unaccustomed to sleeping next to someone, I was sticky from the sweat of being so close to Paxton. I slowly disentangled our body parts, and I sleepily made my way to the bathroom going pee. I looked around for an extra toothbrush but in the end decided to just use Paxton's. He wouldn't mind at this point. As I lifted my hand just brushing my teeth, I noticed reddish brown stains all along my right side.

Oh, my Gods!

I ran back into the room and saw Paxton lying face down with a pool of blood underneath him. "No, no, no, no! Paxton! Paxton, no please, fuck!" I jumped on the bed, turning him to his back to see how bad it was. Paxton's eyes opened, looking at me confused and concerned, before hissing and grabbing his arm where I tried to turn him.

"Ow, fuck!"

"Oh, thank Gods!" Relief floods me so much I sobbed holding him to me as I cried.

His arms wrap around me and I work hard to pull myself together, but just ended crying harder with everything that's happened in the past few days just catching up with me. "Hey, hey, I am okay. My stitches just popped, I am fine. Shhh, I promise."

I nodded, wiping the annoying tears away as I tried to examine his arm. He was gently trying to get me to stop, but I was insistent, knowing the only remedy was to add more stitches. Finally, he grabbed my face, forcing me to look at him. "I am far too awesome to let your brothers get the drop on me while I am sleeping."

I gave a watery laugh and nodded. "I am sorry I am being such a freak, it's just… I thought… Paxton you're my best friend, even more than Jake and the thought of losing you…" My eyes watered again and he leaned in kissing me lightly, effectively catching me off guard.

"Come on, I got a bottle of rum and a suture needle that will fix this right up."

"Oh, yuck."

He grinned scooting me off of him and gathered up the sheets as I went back to the bathroom to shower off the blood and finish my morning rituals. The rum was for Paxton and Paxton was pretty buzzed by the time I finished with the stitches. Very yuck, by the way.

"So, I eventually have to go get some of my things from the house." I said nonchalantly as I moved my French toast around the plate.

He lifted his brow watching me. "I can buy you new things."

"Yes, but you will not follow me to work to make sure—" Oh no work! Byron! "Oh, complicated cornbread!"

Paxton frowned seeing the panic on my face. "What's wrong?" he smirked. "And did you just say complicated cornbread?"

"Shut up! Byron! Oh Gods, I am going to have to tell him I am married!" I said pushing my plate away and covering my face. "Oh Gods, how am I supposed to explain something like this?"

"Byron? The gay teacher that's been 'observing' your class?" he said, using the air-quotes for observing. Oh yeah, that's right…

I gave a guilty look and nodded. "Yeah about that… it turns out he isn't all that gay. In fact, he isn't at all gay."

The muscle in Paxton's jaw started ticking. Uh oh. "So, he has been the one that you've been having me practice with you for?"

Shit. "Yes, that would be the one."

"Well then, you just tell him you're married now so you can't fuck around anymore." Paxton said abruptly, standing with his plate and heading to the sink. 

I watched him in utter disbelief.

"Um, no. How about I tell the truth and you remember that this marriage isn't real and to chill the fuck out." I snapped lifting my plate, following him.

He turned facing me, pointing a finger right in my face making me want to bite it. "Oh, this marriage is very fucking real and while you are married to me, you will not fuck around with anyone outside this house!"

I wanted to point out that I could just bring Byron in the house to solve that, but I doubt that would have been helpful. Instead, I glared openly at him. "So, I traded six tyrants for one dictator!"

"You can go back to them! Go! If that is the life you want! Or you can act like the grown up that you are always shouting you are and stay here. Be a proper adult with a house and husband."

Fuck, he knew how to push my buttons. Instinct was screaming to prove him wrong. I am a fucking adult! I will not run home to my brothers and daddy! "Let me remind you I didn't choose this marriage!" 

"Um guys?" a small voice said, going ignored.

Paxton seethed. "Let me remind you that if I had the choice, it would have the spoiled brat princess that was practically my sister growing up! Since we don't have a choice, I am being the ADULT and making the best of while teaching you some fucking manners along the way!"

"Guys?"

"WHAT?" We both shouted, making Jake jump and hold his heart.

"I had been knocking for a while and I guess you didn't hear me. Did you say she had a husband?" Jake said, running everything together in one long sentence. He held a smirk that always seemed to be on the verge of breaking into a full-on grin.

"Not the time Jake!" I snapped, heading back into the bedroom to look through Paxton's clothes to find something to put on. I could hear Paxton and Jake talking. Paxton was explaining everything and Jake was laughing. Sigh.

When I finally came back out of the bedroom, Jake was gone and Paxton was sitting at the table looking at his fingers. He looked up at me and gave me a small smile. "Look, you are right, you're my best friend. Why don't we go from there?"

