AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then I decided to move back to Riverroad.
Present Day
I was confident in who I was. I knew my character, and I loved what I stood for. I had to grow a thick skin with the kind of name that I carried.
The consequences of that meant that my heart seemed like ice to others, but I just found that I was more reserved. It was a defense mechanism that kept people from knowing the real me.
However, no matter how many times I justified my reasoning behind being an ‘ice queen’, it still didn’t stop Daniel’s words from being true. It also wasn’t just Daniel who saw the iciness. Marcus saw it, too. Sure, he said it in a joking way, but his comment yesterday about no one wanting to deal with me stung.
I was so in my head that I didn’t notice the person in front of me until my cart hit them on their side.
Immediately, I was brought back to reality. I looked to the person I had just hit. An apology was on the tip of my tongue but, when I saw that it was Marcus, I clamped my lips shut.
“What? No apology, stink bug?”
“You deserved it.”
He scoffed, “For what? I hadn’t even said a word to you till you hit me just now.”
“That was for stealing my Piggy the Piglet in second grade and throwing him up a tree where I couldn’t get it.”
“Really, Vandlewoods? You are bringing things up from grade school? I think it’s time to let them go, don’t you think?”
“I will let it go when I get a new Piggy the Piglet.”
“It had a horrible name,” he countered. “I was doing you a favor by getting rid of it.”
“The name was fine,” I shot back.
“It looked ugly.”
“Just like you.” I smiled sweetly. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have snacks to buy for a pregnant woman.”
I tried to maneuver my cart around him, but he blocked my path. I tried to move the other way, but the bastard moved again. I was in no mood for his shenanigans. I was stressed and tired.
“Move, Anderson.”
He smirked. “Make me.”
“Don’t you have a girlfriend to go bother with your existence or something?”
“Nope,” he said, popping the p at the end. “Why the question about a girlfriend, Vandlewoods? Are you trying to find out if I’m a free or taken man?”
He wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I made a gagging noise.
“I wouldn’t touch you if you were the last man on earth, and the only way to save the planet was if we had sex.”
“Come now, stink bug. You wound me.”
“Stop calling me that,” I seethed. “What are we—eight?”
“No matter how much time passes, you will always be my little stink bug. That name is never going away.” He walked from the front of my cart and came to stand by my side, a little too close for comfort. “Even when we are old and gray, and we both keep going at each other, you will always be my little stink bug.”
He tapped my nose and walked off down the aisle. I was too stunned at his actions to do anything, so I let him go. Marcus Anderson was the least of my worries right now. I had bigger issues that I was facing, and that was finding a man to fake-marry me for three years.
Yep, I had talked to my lawyer back home, and I had told him everything. There was no way around the contract. I had to do what Peter wanted.
I hadn’t even met the man, and he was making my life difficult.
