Page 53 of My Husband Problem

I laugh. “I know exactly who should fill in for Teddy on Friday.”

“Oh, wh…” Then her eyes widen. “Seriously?”

I nod. “He played in high school and college.”

“That was a long time ago.”

I grin. “It was.”

“And it wasn’tthiskind of hockey.”

“It was not.”

“He hates this kind of hockey.”

“Exactly.”

Sutton catches on immediately. She sighs. “That’s areallybig squirt bottle.”

Yes, yes it is.

CHAPTER 12

DECLAN

“I hada great time with Wilson. Thanks for letting me do that this morning.”

Astrid has just stepped into Perks and Rec to meet me for dinner. I debated wrapping an arm around her waist, dipping her back, and kissing her, but the flicker of annoyance I see on her face just now is maybe even better.

Proving to her that I’m not so easy to get rid of is going to be fun.

A moment later, she gives me a soft smile, however, and says, “Of course. Very happy to help you give your money away. Billionaires shouldn’t exist.”

I chuckle softly. “We’re not all bad.”

Her eyes narrow briefly. “I guess that depends on what we’re talking about.”

I lean in and lower my voice. “You’re right. I can be as bad asyouwant me to be.”

I’m not sure what possessed me to say that. I’ve been treating this woman with kid gloves since our wedding day. But she’s clearly poking at me, and I’m gratified to see a little flare of what I might even call interest when I say that.

“I’m going to meet with some people tomorrow morning too,” I tell her. “But you don’t need to worry about making breakfast.”

The corner of her mouth twitches, and now I know she knows I know she ruined the gravy on purpose. But she says, “If you keep giving out money all the time, people are just going to keep showing up with their hands out.”

I nod. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get to the point where no one in this town has any financial need?”

Her brows arch. “What if you run out of money? We wouldn’t want you to have to buy your suits at the Suit Stop.”

I nod as if this is a serious consideration. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to pull funding from the Portland Food Bank and that kid’s cancer charity.” I shrug. “But maybe I can get my ties from Ties-R-Us.”

She presses her lips together, and I swear to God, she’s about toreallysmile. Maybe even laugh. Still, she regains her composure after a moment and shakes her head, muttering something that sounds like ‘squirt bottle’. But that can’t be right.

“Be honest, you started giving away my money to annoy me, but then it turned into something like the house.”

She gives me a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“You started doing it as a rebellion against our marriage. You bought the house because it’s completely different from how we were living in Portland. You started giving my money away because you were giving a middle finger to my wealth and lifestyle. But you ended up loving the house and giving out the money to help this community.”