I frowned, sitting across from him, staying silent.

"I just mean stay here, like a roommate. You won't have to go back to your house, but I won't be a dickhead either." He finally looked up at me and I could see that the instinct to avoid this plan was in his blood, but he was doing this to keep me here and keep me happy. I appreciated it.

I stared at him taking in this plan, and finally with a nod, I agreed. "Okay, deal. You need to understand that you have no claim on me." I said gently, watching his face. "I mean unless you wanted to… have a claim on me that is."

He was shaking his head grinning. "We are awesome best friend with occasional benefits but I think as husband and wife we are murder scene waiting to happen."

I was laughing while holding his hand. "We are BFWOB!" (Totally pronounced it Bif-Wob)

He grinned and shrugged. "Do you have any thoughts? Additions?"

I thought for a second before nodding. "You still sleep with me." As he widened his eyes, I rethought what I had just said. "I mean physically! I mean you and me in the bed! Guh! Fuck, I mean not sex, but actually laying there in the state of disambiguation!" Okay, inherited dad's red face.

Paxton was gasping for breath laughing so hard I smacked the back of his head and walked out the backdoor to check the sheets. It was Friday and a student holiday so I didn't have to be at school today, thank god. I was not ready to face that hurdle. As I hung the sheets on the line, I saw Jackson coming out from the woods, walking slowly closer. Jackson was calm and understanding. I doubt he was here to cause trouble.

"Hey, Jackson." I said with a smile, going to him and wrapping him in a big hug.

"Mornings are a lot harder without you around." He said with a grin and I couldn't help but laugh.

"No breakfast or coffee this morning?" I took a step back from him and scanned his face. That was exactly the case, plus a dash of emotional trauma. "If you promise not to hurt Paxton, you can come in and I'll cook you something."

He smiled wide and nodded. "Nugget, you know I was always for you living your own life."

We walked back to Paxton's house hand in hand and I snorted at his comment. "Jackson, I love you but that is complete bullshit. You were the one that saw Jake try to kiss me in middle school. You told Jeremy!"

Jackson was already laughing. "Yeah well that was middle school, and I was going through testosterone adjustment."

"A.K.A: Puberty." I corrected.

He grinned. "Right."

We walked into the house and Paxton was already standing at the table, all traces of humor that was on his face when I left were long gone and I was about to open my mouth to warn Paxton that Jackson came in peace when I heard Jackson next to me. "You pulled it off you slick motherfucker!"

I stepped away looking from Paxton to Jackson and back again. "What?"

"Don't think that all of that yesterday was an accident." Jackson said smugly, making my confusion turn to anger. I looked right at Paxton. "Explain. Now."

I didn't scare him in the slightest. Which only annoyed me further. "Okay, Jackson here was the only one of your brothers that was not on board with the whole marriage thing and refused to sign the certificate." Paxton said grinning. I turned to Jackson, and he nodded, winking. "Look I love you nugget and I want to protect you, but I won't choose your husband for you."

"But they still did it…"

"Right well, I figured if they went through with it, Paxton was probably the best person for them to pick because he stands up for himself, even against us." Jackson grinned at Paxton. "Besides, he is probably the only person I would be okay with you marrying."

I drifted around the kitchen trying to absorb all this. "Okay so yesterday was planned?"

Both boys jumped to the defense. "No!"

I just stared at them.

"No, okay we planned on something like this happening one day, but not like how it went down." Jackson was looking at his hands. 

I nodded and a thought occurred to me. "Should I be worried about daddy going and getting Miss. Harper to just annul or delete the marriage the same way he made this thing happen?"

Both the boys shook their heads. "Funny thing is, dad was worried about the same thing when you found out." Jackson said. "Miss. Harper explained that once it's filed and legal, it's a federal document. Creating it is easy, but getting rid of it is impossible."

"So, no town lynching mob is going to be showing up to carry Paxton off with and annulment paper as their motivation?" I asked, making them both smile.

"Nope, you're stuck with me for now, Princess." Paxton said grinning.

I rolled my eyes and Jackson put his full attention on me. "How long did you know?" his eyes met mine, and I knew Jeremy had come clean. It was only then did I notice his knuckles were scabbed, and he had a busted lip.

"Not long, but the day I found out I told him to tell you." I said willing him to believe me. "I am so sorry, Jackson."

He shook his head and gave me a cheerless smile. "I kind of knew it wouldn't happen. Things just don't tie up that neatly."

I laughed and nodded. "Would life be so much easier if we lived in a fairytale?"

They boys went on talking and I smiled into my fry pan. So, my best friend is my new husband. My youngest older brother is my new best friend and my sort of boyfriend who was supposed to be gay but isn't knows nothing yet.

My life is weird.