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He raised his eyebrows. “Just the door stuff?”
“Yes.” It came out sharper than she intended, but damn, could he give it a rest for a few minutes? She knew he wanted her in his house permanently, just like she knew he might have appeared to drop it, but he was just planning a different method of approach. She was so damn tired, and it was only beginning. Hope turned to the row of cereal boxes in front of her. “Now, I’m starving, and arguing with you is burning more calories than I’m comfortable with. We’ll talk when we get back to your place, and we’ll come up with some sort of game plan.” Staying in Devil’s Falls for the next nine months was out of the question. She could do her job in a limited capacity online, but she really needed to be in the office. If she up and told them she was moving back to a little town no one had ever heard of, she might as well quit on the spot.
No. Absolutely not. She might have put her life on hold waiting for Daniel when she was eighteen, but she most definitely wasn’t going to do it now because he was determined to pay penance by being with her.
She deserved better than that.
Both she and the baby did.
The look he gave her was downright indulgent. “Fair enough.”
She hated how suspicious she was of him, but it was hard not to be in their current circumstances. Daniel never gave up a fight unless he chose to walk away, and he hadn’t this time. That meant he was backing off only long enough to find a different approach to get her to do what he wanted.
They moved through the aisles without speaking, Hope pausing every few feet to consider what she felt like eating and Daniel throwing food into the cart seemingly at random.
She didn’t know what to make of that, so she focused on what sounded good. It was so strange. She normally loved oatmeal in the morning, but when she picked up her favorite brand, she set it back without tossing it in the cart, that horrible nausea rising again. Instead, she ended up in the produce section, loading up on orange juice, fruit, and cucumbers. Through it all, Daniel shadowed her movements, a giant gray cloud warning of an impending storm.
Jessica managed to contain herself as they paid, but she slipped Hope her number with a smile. “It really would be nice to catch up.”
As much as part of her wanted to keep her distance from everything Devil’s Falls related, that goal wasn’t realistic. She was leaving. She had to leave.
Hope forced a smile. “I’ll call. I promise.” And she would. Even though she and Jessica had lost contact after the accident, they’d been really close in high school. It would be nice to have a friend who knew the whole history, someone she could talk to who would understand why she was hesitating to cut Daniel out of her life, even now, after everything they’d been through. Her friends in Dallas were wonderful, but they would, to a person, tell her to get rid of him.
He loaded the groceries into the bed of his truck in short, jerky movements that belied the calm expression on his face. In an effort to keep the peace a little while longer, she waited for him to hold the door open for her instead of climbing into the truck like she was perfectly capable of doing. It wasn’t until they were driving back out of town that he spoke. “My parents are going to want to know you’re back.”
“I’m not back.”
“Yes, darling, you are. At least for today.” He shot her a look. “You’re just pissed that I pushed too hard about it and you don’t want to give in, despite the fact that it’s what you want. If you go back to Dallas right now, it’s going to be a decision made out of spite.”
She resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest, but only barely. “I think I like you better when you’re being irrational and pushy.”
“It’s a hell of a lot easier to say no to me when I am.” He sounded too freaking cheerful for her blood pressure. How was he acting so calm when their entire lives had gone topsy-turvy? Unless this is what he wanted all along…
She shut that thought down real fast. This was an accident as a result of two consenting adults. She was as much to blame for the error in judgment as he was. Lord, she should be happy that he wasn’t freaking out and blaming her and acting like this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. “Daniel…”
He reached over and took her hand, the shock of his skin against hers stealing her breath. “We’ll figure this out. I know it’s not how you had your life planned out, but this is where we’re at. It’s not going to be easy, but what about life is?”
