A Love Like Ours

Chapter 5

Our suspense, however, was kept short, for as soon as we all settled, Mama began her usual lament. The one I had been hearing over the past five years. The one that turned me all shades of prune. The one about how I lost Dale and would never find another man willing to take on the job of wanting to marry me. For the first time, the desire to actually marry Justin burned strongly in my chest if only to silence this particular rant once and for all. I didn't see why she had to bring it up now. Why in front of Justin? Never mind that we had all, throughout the years, thought of him as a distant limb of our family. Having known the Kays for that long made that inevitable. But why must my own mama malign me to him now?

I sat there unmoving and silent, wincing at each horrid word she uttered. The usual flow of how I was too fat to land myself a husband and that she herself had been reed thin, just like Janet here, when she met and married Papa. Then, there was that fact that she'd been close to half my age when she tied the knot, and since Dale had dumped me, she had actually thought I would die an unmarried spinster. She was grateful! Grateful to Justin for proposing to me and saving me the misery of an unwed life. She was grateful to him for finally having a chance of having grandchildren.

The little self-satisfying speech could have droned on, as was Mama's custom, had Justin not swiftly stepped in to nip it in the bud.

"I applaud your motherly concerns, Mrs. Longbottom, but I assure you Aria and I are a match made in Heaven. The gods themselves had a hand in it by ridding the very devil in her unseemly life with Dale to bestow me a gift from the gods. I can't take any credit for the actions of a lord that's above us all, but I thank you all the same. I thank you for your kind regard."

We all turned to stare agape at the smooth flow of utter rubbish that Justin had just uttered. Mother, of course, had been silenced and had managed only one word by way of a response.

"Eh?"

The conversation quickly deteriorated after that.

"Right! We really ought to get going." Justin took charge efficiently enough to rouse my family off their comfortably settled arses and march them efficiently out the door. Mother had regained her speech along the way and proceeded to spout off a list as she went. A list that covered everything from the wedding preparations that she and Mrs. Kay were making to embarrassing instructions for me not to bother with contraception if I were already sleeping with Justin because she wanted grandkids and wanted them real soon.

Come to think of it, I didn't think we had actually bothered with contraception.

A round of farewell hugs took place after that, initiated by my hero Justin with one well-aimed squeeze that effectively left Mama too winded to say anything more. Then, after a sympathetic hug from Dad, a grinning one from Tom, and a pitying one from Janet, they were gone, leaving me feeling winded as if I had just made it through a hurricane.

I turned gingerly to take in Justin's reaction to my incredibly mad family.

"Well, that went awkwardly well," he said blandly. I stared into his carefully expressionless face with pure incredulity.

Taking the few steps necessary to close the distance between us, I stared up at the odd glint in his eyes as they twinkled down at me with false solemnity.

"You want to know a truth?" he asked slowly. At my hesitant nod, he sighed heavily before saying, "You're a lousy kisser, Miss Aria Longbottom."

"What?"

His grin was only more provoking.

"I am not!"

His knowing smirk didn't waver.