three: proposal from a stranger

The brothers - I've decided they were brothers - were arguing down a hall from me in those fake whispers that Librarians use. I was still in the hospital bed, barely waking up, and I could hear everything they said.

"You're insane."

"I'm telling you, it's fate. You actually said to me that what you needed was a temporary wife and then we came back to the farm to find one waiting on the porch!"

"I was joking, Jay. JOK-ING."

"Have you asked her?"

"I'm not gonna ask her."

"Then I'll ask her for you."

"I'll knock you flat."

"Queenie will kill you."

"It is the stupidest thing you have ever suggested."

"She's single, she's probably available, she's already in a wedding dress! Plus her name!! At least find out if she's a good fit."

"She won't be. Bro, you are the least superstitious guy on the planet. You're freaking me out with this."

"Just do me a favor and find OUT, please?"

"And then you'll shut up?"

"Absolutely."

"Fine."

Footsteps approaching. My skin broke out in goosebumps and my insides shivered. At the last second, I closed my eyes like I was still sleeping.

"Jay." A woman's voice.

"Hey," he sounded happy to see her. A soft rustling sound. "Yeah, that's her. She's resting."

"She's clean. No priors, no outstanding tickets or warrants. A driver's license that uses the University as its address. I spoke with Resident Living; the deadline for her to move out is tomorrow. They know her, no issues. Do you want her charged with trespassing?"

Wait, what? WHAT? Charged? Like arrested? I bit back a shout but I was pretty damn outraged at the idea. It was seriously time to get Dad involved if this was happening...

"She's listening," Jeb sighed.

By now, I could recognize his really deep voice and the drizzle of soft Southern drawl in it.

I heard the scratch of curtains being moved. I blinked my eyes open and trying to pretend like I was just waking up.

"Wow, my 3 year old is a better actor than you," the woman lifted her eyebrows at me.

I blushed.

She was wearing regular clothes and a holster that strapped on her back.  And, whoa, she was huge pregnant. Like "have the baby already" kind of pregnant. She held up a plastic ID card. "Hello, Alice. I'm Captain Kingsley."

"Are you going to arrest me?"

"No," She was gorgeous. Like some kind of actual queen. "Out of my jurisdiction, anyway."

"Then why are you here?"

I struggled to sit up and Dr. Scott put the bed controller in my hand.  "Captain Kingsley is my wife, Alice," he explained. "You were on our property."

I had a blurry recollection of their front porch. "Oh."

Captain Kingsley grunted softly and rubbed her belly.

"All right?" The doctor turned slightly to his wife.

"Just a Braxton-Hicks," she assured him.

"Congratulations on the baby," I murmured.

"Thank you," the Captain smiled softly. "This one is a girl."

"Girls are good," I nodded. "At least their diapers are easier."

"You have kids?" the Captain's voice was doubtful.

"NO! No, just, like...lots of siblings."

"How many is 'lots'?" Jeb asked.

I shrugged. "How many diapers is too many?"

"She's got you there," Captain Kingsley laughed. "Well, I have to be going. It was nice to meet you, Alice."

"You, too."

"I'll walk you out," Dr. Scott turned to Jeb as he was leaving and mouthed Ask Her! like I couldn't see what he was doing.

Jeb rolled his eyes.

Then he pulled over a rolling stool that was next to my bed and sat down. "Were you supposed to get married this morning?"

My mouth dropped in shock.

"I'll take that as a yes. So did you? Did you get married?"

"How did..."

"Wild guess, actually. Did you go through with it?"

I shook my head.

"You found something out? At the last minute? Or just cold feet?"

"My..." I inhaled a shaky breath. My tongue was dry. "My roommate. And him."

"Asshole maneuver," Jeb shook his head. "Sorry."

"Me too," I dug a heel in my eye. I was so dry I could barely even cry.

"He's not looking for you?" Jeb indicated my phone with his head.

"The battery's dead so I don't know."

"You'd know. He should be breaking down this hospital looking for you. You love him?"

"Of course."

"Really?"

"I was gonna marry him."

"Huh. What was the backup plan?"

"Excuse me?"

