Page 56 of Nothing But It All
“Says the man that pretends to be asleep every night we’ve been here.”
“I’ve been reading the room.”
“Sure,” I say, nodding sarcastically.
“When you roll onto your side and basically play dead, I take the hint. It’s called ‘giving you space.’”
“You’re really good at that.”
“What? You don’t like it?” he asks.
“I think I’ve made that abundantly clear.”
His lips twitch into a smirk. “Noted.”
A fire heats in my belly, and I squirm in my seat.
“What else don’t you like?” he asks. “What else do I do that bothers you?”
I snort.
“Come on,” he says, goading me. “We have time. Give me a list. Get it all off your chest.”
I consider blowing him off. I also weigh the option of diving from the boat and swimming to shore. But the intensity in his eyes and his repeated requests to fix our marriage break me down. Not that I think he’ll follow through with it, but more to make him stop playing this game with me.
“Okay,” I say, grabbing a water bottle from the cooler and sitting back down. “I’ll humor you.”
He smiles.
“What does Jack Reed do that bothers me?” I say before taking a long drink. “Where do I start?”
“God, you’re beautiful.”
“That.” I point at him. “That bothers me.”
His brows pull together. “That I give you a compliment?”
“That you’re insinuating that I’m that easily won over. That I’m so pathetic that you can tell me I’m pretty and I’ll forget all about the rest.”
“Okay.Continue,” he says, like he’s not sure if I’ve had heatstroke.
“It bothers me that you don’t see me as a whole person with hopes and dreams of my own.”
“And?”
“And I hate when you tell me not to handle things because you’ll do it, and then you don’t.”
“Like what?” he asks.
I stretch my arms out along the side of the boat. This amuses him for some reason, and he mirrors my position.
“Like when you tell me not to hang the mirror in the foyer,” I say.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious.”
He laughs. “Lauren, it’s a fucking mirror.”
