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“Right,” he said. He was already pulling out his weed to roll a joint, as he studied me with one eye closed. “But I did ask you to marryme.”
Chapter Nine
Maggie
Sometime later,Zane had smoked up, and I’d helped him. My eyeballs felt fuzzy and everything seemed reallygood.
Life was good,right?
I had the best jobin the world. Every day I got up and I felt grateful for where I was. I had the respect of my co-workers, and I kicked ass at what I did. I knew I was appreciated.Needed.
So what if my dad didn’t see what I wasworth?
Maybe my “marriage” to Zane would change that. Fundamentally, it probably wouldn’t. I’d just have to work harder at acceptingit.
I wasn’t going to change Dizzy Bowman. The man was an old, old dog, with no interest in picking up any newtricks.
And so what if I had no real girlfriends outside of work? I could always make newfriends.
Besides… I had Zane. And right about now, that was all I reallyneeded.
What else could I possiblyneed?
When he and I were together—and not pissing each other off—it just fit. It felt right. At least, when he wasn’t trying to get up myskirt.
Thing was, these moments were few and farbetween.
Maybe that was the only real problem betweenus.
We sat side by side, close together on the big white bed. We’d managed to have an extremely engaging conversation about Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the kind of conversation where time just cruises on by and I, for one, didn’t even notice. I was vaguely aware that the sun would be coming up soon. We’d just had a heated, nonsensical argument about who would drive the car if we lived in the time ofTheFlintstones—uh, obviously we both would; it took a lot of feet to move those stone wheels, right?—and which dinosaur would make the bestpet.
How we got ontoTheFlintstones? I asked Zane if he’d ever thought about marrying a woman before he popped the question out on the patio. I really thought the answer would be no. But after what appeared to be careful consideration, he said, “BettyRubble.”
A while later, once we’d agreed to disagree about the dinosaurs, I said out of nowhere, “She already had ahusband.”
Zane looked confused. “Huh?”
“Betty.”
“Bettywho?”
I laughed, and I couldn’t stop laughing. It felt so fucking good to talk about nothing at all. Forget my dad. Forget this whole fucked-up night. Forget this unbearable sexual tension that had me all tied in knots every time I was alone withZane.
I could live with it. All ofit.
As long as Zane had my back, I could put up with anything,really.
Which reminded me of something. “What did my dad say to you?” I sat up straight and turned to face him. “When we were getting out of the limo and Maxxi hugged me, he leaned in and you guys were talking for a minute. What were yousaying?”
He held my gaze, his eyes a little hooded, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Couldn’t tell if he was stoned or not. “He was asking me for ameeting.”
“Seriously? Jesus Christ,” I practically growled. “Fuck! I can’t believe he asked you that on our weddingnight.”
Zane said nothing, but a gorgeous smile crept across hisface.
“What?” I elbowed himsharply.
“Nothing,” hesaid.
