Page 60 of Conveniently Wed
Something inside him.
“Sit down.” Somehow she managed to keep her voice even, when she was slightly frightened, trembling at his intensity.
“I don’t talk about my childhood,” he said. His firmness offered no option.
But she wasn’t one to give up easily.
“Sit down,” she repeated.
He did. Stiffly this time. Before, his shoulders had lost their tension.
It was all back now.
She massaged the top of his scalp for a moment before she went back to trimming his hair. It didn’t help.
“You can trust me,” she said, because she couldn’t give up, not when she’d seen the potential they might have together.
He didn’t respond. A glance at his face showed that stubborn jaw locked in place and his lips thinned with displeasure.
“I told you something very painful for me—about my parents, about why Emma and I had to run.”
She didn’t know what she thought, perhaps that he would understand that she’d trusted him with her past, but all he said was, “I said, I don’t want to talk about it.”
She finished his haircut with jerky movements. Part of her wanted to ruin it, give him a lopsided cut that would make him look ridiculous.
But she refrained.
When she stepped back, brushing a few stray hanks of hair from his shoulders, she froze as she got her first good look at him.
Before, even with his unkempt appearance, he’d been striking.
Now, he was handsome. With his hair trimmed short and curling about his collar and ears, and with his beard washed clean and shining blond, she could clearly see the strong cheekbones and defined brow. His blue eyes were clear and steady.
Her husband was one of the handsomest men she’d had the pleasure of seeing.
Of course he ruined all her hard work when he smashed his hat on top of his head.
And he didn’t acknowledge her when he stomped back toward the wagon.
But she still wasn’t going to give up.
She had a day left to figure this man out, to find a way to make him realize they could have something together.
She was going to take that day.
Edgar spent the morning agitated and as far away from his nosy little wife as he could.
Matty and Seb had both admired his haircut and tried to tease him. But they seemed to have sensed his foul mood, so they circled around the herd in the other direction. Ricky had stayed away in the first place.
The worst part was, he sorta felt she was right.
Shehadopened up to him. Told him everything he’d asked, about her past and her parents.
And he hadn’t reciprocated.
It bothered him, probably more than it should’ve, that there was an unequal trade between them.
But he didn’t want to talk about his early childhood. Didn’t even like thinking about it. Made a practice of just living his life. He didn’t need to dwell on it.
