Page 116 of Family Bonds: Coy & Angel

He didn’t want to be mean about it but had said he’d take care of his own laundry from that point.

She’d laughed and said she had no problem doing it, but he joked it was fine. He was particular about it.

She got the hint and let it go.

He moved over and started to pull them out before she could and moved the basket out of the way, then pulled her clothes out of the washer and separated them to put them in the dryer one at a time. She just threw them in as a big pile. Probably why they took longer to dry.

“Are you done doing my chores?” she asked with her hands on her hips.

“Sorry,” he said. “I forgot about the clothes. Guess at times it goes back to being in the house by myself.”

“Not a big deal,” she said. “If you weren’t so damn fussy about everything.”

He held his smirk in place when she said that. She’d been a little short today and he was trying to give her space.

He didn’t want to think the honeymoon phase was over by any means. But he realized that living with someone wasn’t as easy as he’d thought it’d be. Could be she was feeling the same way.

That first month, they were probably tiptoeing around each other. Now they were more at ease and in the process annoying the other with little things.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m just trying to be helpful.”

“I’ll go finish dinner then if you’re going to be the laundry master.”

“I’ve got it,” he said, finishing up and walking back to the kitchen after her. She was opening the package of bacon that he’d put on the counter.

She moved out of the way and put her hands up. “Why won’t you let me do anything?”

“What?” he asked.

“You are correcting my laundry. You won’t let me cook dinner.”

“You cooked last night,” he said. “We’ve been taking turns. I said I’d get it tonight. I didn’t marry someone to have them be my maid. I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.”

Her lips were twisting. “I think it’s more that you don’t like the way I do things. I’m sorry if I burned dinner last night. I’ll get you a new pan.”

He bit back the grin over her chagrin look.

“It’s fine,” he said. “I’ve got plenty.”

She growled at him. “Coy,” she said. “I want a partnership out of my marriage. Not someone to take care of me.”

He looked up from the pan he was laying the bacon in. “What does that mean?”

“Are you really this thick?” she asked.

“I’m trying not to lose my patience here, Angel.”

“Maybe I want you to. I get it. The first month we lived together, we were both trying to be accommodating to each other. Maybe me more than you because it’s your house and I wanted to see how you did things, but now I’m starting to think you’re the one that was accommodating and now you’re just relaxing. I want you to be relaxed,” she said. “It’s your house.”

“Our house,” he said.

She snorted. “Nope,” she said. “It’s not.”

He didn’t like hearing that. “I told you to make any changes you want.”

“And you’d pay for them,” she said. “That isn’t a partnership. I want to be equals and all you’ve let me do is buy food. Nothing else.”

“You’ve bought some curtains and towels,” he said. “A bedspread.”

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