Christmas Coda 69 Adrien English and Jake Riordan

 Adrien and Jake from The Adrien English Mysteries.

This coda follows the events of "A Funny Thing Happened" (the little coda in Fatal Shadows The Collector's Edition). I hope to release the expanded short story version of that coda later this month. Fingers crossed! Anyway, you might want to skip this if you haven't read the coda/shortie.

Or not.

Christmas Coda 69 – Adrien and Jake

 

“Married?” Lisa squeaked.

My mother is not a squeaky woman. I’m not sure I’d ever heard that particular songbird note from her before.

I said quickly, “It’s not like it was planned or anything.”

“But it was planned. The plan was that you were waiting until we could all be together.”

I glanced automatically at Jake. His tawny eyes gleamed in the firelight. We were back at the ranch, as they say, sitting in front of the fireplace, having a bottle of celebratory champagne, and test-driving the unexpected delight of finding ourselves well and truly hitched.

“Right. Well, that’s true. But the opportunity presented itself—”

“Darling, you got married without us. You do realize that?”

Jake made a sound that fell somewhere on the scale between snort and scoff, and shook his head.

It was funny, but there was real hurt in Lisa’s voice and, of course, I didn’t want to hurt her. But yeah, that comment did say a whole lot about Lisa. And probably me as well.

“I do realize that,” I said patiently. “And you’re right, it wasn’t the plan—”

“Plans change,” Jake remarked.

I gave him a warning side eye. “But since we had this opportunity—and after what we’ve all been through these last months, we didn’t want to wait.”

“You can’t just get married.” My mother spoke with sudden dark suspicion. “One of you had to have the wedding rings with you. That makes it premeditated.”

 I felt a twinge of guilt, which was ridiculous, I know. Especially since I hadn’t been the one carrying our rings around in his breast pocket.

Well, you know what I mean.

“I…”

Jake put his hand out. “Let me talk to her.”

I opened my mouth, but really, that was just too good to pass up. I mean, how endearing. Not the part where he imagined he was running interference for me. Though, yes, sweet. But I mean the part where he thought he would succeed where so many had smashed to pieces on the reefs.

I handed my phone over and sat back to enjoy the show.

“Hey, Lisa. It’s Jake. This is really my fault. Adrien was just as surprised as—”

“Oh?” Her tiny long-distance voice chirped, “Was he unconscious? Did you marry my son against his will?”

I laughed at his expression, leaned over, clicked settings, pressed the speaker button.

“You have a very evil laugh,” my husband muttered.

My husband.

“What? I didn’t catch that,” Lisa objected.

“Me again. You’re on speaker now, Lisa. First, I’m sorry. I know you wanted to be there. I wanted you there. Of course. But it really did feel right. The moment presented itself and we both felt it was right.”

“We waited a hell of a long time for it.” Jake’s voice was quiet; those words weren’t intended for her. They might not have been intended for me.

Lisa said, “But you do understand why I wanted so much to see my only ch—son married? Do you really feel that’s so unreasonable?”

Jake looked at me and cocked an eyebrow.

“Of course not,” I said. Then added unwisely, “Anyway, it was just the wedding. We’re still going to have a little—”

“Big,” Jake corrected.

“Medium-sized reception with everyone who matters to us.”

“The wedding is the important part!”

I sighed. Jake took the phone back, said, “Lisa, you’re making Adrien feel terrible on his wedding night.”

“No, don’t,” I said.

He gave me a quick serious look, and waited for Lisa’s response.

It took a couple of moments.

“Adrien, darling, you know I don’t mean it. I do understand. I just—I was a little disappointed, that’s all.” Her voice wobbled. “After all, I was there at the very beginning.”

Jake grinned silently, it was a kind of feral grin, but he said quite kindly, “We know.”

“But of course I’m very happy for both of you. You know that, darling. You know that’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. To be happy, I mean. And if it’s with Jake…”

Jake made a soft sound of amusement.

“I do know,” I said quickly. “And I’m very happy.”

Jake said as solemnly as if we were reciting our vows all over again, “Lisa, I give you my word I will love, honor, cherish, and protect Adrien with all my heart till my dying breath.”

I wiped the corners of my eye, glared at him.

His face softened, he leaned in and kissed me.

When we parted at last, Lisa was talking about setting dates for the reception.

“Okay-dokey,” I said. “We’ll talk when we get home.”

We said our goodbyes, then Jake refilled our champagne coupes, raised his glass, which sparkled in the firelight.

“Here’s to you, Mr. Riordan.”

We clinked glasses and I said, “And to you, Mr. English.”