"If you realized at the last minute that you didn't want to marry him, what was your Plan B?"

I started to answer but I didn't have one. I hadn't even realized..."None of your business."

"Probably not," he agreed. "You're graduating?"

I nodded.

"With what degree?"

"Bachelor's of Fine Arts."

He leaned back. "You're an artist?"

"I'm no Picasso, but yes."

"What's the job plan with that kind of degree?"

"Uh..." Part of me wanted to tell him to go screw himself but part of me just wanted to answer any question he asked. Had they shot me up with truth serum or something? "Actually, I have a teacher's certificate. Art Education, all grades. Art is huge for a child's development."

"So you teach?"

I shook my head. "My certificate isn't in my hands yet, so I'm supposed to start working at this coffee shop..."

"Sounds like you completely spaced out on planning your life after graduation, Alice. Is this how you usually handle change?"

"Why are you asking me all these questions?"

"What was the name of the guy in the bathroom? In case he does show up, the hospital should know who not to let in."

"Finn," Just saying his name made my chest hurt. "Finn Levitt."

He nodded, slowly, like he'd heard of the Finn and knew him to be scum. Wow, ok. "Why do you want to know so much about me?"

Jeb's brown eyes locked on mine like he was trying to figure out what to say. Then he drew in a big breath and pulled out his phone. He showed me a picture of a baby boy with his own blue eyes and loose tufts of curly hair.

"Your...son?"

"My brother," Jeb corrected softly. "His name is Levi. He's 2 years old. Two and a half, actually."

"He's adorable."

"Yeah, right?" He looked at the picture with a melty face usually reserved by guys for cool cars and puppies.

"Have you met him?"

"Just twice. This is a recent thing."

"How did you find out about him?"

"So, my childhood was kind of a train wreck. I didn't find out my biological father's name until pretty recently. I missed meeting him by, like, a month." He exhaled and looked up for a long moment. "He was living only a few hours away. If only I'd started looking sooner..."

"I'm sorry."

"Me, too," he shrugged. "I can't really complain - my stepfather loved me, raised me, gave me his name. But it would have been nice to see my biological father's face and hear his voice and just... meet him, you know?"

I nodded.

"Funny, I don't think I've ever had to tell anyone that didn't already know most of the story. So, I did a DNA test and it turned out that my father had a few other kids around the world and some cousins and... you know, slowly we found each other. We've got a group on, uh, WhatsApp."

I couldn't help laughing. "WhatsApp?"

Jeb cracked a smile and nodded. "It's crazy, right?"

"Sounds nice, actually," I said wistfully. Neither my mom's or dad's blended families did anything like that.

"Weird, but nice," he agreed. "So we tracked down Dad's last girlfriend, she actually had just had a baby before he died. She was struggling. I was supposed to go out and see if I could help, but I didn't get out there. She overdosed last Christmas."

"What?"

Jeb shrugged. "The boy is with his grandmother but she can't keep him. He's going to end up in foster care if..."

"You're going to take him?"

"Yeah. I'm not gonna let him end up in the system."

His voice was firm. Like...he had experience with being in state care. I wanted to ask but...

Like he read my mind, Jeb shook his head.

"Um, OK. So...why do you need a wife?"

"I knew you were listening."

"Of course I was."

"Long-term, I'm in the best position. And, to be honest, I want to do it. But the problem is that I'm working a construction job in Upstate New York at the moment and Levi, that's his name, he can't stay with his grandmother even another week. She's ill and, to be honest, she lives in this old people community. They drive golf carts. She practically hides that she's got him."

"That sounds sketchy."

"Seriously sketchy. Which is probably why someone called protective services on her."

"What?"

"Yeah. So, we have to move fast."

"So, quit the job?"

"Normally, sure," Jeb crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, careful of the buttons and displays. "The job is my sister and brother-in-law's house. They've waited two years to get zoning and if we don't move, there's gonna be another delay - for sure. The community isn't excited about his modernist house tucking in between their log cabins. I'm the contractor."

"This is a kid!"

