Lawfully Wed

Chapter 1 I’d had no idea what was involved in getting married when I asked my boyfriend to get hitched. I figured it was simple enough. A civil ceremony. Neither of us were particularly religious, though I guessed my family was. Given that we were two guys marrying, the church wouldn’t exactly cooperate anyway. But even though I wanted and anticipated a civil ceremony, I also wanted to do it up right. With flowers and champagne. Maybe a sit-down dinner. The fancy cake. I didn’t want to do the “quickie wedding at a drive-up Las Vegas chapel.” That wasn’t my style. Planning a real wedding, though, wasn’t so easy. I wanted to hire a planner, maybe, but those are pricier than you might think. And then you gotta order the flowers and the booze and the dinner. Maybe the quickie wedding my lover wanted wasn’t such a bad idea after all. It occurred to me, belatedly—in other words, after I’d asked Scott O’Hara, my partner in the homicide department, as well as my lover, to be my husband—that I probably should have mentioned my intentions to Rivers, our captain, first. But see, if we’d been a guy and a girl, I probably wouldn’t have even worried about that aspect, although, yeah, I guess being partners on the squad was still a big deal for those romantically involved, but there was still a particular element with us both being males, and I was aware of that, even if it caused more than a little bristling. Still, I supposed even a heterosexual married couple would have to give up their work partnership. Scott had accepted, as I was sure he would—I really was, sweaty palms notwithstanding. We’d kept it quiet at first, because Haydon Cliff was dealing with the second serial killer case within a year, but once that had been solved, by another detective pair, Scott and I began to plan our wedding and married life together with renewed vigor. Or, you know, perhaps that was just me. He still seemed a little less than enthused about the bigger ceremony. “One of us needs to tell the brass,” Scott said one morning as he came out of the bathroom, brushing his teeth. “One of us?” “Well.” He smiled. Which looked kind of ghastly with the toothpaste foam coming out of his mouth. “It was your idea.” He returned to the bathroom, presumably to spit and rinse, and came back shortly, toothpaste-foam free. I still lay in bed, leaning against the headboard, arms crossed behind my head as I eyed him with displeasure. “You said ‘yes.’ You don’t want to marry me?” “Of course, I want to marry you, Edgar.” He was using his “patient” voice. The voice he used when he was trying to show me I was being unreasonable or insensitive or whatever. It generally annoyed me. It did especially now. “Good. Because for a second there, I thought you were putting this all on me.” I paused. “We’re partners, Scott. In every way. And that means telling the captain together.” Scott sighed and went to the closet. “Yeah, okay. I know that, I guess. You know it’s going to mean exactly what we told Callahan and Mantegna at the diner before they cracked their case.” Sean Callahan and Andy Mantegna were the detective team who’d had the second serial killer case after ours. “Rivers is going to split us up,” I agreed. Scott came to sit on our bed. “Yeah. Are you ready to face that? Accept that?” “Scott, we’ve been fortunate Rivers has allowed us to remain partners as long as he has, given our personal relationship. I thought he’d split us when you moved in. I don’t think it would have been this way with any other police department.” “I know. Still sucks, though.” I reached for and received his hand. “What’s the alternative, babe? Hide what we are? Never be allowed to live as husbands in the eyes of the law? When we got involved, didn’t you at least think this might be in our future?” “Maybe.” Scott shrugged. “Except, when we first hooked up, you were very careful about not putting labels on us.” “Things were still early with us and you had your doubts I could commit to monogamy,” I reminded him. “True. But come on, Edgar, are you saying you thought immediately of marriage?” “No. But I thought of it early on. Sorta. Anyway, the point is we want to make a life together, the next step being married, and that means we have to inform Rivers. Together.” Scott sighed. “Okay.” * * * * It was a picture-perfect day in Haydon Cliff. The sun was shining without a hint of clouds in the sky and the gentlest breeze came off the ocean. From where I stood in front of the Haydon Cliff Police Department, I could see the bay below, since the station was on a bit of a hill. I had a pretty good view from my house also—er, our house—being only a block or so from the main beach area. But with the PD being on that elevated spot, I could see far out into the bay. Sailboats dotted the horizon. I gulped in a lungful of sea air. “What?” Scott asked. “What what?” “You look…I don’t know…wistful.” I glanced at him. He really was a beautiful man, with rather strawberry blond hair and dimples when he smiled, which was surprisingly often, considering his rather serious disposition. Sometimes I don’t think he realized how lucky I thought I was to have him. “Think we should get a sailboat?” Scott’s eyes widened. “A what?” I grinned. “You heard me. We live in Haydon Cliff, for heaven’s sake. Don’t you think we should take advantage of that in some way?” “A sailboat on two detective salaries?” “We could get a used one.” “Dream on, Lopez.” Scott turned to go into the building, but my gaze lingered on those boats and the possibilities. I let my imagination take me there, to actually envisioning the two of us lounging casually in a boat, the breeze blowing through Scott’s hair— “Edgar, are you coming?” “Be right there.” But I had it in my mind that somehow I was going to make something like that happen for us. * * * * Captain Rivers greeted us with a grunt when we made it clear we wanted to see him privately. “Is this about a case?” I exchanged a look with Scott. “Not exactly.” Rivers leaned back in his chair and sighed. He was a big, solid guy, muscular with boy-next-door looks. He’d worked his way up to captain from all the ranks, starting off as a patrolman at one time. He was a good cop and a good boss, fairly open-minded, considering he came from a long line of cops and firemen. “What is it?” I opened my mouth to find a way to ease into the topic. “We’re getting married,” Scott said. I turned and stared at him. His cheeks reddened, but he continued to gaze rather blandly at Rivers.