Page 55 of Wish I Didn't Want You Back

Ipeeled out of the parking lot and clamped my hand around the steering wheel. The sound of my tires rolling along the pavement was the only thing filling the silence between us.

My head was spinning from that dinner.

Her smile and her laughter and the way she charmed the Clarks was fresh in my mind.

She made me look good. She was convincing. She made it seem like I’d be the ideal husband. Surprisingly, I wasn’t even pissed about it.

That part was messing with my head.

For the first time in five years, that anger I’d been holding on to wasn’t as sharp tonight. Instead, something else was creeping in.

Gratitude.

I swallowed and pushed down on the gas as if I could somehow outrun my feelings.

“That went well, don’t you think?”

I nodded in agreement. “It did, although you laid it on pretty thick tonight.”

There was a smirk playing at the corner of her lips. “I think what you’re trying to say is thank you.”

I grinned, despite myself. “You did good tonight.”

She crossed her legs and turned to me. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was a compliment.”

I huffed out a low laugh. “Don’t get used to it.”

“I told you I could handle it.”

“You did better than I expected. Thank you.”

When I glanced over, there was no smirk or smile this time. She simply stared, and it made me uneasy.

“Did you really just say thank you?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I did.”

I shifted in my seat as I rolled to the stoplight. The cab of my truck suddenly felt two sizes too small.

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, nervously fiddling with the hem of her dress. I could tell she had something on her mind. Her lips parted like she wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure how.

I didn’t want to push, but the silence was eating away at me. “Everything okay over there? You’re being awfully quiet.”

She chewed on her bottom lip as if she wasn’t sure how to deal with me any more than I knew how to deal with her. “You’re being nice to me.”

She made it sound like it was a foreign concept. The guilt made my skin itch.

“Try not to make a big deal out of it, okay?”

A soft laugh escaped her. “That’s kind of hard to do.”

She wasn’t wrong. Since I first came up with the brilliant idea to marry her, I’ve used my anger to hold this charade together. Keeping her at arm’s length was the safest option, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to keep up the act.

Especially after tonight.

The light turned green, so I stepped on the gas and tried to ignore how she looked at me.

“You surprised me tonight, Brooks.”

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