Breaking the Ice Ch. 02

"No. I didn't exactly picture our first Christmas with you bein' mad at me."

"I'm sorry."

"Darlin', you have nothin' to apologize for." He gripped the top of the steering wheel and rested his head on his hands. "I'm just pissed at myself."

"That makes two of us." He chuckled politely at my bad joke. "I called my mom before we left and told her we got hitched, and to let everyone else know. I figured that would give them time to be pissed before we got here, I don't want to have any more unhappiness thrown at you this week."

I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned over the console to kiss his cheek. "Thank you." He stopped me before I sat back, snaking his hand through my hair to kiss me properly.

"Shane Elijah Thomas, quit stallin' and bring me my new daughter-in-law!" He let me go and groaned loudly as his mom chastised him from the front door. "So it begins. Ready?" He got out and circled the front to open my door, helping me out and holding my hand tightly. We walked up the short path to the door, where a slim, short woman with bright red hair stood, holding an absurdly large rolling pin. He let me go to gather her in his arms, twirling her around before setting her down, where she promptly slapped him in the back of the head. "Ow! What the hell, Mom?"

She pointed the handle of the rolling pin in his face. "Thatis for elopin' and not tellin' anybody, you big dummy. Get in the house, your daddy's in there fixin' somethin' or breakin' somethin', probably both. This the girl?"

"If I say yes are you going to hit her, too?" She laughed and pushed him into the house before turning her attention to me. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Thomas."

"None of that Mrs. Thomas crap, it's Mom to you, young lady. Now get over here." She opened her arms wide, inviting me into a solid hug. "You make my boy happy, you hear?"

I wheezed, she was hugging all the air out of my lungs. "I'll do my best, Mrs...Mom." She released me, a natural grin spread across her face that reminded me of Shane's. While she led me through the foyer into the open kitchen she talked a mile a minute, already planning our redo ceremony. She was on flower arrangements and church choirs when a booming voice behind me disrupted her. "Damnit MaryAnne, let the girl breathe. She's been here two minutes and you're already talkin' her damn ear off."

I turned to see Shane standing next to his almost exact body double. Mr. Thomas was broad shouldered with a few inches on his son, with the same deep green eyes and a full head of silver hair. He walked loudly over to me, placing his enormous hands on my shoulders and shaking his head. "No son, this can't be her. She is much too beautiful for an ugly son of a bitch such as yourself."

"Dad, knock it off." I smiled ear-to-ear at the overwhelmingly large man in front of me. "I can see who Shane gets his charm from."

"Pshaw, that boy wishes he was as smooth as I am." He straightened and hooked his thumbs through his suspender straps. "I am a young, viral man and will be happy to run away with you once you dump this loser."

"Dad!"

"Oh stop it Eli, you can barely bend over to tie your own shoes, you wouldn't know what to do with this young girl." MaryAnne teased. He strolled over and slapped her on the behind. "I knew what to do with you, didn't I? Had you bent over plenty of times."

I didn't know which was funnier: his dad hitting on me, his dad hitting on his mom, or the horrified look on Shane's face. Either way, I held my stomach while I doubled over with laughter. "Jesus Christ, you two are theworst. I am never bringin' her here again." His mother gasped dramatically. "You just try to keep her away from me, especially once y'all start having babies. When is that gonna be, anyway?"

"Aaaand on that note, I'm taking my wife to bed." He smoothed my unkempt hair down. "Upstairs, second door on the left. I'm gonna get our stuff, you go get settled."

"Now Tess, I don't know how you big city gals do things up North but we get up mighty early for breakfast. We eat good and we eat often. We gotta put some meat on those bones because clearly my son isn't feeding you enough." Shane rolled his eyes. "Jesus, Mom, enough." MaryAnne threw her hands in the air in surrender. "Alright, alright, I'm done. Go to bed."

"We'll be sure to wear earplugs." His dad gave an exaggerated wink, causing me to go into another giggle fit while Shane muttered curses under his breath.

***

I stopped to use the bathroom in the hallway upstairs before I searched for our room when I heard his dad's heavy voice carry from downstairs. "Boy, you are ten kinds of stupid. Why in the hell didn't you tell her thatbeforeyou married her?" I paused my search, because apparently eavesdropping was my new pastime.

"I know, I'm an idiot. I feel awful that I hurt her."

"You should."

"I'm afraid she's gonna leave me."

"She should."

"Dad, that's not helping."

"Well damnit, son, it's not supposed to help. You know better than to lie, and that was a stupid thing to lie about. You were married for two months, not two years. You made it into a bigger deal by not tellin' her. Once again, you're stupid."

"God, I know." I brought my arms around my waist, feeling wretched that he was so upset. "I heard her crying all night, I wanted to kill myself. What am I supposed to do?"

"Nothin'. Look, son, she loves you, you can see it in how she looks at you. She's mad now, but she'll get over it. You know how many times I've pissed off your mama? There's still a dent in the wall in the kitchen from where she threw a fryin' pan at my head." I threw my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. "You'll live. Man the fuck up and take your lumps, you'll be alright."

I left them to their conversation and went into Shane's old bedroom. The navy blue walls were covered in posters, concert tickets, pictures of him with red solo cups hanging out with his friends. I picked up one of the picture frames on his desk, Shane looking unbelievably happy with a lovely blonde girl with bright blue eyes, both of them beaming at each other. I heard him enter the room, turning around to show him the picture. "Is this Carrie?" He nodded solemnly. "She's beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you." He walked over and took the frame out of my hand, setting it face down on the desk. "You loved her a lot, by the looks of it."

"Of course I did, she was my high school sweetheart. But you're mywife, Tess. There's no one on God's green earth I love more than you."

"I know that. I'm not jealous. I don't think you're going to leave me for her or anything. It's just..." I tried to think of the best way to put it without seeming whiny or passive aggressive. "You know how you felt when you found out about my depression and anxiety, how you felt that I didn't trust you enough to tell you about something that is a major part in my life? Being married, even if it's for a couple of months, was a major thing that happened in your life, and you didn't trust that I would stick around if you told me. I get now why you were so angry, because not feeling trusted feels fuckingawful, and I don't have the luxury of taking off for two weeks to work through it."

"If you want to take some time away from me...I don't like it, but I understand."

I ran my hands underneath his sweater, feeling the warmth of his skin beneath my fingertips. "Right now I need to sleep. It's been a long day."

"Do you want me to stay? If not, I can sleep in one of the guest rooms."

"No, stay." He pulled his shirt over his head and stripped down to his boxers as I undressed, leaving my panties on as if it were some sort of shield to keep my vagina to myself. We climbed into the bed, facing each other as he covered us both with the comforter, my leg swung over his. I brushed his jaw with my lips as he wrapped his arm around my upper back, playing with the strands of my hair. We said nothing, entangled around each other as we put the day behind us and fell fast asleep.