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Emmett didn’t mention her “I love you” on the drive home from the restaurant. She hadn’t expected him to, but she’d be lying if she said she wouldn’t have leaped for joy if he had offered up an “I love you, too.”
In his kitchen, she dropped her purse on the counter and watched as Emmett hung his keys on the hook by the door. He barely glanced her way when he walked by.
“Hey.” She touched his arm.
He turned, his eyes slowly climbing from her hand to her face.
“You probably have to sit with this for a while. I’ve been sitting with it for a while,” she said. “I know it seems fast, but we’ve done something remarkable. We were married. We’re living as husband and wife after knowing each other for a decade. This is something worth exploring and I don’t want you to talk yourself out of it.” She ran her fingers down his arm and squeezed his hand. “You can take your time deciding how you feel about me. I won’t force it, and I won’t pout because you didn’t say it back.”
“That’s enough.” His voice was gruff. “That’s enough talk about how you feel and how I feel and how this is going to work out. This is temporary. This has always been temporary.”
“Things change.”
“You couldn’t possibly know that you love me after only—”
“Do not finish that sentence. I’m sick to death of people questioning my heart and my will—both of which are mine. Both of which I am the authority on. I, of all people, know how I feel about you.”
On a deep sigh, he came to her, but not out of anger and not to argue with her. Instead he pulled her close and dropped his forehead on hers. His eyes sank closed and she wrapped her arms around his waist, holding on to him as well as to the hope that this meant he accepted how she felt about him.
He didn’t have to say it back—she’d meant that—but she wouldn’t stand for him, for anyone, contesting how she felt. Not ever again.
“I need a nap.” He put a kiss on her forehead.
“Okay.”
He walked into the living room and she stood in the center of the kitchen wondering what the hell to do with herself now.
“I’m going out...to do a little shopping.”
“Okay,” he called as he stretched out on the sofa.
Retail therapy had always cleared her head in the past, and right now her head couldn’t be foggier.
