Page 28 of Colin (The Doherty Mafia)
“Yeah, Brendan and I are with you. You said you’d drive to the airport.”
“And I will.”
Aidan looked at Marley again. He was obviously confused about why she was still there.
I looked past Aidan at the rest of them who were openly staring at Marley, clearly demanding an explanation too. This weekend wasn’t supposed to be about chicks, and yet, there I was with one.
My bad.
“This is Marley. She’s coming back to New York with us,” I said.
I caught them exchanging looks. When I looked at Marley, she was burning up. She hadn’t said a word yet.
“You’re from New York too?” Aidan finally addressed her directly.
“No, I’m not,” she replied.
“You wanna tell us what’s going on?” Killian asked, stepping up to us now.
Brendan, Nolan and Tristan hung back. They were the ones who were more suspicious of Marley and the situation.
“She’s going to be staying with me for a while, it’s as simple as that,” I replied.
Killian clenched his jaws tightly. Obviously, he didn’t trust her. He didn’t fuckin’ trust anybody. He didn’t even trust Reese when they first met, and now he was marrying her.
“You got yourself a girlfriend this weekend?” Nolan asked. Tristan smirked while Brendan glared at me.
“No, I got myself a wife.”
There was complete silence amongst them. Even Aidan, who knew the story, had nothing to say. This wasn’t the kind of stuff they expected from me. I was the levelheaded one usually. Although, that seemed like past history now since I met Marley.
“We got drunk and ended up getting married. It doesn’t actually mean anything, we’re just having fun,” Marley spoke up. She felt like she owed them an explanation, even though she didn’t.
All eyes turned to her.
She had her chin thrust up. I knew this wasn’t easy for her. It wouldn’t have been easy for anybody. She was outnumbered by intimidating strangers.
“Why didn’t you just say so?” Brendan declared.
That broke the ice. The others cheered and laughed. Killian thumped my back and Nolan congratulated us.
“So you beat me to it,” Killian remarked, throwing an arm around my shoulder. “You are the first of us to settle down!”
And that got everyone else roaring with laughter.
Marley sat in the front seat with me, while Brendan and Aidan took the back.
Music played loudly while Aidan had an arm hanging out the window with a cigarette between his fingers. Brendan and Marley were talking.
I didn’t expect them to get along.
I didn’t expect any of them to even accept her. Oddly enough, my brothers were being generous towards her. Maybe it was a quality she possessed.
An ability to make everyone warm to her, whether they wanted to or not.
She told Brendan about all the spots she knew in New York City. Apparently, the last time she was there was when she was in college.
It didn’t seem like she was intimidated by my brothers anymore. She didn’t have any reason to be. They’d accepted her.
“So, what is the plan with you guys?” Aidan asked, catching my eyes in the rearview mirror.
“I’m going to get Micky Horner to look into the annulment,” I said.
I wanted to make it clear to everyone present that this was just a temporary arrangement. Just because Marley was coming to New York with me, didn’t mean she was actually a part of my life now.
She was still a stranger to me.
Maybe I would have been more comfortable if my brothers were still suspicious of her? I definitely didn’t want my father to find out about the wedding.
“So you’re not going to give this marriage thing a shot?” Aidan added, taking a long drag of his cigarette.
“It’s not an actual marriage,” I grunted, meeting his eyes with a glare.
Marley turned her face away from me and stared out of the window. I didn’t mean to embarrass her, but these were the facts.
“Yeah, it’s not like you guys meant your vows or anything,” Brendan said with a laugh.
Marley also chuckled at that.
“I don’t even fuckin’ remember making them. I don’t remember a fuckin’ thing,” I said, snickering.
Marley looked over at me and I noticed how her eyes were burning.
Did I offend her? Did she remember the ceremony or the vows?
She licked her lips and tapped her fingers on the seat.
“Funny, because everyone else had tears in their eyes,” she said.
“What?” I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You remember this? What did I say?”
I tried to catch her eye but Marley kept her face turned from me.
“You said you had never met anyone else like me before and that you wanted to spend the rest of your life proving yourself worthy of me,” she replied in a low hollow voice. I couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not.
Brendan burst out laughing in the backseat.
Maybe it sounded too fuckin’ ridiculous to him, but it didn’t seem far fetched to me.
