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I get down off the stool. “Want some water? You look like you need water.”
She lets out a frustrated growl, hands clenched at her side, then takes a few deep breaths to calm herself. “No, Nolan, I don’t want water.”
“Why aren’t the guys working today?”
“We can’t afford them anymore, that’s why.” She gives me a hard look. “Because of you.”
“If you took my money, you could afford whatever you wanted.”
“That’s not the point.”
“So you say.” I lean back against the table. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“Uh, yeah, when it comes to marrying total assholes, I am pretty stubborn.”
“We’d be good together.”
“What about our dynamic makes you think we’d be anything but horrible?”
I run a hand through my hair, considering. “That first night.”
“That first—” She rubs her face. “Okay, yes, we had a good night together. I had fun with you. We even had, you know—”
“Really good sex?” I offer.
“Right.” She clears her throat. “But one night isn’t the basis of a marriage.”
“I don’t see why not.”
“You don’t—” She sighs, leaning her head back. “That’s because you’re delusional. Or insane. Maybe both.”
“People get married for all sorts of reasons,” I say, watching her carefully. “Arranged marriages. Marriages of convenience. Marriages for health insurance. Marriages for green cards. Marriages for love, for lust, for everything in between. Marriages between strangers, between cousins, between siblings.”
“Gross,” she says, wrinkling her nose.
“I agree, but the point is, marriage doesn’t have to look like the white picket fence and the little white yappy dog. It doesn’t have to be angels trumpeting as rose petals fall from the sky and true love’s arrow strikes you in the chest. It doesn’t even need to be a guy standing in the rain pronouncing his undying romantic love. It can be whatever we want it to be.”
“Unfortunately for you, I don’t want it to look like this.” She gestures between us. “I don’t even want your money. I want you to leave me alone.” She stalks away again, stopping when there’s some distance between us.
I don’t blame her for feeling that way. This whole marriage idea, it’s bizarre, even for me.
But the moment she was standing in my house looking at me with those big eyes of hers, I felt it.
Howrightit was.
I’m not the kind of man that can ignore that intuition.
I’ve made my fortune going by my gut. Now, I’ll make my family.
“Maybe it won’t work,” I admit, speaking softly. “Maybe we’ll try, and it’ll be terrible. Maybe you’ll nag—”
“Don’t be a prick.”
“Or I’ll be an asshole.” I give her a lopsided grin. “Any number of ways we can fuck it up. But maybe it’ll be great, like that night.”
She softens. Only a touch, but she’s not looking like she wants to drive a knife into my chest. “I never imagined you’d be this romantic, Nolan Crowley.”
“I’m so jaded, I’ve gone full circle.”
