Page 114 of The Reason I Married Him
“Thank you, Gerald,” I say before he moves away.
“What do you think she’d like?” Laurel asks.
“Simple,” I say without even having to think about it. “She’s very simple and not flashy at all.”
“And how do you know that?” Laurel asks.
“She doesn’t wear jewelry in the first place. She barely wears makeup. She has this fresh-face thing going on that’s pretty. She keeps herself grounded, and dressing up for her is a simple sundress. I don’t think she cares for heels but would rather wear her work boots.”
Laurel’s brow raises in question. “Um . . . wow, that’s more than I expected you to know about her.”
“Just observations.” I shrug.
“Uh-huh, and what did you say about her non-makeup look?” Laurel asks.
I roll my eyes. “I know where you’re going with this, and you can stop that. Nothing is going on between us. And I mean nothing. She won’t even hold my hand. She’s skittish most of the time when around me, or she’s putting up a wall.” Besides last night, but Laurel doesn’t need to know that.
“Would you like her to hold your hand?” Laurel teases.
“No, I mean, yes, but not like in the way you’re thinking. If we’re going to make this look more convincing, she’ll need to be more affectionate.”
“Maybe she thinks you smell or something. I wouldn’t want to hold someone’s hand who smells.”
“Be real, Laurel.”
She laughs and scans the rings. “Well, she’s skittish for one of two reasons. Either she’s scared of you, which I don’t think is the case given how she stands up to you, or something in her past prevents her from being intimate.”
“It’s definitely the latter,” I say, spotting a simple ring with three stones that could be an option. “I don’t know the extent of it all, but I do know she didn’t have a great childhood, and it seems like her ex was a dick, so she’s probably tainted from both of those.” Not to mention evil Amanda.
“Are you going to try to fix it?”
“No,” I answer even though last night was my first attempt.
“You are such a liar,” she says, bumping into my shoulder. “I know you, Wyatt. She’s a project to you, isn’t she?”
“Christ, don’t ever say that around her.”
“Well, she is . . . right? You see her as a project.”
Sighing, I turn to Laurel and say, “I don’t like that she’s been hurt. You can see her guard is up, and you can see the hurt in her eyes. It’s clear as day, and I hate that.”
“Which means you want to make it better.”
I shrug. “If I can at least open her up, let her know that not all men are asses, then I don’t see an issue with that.”
“The only issue is . . . if she actually falls for you.”
I shake my head. “No fucking way. She barely tolerates me. I don’t think she sees me in a romantic way. There’s no potential for this being anything but a friendship.”
“So you’re not even friends at this point?”
“Nope. I’d say mild acquaintances. I’d love to get to a point by the end of this where we split amicably and are still friends. Right now, I do not see that happening. I think she’ll kick me out of the house and say good riddance.”
“You’d still see her, though, because of MacKenzie, right?”
“Yeah, there will always be that connection, but she’ll most likely avoid me, and that’s what I don’t want to happen. I just want to be friends, and if that means attempting to make her more comfortable around me and helping her through whatever pain she might be feeling, then I’ll do that.”
She nods and turns toward the rings again. “What about your pain?”
