Page 21 of A Marriage of Anything But Convenience

She pulled her hair to the side and around her shoulder, and he noticed the tag of her dress sticking out. He walked to her and reached to tuck it back inside the dress. She whipped around. “What are you doing?”

Embarrassment shot through him. “Sorry. Your tag is sticking out. I was just going to…”

“Oh. Sorry. Go ahead.” She turned and held her hair out of the way.

Before he could tuck it in, he noticed what it said. Nara’s Choice. He hid the tag, then smoothed out the dress. “Done.”

“Thanks.”

He cradled his camera, a pose so natural for him he barely registered he was doing it. “Did you design this dress?”

She grinned. “Yeah. It was one of my first pieces. What do you think?”

He knew nothing about fashion. All he knew was she looked amazing in it. “I like it.”

She playfully punched his arm. “You have to say that. You’re my husband.” The laugh that burst out of her after she said the word ‘husband’ carried over the air. “That’s so weird, isn’t it? You’re my husband.”

Oh, no. Was she going to laugh again about that? Because he didn’t find it very amusing last time. “Yeah. Weird,” he mumbled under his breath as he turned to find another iguana to memorialize with his camera.

“No, I don’t mean it like weird, weird. I guess I’m just getting used to it. That’s all.” She bit her lower lip. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

Had he acted like she’d hurt his feelings? He hadn’t meant to. He bent down to snap a picture. “My feelings are fine.”

She took hold of his arm after he stood again. “Are you sure? Because you seem…upset.”

“I just didn’t want you to start laughing again.” He cringed. “Non-stop. For another ten minutes.”

Nara sucked in a breath and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, geez, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that embarrassed you.”

“I’m fine.” He stressed the word so she would know she could stop apologizing now.

“Are you sure?”

He let go of his camera, letting it hang around his neck, and put his hands on her shoulders. “Do I look upset to you?”

Her gaze darted over his face. “Kind of.”

He let out a breath and shook his head. “You’re impossible.”

“There. That’s what I wanted to see. Your almost smile.” She grinned at him and he returned it with a questioning look.

“My what?”

“Your almost smile. It’s gone now, but it was there. When you told me I was impossible. Your lips lifted a fraction.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but decided against it and shut it again. “Let’s keep walking.”

“Okay.” Nara fell into step beside him.

They came to a park bench, and Nara tugged on his arm. “Let’s sit here. I want to watch the iguanas. They’re such a pretty color, aren’t they?”

“Sure.” He joined her on the bench. A few clouds crossed the sun, giving them a nice break from the bright light. He watched as a man with a wide-brimmed hat dumped chunks of yellow fruit and lettuce leaves into a shallow basin. The animals must have heard, because they flocked to the basin to eat.

Derek moved closer to get a shot of the iguanas eating. A fight broke out and he got a great photo of one of them rearing up and hissing at another. They circled each other for a moment before the smaller one backed off. Derek sat back down beside Nara.

She fidgeted. “Hey, I just thought of something.”

“Hmm?”

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