Chapter 5

CHAPTER5

“What the hell are you doing?” Eric found himself asking as he watched Morgan drop down on the window seat with a satisfied sigh.

“Preparing,” Morgan murmured absently as she followed that up by grabbing the neck pillow that he was tempted to steal out of the bag that she refused to share with him and placed it behind her head, shifted to get more comfortable, and promptly closed her eyes.

“For what?” Eric asked as he grabbed the bag off her lap and shoved it in the overhead compartment before he dropped down in the aisle seat and found himself watching the small woman that hadn’t said more than two words to him since she’d agreed to do this.

“For the bitching,” Morgan simply said with a firm nod as she gestured for him to get on with it.

Narrowing his eyes on the little brat, Eric bit out, “I don’t bitch.”

“Then, what would you call what you’re about to do for the next three hours?” she asked, not bothering to open her eyes as she shifted to get more comfortable.

“Seething in justifiable rage?” Eric said, watching as Morgan opened her eyes simply so that she could roll them at him.

“Justifiable rage?” she repeated with a pitying look that he really didn’t fucking appreciate at the moment.

“Yes,” Eric bit out, wondering why she wasn’t comforting him in his time of need.

“You’re not pissed,” Morgan muttered as she once again closed her eyes and settled in for a nap.

“Then, what am I?” Eric asked, even as he had to admit to himself that he had no fucking clue what he was right now.

He just…couldn’t seem to stop fucking up his life.

“Why did you plan a honeymoon?” Morgan asked instead, making him sigh because he knew where this was going.

“The curse is bullshit,” Eric said, wondering why he’d ever believed all the bullshit tales to begin with.

When he was six, his father and uncles regaled him and his cousins with tales of the Bradford Curse around a campfire, lamenting about all the ways that a Bradford could be brought to his knees. While his cousins shrugged off the warnings, Eric had been beyond fucking intrigued.

He’d hung on their every word, listening intently, terrified that he’d miss a single detail and when they were done…

He couldn’t stop fucking smiling.

“And what makes you say that?” came the curious question that had him swallowing hard as he watched her.

“Many things,” Eric murmured, thinking about all those bullshit tales that he’d been counting on and-

None of them were true.

Not. One. Fucking. Tale.

The tales of Bradfords marrying their neighbors and living happily ever after was complete bullshit because if any one of them had been true, any fucking one of them, he wouldn’t be sitting here pretending to be married to the only woman that he’d ever loved. It was all bullshit, no matter how badly he’d wanted it to be true and-

Some things just weren’t meant to be.

“You also proposed,” Morgan pointed out, leaving him with no choice but to glare at the little brat.

“Because the curse is bullshit,” Eric reminded her, wondering why she was being a pain in the ass about this.

“And you also planned a honeymoon within a year of the wedding,” she added as he narrowed his eyes on her.

“Did we not just cover that the curse was bullshit?” Eric demanded, beyond fucking relieved that the men in his family failed to tell her about the most important part of the Bradford curse.

They fell in love with their neighbors, something that he’d managed to do the first time he saw her.

God, she’d been so fucking adorable standing there, hugging her father’s leg as she’d alternated between pushing the glasses that had been too big for her up her little nose and sneaking glances at him. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. She was the prettiest little girl that he’d ever seen, and, at that moment, he’d decided that he was keeping her. He didn’t bother telling her that since she really didn’t need to know. He figured that she’d figure it out eventually, but sadly, that day never came.

“And the fact that every time someone in your family tried to go on a honeymoon before they reached their one-year anniversary, it ended in disaster?” Morgan asked, only to follow that up with a mumbled, “I can feel you glaring at me.”

Nodding slowly, Eric said, “You know what? Just for that, I’m no longer speaking to you.”

“Because I’m right?”

“Because you’re a pain in the ass,” he informed her even as he accepted the complimentary blanket the flight attendant was holding out to him with an absently murmured, “Thank you,” before ripping it open and laying the thin blanket over Morgan.

“And I’m right,” Morgan said with a satisfied sigh as she settled more comfortably beneath the blanket.

When he only glared at her, she said, “Remind me what happened when your father took your mother on their honeymoon right after they got married.”

“They created memories that will last a lifetime,” Eric pointed out, once again wondering why she wasn’t doing everything within her power to console him in his time of need. Some fucking snuggling wouldn’t exactly hurt.

“And a healthy fear of basements,” Morgan added with a solemn nod that had his lips twitching.

“That was unavoidable,” Eric said, watching as she opened her eyes to frown at him.

Blinking, Morgan said, “They were trapped in that basement for a week.”

“And they’ve been together ever since,” Eric pointed out, wondering why she was being so fucking difficult about this.

“Because your father would just follow her if she tried to leave?” Morgan said with a sad shake of her head.

“Probably,” Eric murmured absently as he found himself wondering what he would do if Morgan ever left him and-

He never planned to find out.