AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stopped and rubbed her forehead, wincing. The bruise there was shallow but nasty and green. I stepped toward the shed, reaching behind her back and taking the heavy bag from her.
“Why are you so stubborn?” I accused as I carried it toward her vegetable garden.
She followed me in her little boots and little everything, really. She was so pocket-sized, I often rehashed the night I was inside her, relishing how sweet and tight she’d felt. Not because of her virginity, but simply because she was her tiny self.
“Why are you always so…you?” She followed me, a bounce to her step.
I stopped in front of the vegetables, realizing for the very first time how spectacular she’d made this garden. She grew actual things. Tomatoes and radishes and peppermint and basil.
Flowers spilled from fresh pots, and there were rows upon rows of flowerbeds framing her little garden.
It wasn’t my style. Too busy and colorful, a mishmash of too many species, sights, and scents. But it was the one thing about this place that truly made her happy other than Ms. Sterling.
“Who else would I be?” I answered, setting the bag next to her plants, careful not to squash them.
I stood up straight and wiped my hands.
“Someone else,” she teased.
“Like who? Angelo?”
Only an idiot would utter his name aloud at a time like this. But I made it perfectly clear that I could be a real jackass where my wife was concerned.
“I actually quite like you being you,” she said, hitching one shoulder up.
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling abnormally raw.
“You need to slow down.”
“I am. I took it easy today. Did my homework and only came out here a half hour ago. I’m getting ready to harvest the first round of veggies and send them off to the school down the road. It’s all organic.” She turned to face me for the first time, and my heart squeezed at the sight of her black eye and cut lip.
I chucked her under the chin.
“That’s not slowing down. That’s speeding up. Don’t make me do something crazy.”
“Like what?”
“Like abduct you.”
She chuckled, looking down at her legs, her cheeks flushing. “You treat me like a kid.”
“Please. If I did to kids what I want to do to you, I’d spend the rest of my life in a secluded cellar, and for damn good reason.”
She crouched down, fingering the flowerbeds for dead leaves she collected, then threw away. I stuffed my fists into the pockets of my dress pants, watching her back.
Nemesis had Dimples of Venus on her lower back, and the need to sink my thumbs into them as I ate her out from behind smashed into me. I cleared my throat.
“Pack a bag and some snacks. We’re leaving.”
“Huh?” She still gardened, not even bothering to look up.
“We’re going to my cabin on Lake Michigan tomorrow for the weekend. Getting some rest is clearly not on your agenda, so I’m making it.”
She twisted her head to watch me, squinting at the sun and using one of her hands as a visor from it. “It’s no trouble. I’m not hurt, Wolfe.”
“You look like you’ve been beaten up, and people are especially good at speculating. I need to get you out of town.”
It was only partly true. Having my new wife parade her banged-up face in public was less than ideal, sure. But I didn’t want any company other than her, either.