He stared at me for a long, long moment. His eyes were an intense blue. "I agree with your priorities. If it comes to that, Levi comes first. But I found a nanny and a Montessori program for the days and my brother and Queenie offered to take him nights so my plan was to kind of juggle both for a few weeks until I can someone else in New York."

"Oh. OK," I nodded.

"Glad you approve," he said dryly.

"Don't tell me about this boy and expect me not to care. I warned you up front that my passion was bringing art to kids."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"I mean..." I licked my lips, my mouth had gone dry. "So, wait, back to the point. Why do you need a wife?"

"There are inspections. A home study, a placement visit, and an unscheduled check - all within the first week or two. They have to be of Levi's home. Where he's living. Which isn't, legally, Jay and Queenie's house."

"Oh."

"And, long story, Jay isn't legally related to me so, it gets complicated."

"That I understand."

"You do?"

I nodded. "My dad has been married a few times. I have every possible kind of sibling. Hectic, but  cool."

"Oh," he gave me a brief smile. "Well, what Jay thinks is that if the nanny had been willing to legally marry me for a hot minute then we could get through the next couple of weeks with no problem."

"But?"

"She's engaged to her girlfriend."

"And you don't have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend? Or..."

Jeb held up a hand. "Girlfriend, but it's casual. She won't get near children. They aren't her thing."

"Oh."

"I thought about just taking Levi with me. Can you see me getting a construction trailer approved? Oh, excuse the nail gun and the chainsaws, the baby's crib is right here behind this metal desk..."

Yeah, that didn't sound optimal.

"So what about...uh..."

He locked his jaw and looked away. "No. Nothing like that. I just need a good person who can help me bring Levi home. I'm stuck," Jeb cleared his throat and gave me a long look. "So tell me about you. Tell me why you aren't rushing to go home or to call your parents."

"Who says I'm not?"

He cast his eyes around as though my parents were going to pop out of the screens. I shrugged, conceding the point. I realized that Jeb may be sarcastic but he was honest - and, it seemed, a good guy. To his siblings, anyway.

"My father lives in California with his 3rd wife. My mom is remarried, too. She's really caught up in that."

"All right, so your parents aren't a comfortable choice. What about the people across the street? You do know them, right? I didn't rescue a criminal?"

"That's Katie Swanson's house. Well her, parents. Katie has been my best friend since forever. She's a marine biologist in Australia, now."

"The Swansons? I don't think I remember someone young but the mother - does she wear massive hats? Like...UFO-sized?"

"Yeah, she likes to dress up for church. Wants God to know she made the effort."

"She...." Jeb coughed.

"Yup. When we were younger, the hats were much smaller. Sometimes it was just some artificial flowers in her hair to match her dress. But then, starting around high school, they started getting bigger and bigger. That's why they bought the convertible, you know. She ties these big scarves over the hats to keep them on and Katie and I are afraid one day that the car's just gonna take flight."

Jeb blinked. Slowly. Like a tired lizard.

"There's an inverse property between the size of her hat and Mr. Swanson's grumpiness, too."

"Well, I had noticed that he's not... outgoing."

"That's kind. There's a picture of Mr. Swanson next to the word 'curmudgeon' in the Urban Dictionary, I'm sure."

"But your plan is to stay with them? Hat lady and the curmudgeon?"

"Just for a few days."

"Didn't you have anywhere else to go?"

"Katie was the first person I called. Actually, she called me. I don't know what's going to happen to me, now. Most of my stuff is at his apartment. Finn's even the shift supervisor at the job I'm supposed to start on Monday."

"Yeah. I'm concerned that you're a bit of a ditz."

"Excuse me? I am graduating with honors with a BFA and a teacher's certificate."

"You're homeless, wearing a wedding dress, in a hospital with spider bite that you got crawling around looking for a magic rock. In the rain."

I huffed. "This is totally temporary. I'm a good person and I will bounce back."

"I'm counting on that."

"What do you mean?" I met his eyes. "Wait, are you offering..."

"I'm thinking about hiring you. As my wife, yes."

Even though I kinda already knew, my jaw dropped to hear him say it out loud.

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Aren't they adorable? Oh... * sigh *  Anyway, I had to re-write this to match the new opening. Hope you like it! ..... -xoxo, Bella