Page 14 of Nothing to Do

Unsure if he was teasing or hitting on her, she just topped her shrug with a smile. “Life happens, I guess. How come you’re not married?”

“How do you know I’m not married?”

She nodded at his hand. “No ring.”

“Maybe I lost it in the sea.”

“Maybe you did,” she said. “Is that why you were out there in the dark? Looking for it?”

“It gets dark early around here.”

She sipped her wine, trying to subdue her ridiculous disappointment. “What’s she like? Does she live here on the island with you?”

The slant of his lips climbed again. “I’m not married. I’m not involved at all… yet.”

“Relationships aren’t easy to navigate… I think to make one work, we have to find our equal. Too many people think that means equal in society or in salary or having things in common. Sure that helps, but you don’t have to be the same as someone to be their equal.”

Interest narrowed his eyes. “What makes two people equal?”

“Values. Respect,” she said. “You have to find someone who respects your outlook the same way you respect theirs. Someone who wants the relationship to work as much as you do. Doesn’t mean running out and getting married or rushing anything, just that you both understand what the relationship is. That you both place the same value on it.” Conscious of her rambling, she laughed. “Though, if I had a foolproof way to make relationships work, I wouldn’t be single, would I?”

“Guess we’re all learning as we go.”

“Exactly,” she said, presenting a hand to him. “That’s what I mean. Two people have to want to learn together. They have toappreciate mistakes will be made and want to fix them together. The commitment should be real.”

“And you haven’t found a guy who wants to learn with you?”

“I’m not always the easiest woman to be in a relationship with,” she said. “I’m headstrong. I have a habit of sharing my point of view… I can be quite demanding.”

“Now I am intrigued,” he said. “What do you demand?”

“Respect. Communication.” She pointed at him. “I’m big on communication.” She shrugged and drank some wine. “I’m in no hurry to get to the end. When it happens, if it happens, I’d rather wait to be in a relationship that made me happy than be in one that made me unhappy just for the sake of it.”

“And you don’t have any qualms about telling a guy that.”

“Right,” she said on a single nod. “Somewhere…” She swept her wine around in the direction of the ocean surrounding them. “Out there in the world, there’s a guy who will put up with me calling at three a.m. to tell him something trivial… who won’t care that I love karaoke, even if it is embarrassing when I insist on standing up. A guy who won’t mind that I run into the ocean without notice. A guy who’ll kiss me, even if there are people watching… A guy who will laugh with me, even when no one else gets the joke… A guy who’ll let me breathe, even though I need him with every breath…” She sighed and looked at him again. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”

“I like rambling,” he said. “All of that is coming from someone… someone who hurt you.”

She shook her head. “I’m not hurt. Not anymore. But there’s a bit of everything from the men in my past, I guess. Like I said, I’m not easy to be in a relationship with.”

“I didn’t hear anything unreasonable on your list…” He peered closer. “Though, I guess it depends… what kind of karaoke?”

Zane always eased the tension, always relaxed her, made her laugh. She was a bold woman, not too easy to handle. She knew her own mind, and definitely knew her heart. Some men were intimidated by her confidence. Some sneered at it. She wouldn’t apologize for being who she was, and it didn’t seem Zane wanted her to either.

SEVEN

“SO WE ENDED IT.”

With her arm curled under her head, she’d been lying on her side, listening to the story of Zane’s last relationship for a while.

She sighed. “It’s so sad.” He frowned. “I feel sorry for her.”

“For Arden? Why?”

“Because she loved you,” she said. “She had this picture in her mind of what her life would be and you were in it.”

“You think I should’ve stayed with her to complete the picture?”

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