Bliss opens the door and yelps as a pile of random junk falls toward her. She bends down, picks up a pair of vise grips, and holds them up.
“Hey, thanks. I’ve been looking for those,” I tell her as I take them and set them on the dash.
I grab handfuls of the stuff and throw it in the back seat. Some of those papers are probably important, but I’ll sort them out later.
Bliss sets a hammer on the floorboard, then climbs in, slamming the door after her.
“What the—” She reaches a hand behind her and pulls out a small piece of wire that was poking her back.
“Sorry about that too,” I apologize.
I hold out my hand, and she places the six-inch wire in my palm.
“You never know when you’ll need a little piece.”
“I’m buying you a truck bucket for your wire,” Bliss mutters.
“Is this our first marital fight?” I ask with a smile.
Her lips twitch at that. “I guess I should have asked what your cleaning style was, but now I see that you don’t have one.”
I chuckle. “It’s usually only my pickup that’s this bad.”
“You could lose a small child in here if you’re not careful.” She laughs.
“I don’t know. I can still see you.”
She folds her arms across her chest and studies me. “Is that a reference to my size or my age?”
I clear my throat and shift to stretch an arm along the back of our seats. “I’m pretty sure both of those are the wrong answer.”
“You’re learning.” She smiles, and the corners of her eyes crinkle when she does. It’s really cute.
That’s weird. I don’t know when I started thinking of her as cute. I mean, objectively, I knew she was good-looking; I just never thought about it.
“How old are you, by the way?”
“Twenty-four.”
I wince. I didn’t know she was that young. I’m nearly nine years older than her. We’ve grown up in the same town, but I really didn’t start noticing Bliss until my wedding day when she was my knight in shining armor. I remember her oldest sister, Briar, because we were in high school together, but I don’t remember Bliss. I assumed she’d been homeschooled or something. But the reason I didn’t see her was that we weren’t even in high school at the same time.
And now I know why. I’m ancient compared to her. This is probably a bad idea.
“If you want to back out, I won’t blame you. I thought you were a lot older. I thought you were more settled.”
“Are you calling me an old maid?” Her lips turn up in a playful smile.
“You seem content and happy in Pine Ridge. I guess I just assumed you’d had time to figure out what you wanted out of life.”
“First, Iamsettled in Pine Ridge. Second, I am content with my life.”
“Yet you’re agreeing to marry me,” I mutter.
“This could definitely be a lapse in judgment,” she admits. “But I’m halfway scared my mom is going to take me to Vegas, and I’ll wake up with a hangover and a husband she picked. I’d rather be the one to make that choice. She has gotten carriedaway with throwing men at me … and I haven’t had a moment’s peace in the last two years.”
I laugh, and Bliss glares at me.
“You don’t understand. She’s starting to invite strange men to stay at our house because she’s so desperate to get me married.”
