Page 65 of Wedding Season
“Which means you’re in danger. Danger, Will Robinson. Do you understand?”
“She doesn’t hold power over me. She never really did.”
“She holds all the power. If you see her, she is going to try to make you think that her cheating was your fault.”
“It wasn’t my fault. I know that. You know that. Remember how we talked about faith? Maybe you should have a little in me.” He could almost see the wheels spinning in her complicated brain as she processed that one.
“I don’t want you to be hurt again,” she said after a moment.
Should he reveal that she was the one who had the power to hurt him at this point? Nope. He wasn’t ready to deal with that, even in his own secret heart. He certainly wasn’t going to share it with her.
“It’s closure,” he said, “for both of us.”
“I don’t like it.” He’d moved nearer as they were speaking and now reached for her. She turned to look at her fish as he held her but didn’t pull away. “I don’t like it at all.”
“I find your concern sexy,” he said, brushing a kiss against the corner of her mouth.
“This isn’t funny, Alex.”
“I’m not joking, Mariella. Amber can come to Magnolia if she wants.”
“And you told Avery this?”
“Not yet.”
“Aha.” She jabbed a finger into the air. “Because you’re not certain about it. You’re not sure.”
“Because I wanted to be certain you were okay with it. If you don’t want Amber here, and you need me to stop it, I will.”
“Don’t do that.”
He tried to read her expression, but as usual, she was a mystery to him. A fascinating, wonderful, infuriating mystery. Alex had never been the addictive type. He did everything in measured outcomes, but this woman was different. It was as if she was the hot rush of a drug into his veins. No matter how much he got, he wanted more.
“Do what?” he asked.
“Be a nice guy.”
“Would it be better if I was a jerk?”
She started to pull away then grabbed his shoulders like she couldn’t stand to let him go. “Yes, it would be better if you were a jerk. Instead you’re good and honorable and I don’t know what to do with that. I wasn’t built to deal with honorable. Now I’m surrounded by good friends and a daughter who doesn’t hate me and you. You are the worst of all. I don’t know how to handle somebody who isn’t a jerk. Jerks I can manage. It gives me permission to be a jerk in return.”
“You’re not a jerk.”
“I spent a lot of my life being a jerk. It’s what I know.”
“You’re someone different here.”
He liked how undone and discombobulated she seemed. When her walls came down and he witnessed the real Mariella—the one she hid from most people. He liked that he brought down her walls even when she didn’t want him to.
“Do you want me to go?”
“I want you to stay.”
“Why?” He shouldn’t ask the question. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, as the saying went. He should stay with her and not ask for more, but he couldn’t help himself.
For a moment, he thought she might kick him to the curb for the audacity of expecting her to open to him.
“Because when I’m with you,” she said, her voice whisper-soft, “I feel like I can handle anything. Whatever storm life throws at me, you seem to be the calm in the center of it. I’ve only ever lived in the destruction. I never realized how powerful the peace could be.”
