Page 126 of 10 Rings I Hate About You
“You should start.” I took a sip of wine. “Seriously. Be a little smug about this. I’ll allow it.”
He hummed a noncommittal response, which meant he was pleased with my reaction and had no intention of admitting anything.
Marc set down his wine and reached for his phone. “I need to call Theo so he knows we’re not coming.”
A thread of guilt laced my subconscious. “We can still go. I hate that I derailed the night.”
“Hey.” The look on his face was patient but final. “You didn’t derail anything. We can just as easily talk about animal pairings over the phone. The space is set up, and we know how we’re going to run it.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Then looked at Chaos, who offered no support.
Marc shook his head, effectively cutting off my protest. “It’s done. Stop fighting me. I’m trying to take care of you. Let me. You’ve had a rough day.”
“Fine,” I said, and laid my head on his shoulder after letting out a long sigh. “Thank you.”
It was hard to accept help. I’d spent so long being the person who pushed through, who handled it, who showed up anyway—pretending that the mental stuff wasn’t weighing me down—that sometimes I just wanted to shut my eyes and sleep for days.
He kissed the top of my head, and I swear his lips were curved into a smile, but being a smart man he said nothing.
Marc’s arm came around me before I could spiral any further “Hey,” he said into the phone. “Yeah, we’re okay. Something came up.” A pause. “Did you decide on any other animals for Friday?”
I laid my cheek lightly against his chest and listened to the low rumble of his voice without being able to make out Theo’s side.
“The rabbit?” Marc asked. “Fluffy or Butterball?”
I bit down on a laugh. Those names in his voice were weirdly funny and sexy.
“What? No—not together. Fluffy will spend the whole class trying to groom the other animals and the dog won’t know what to do with that.” He paused. “That’s not calming, Theo. That’s an existential crisis waiting to happen.” Another pause. “Yeah, those two will work.”
His hand moved in slow, absent passes along my shoulder, settling me into a dreamy relaxed state.
“The dachshund and the—yeah. Yeah, that could work, too.”
He pressed another kiss to the top of my head, and I just wanted to swoon. Each of these movements were caring and easy, but he also wanted me to know that even if he was doing something else, he was aware of me.
“Because he’s calm. She’s not. Sometimes that’s the right pairing—they balance each other out.”
It was like he was talking about us.
Another pause. “Sure. We’ll look at the list tomorrow and flag anything I’m worried about.”
I loved how, even though this was his area of expertise, he didn’t try to exclude me.
He paused again. “Theo.” His tone sounded firm. “Go home already.”
He hung up and put his phone down on the side table.
“Everything good?”
“It is. Theo’s got it covered. If I'm concerned about a fit, I’ll let you know and we can go over it.” He placed a kiss on my temple. “Stop looking for a reason to feel guilty.”
“I wasn’t—” I started.
He raised an eyebrow.
“I was a little,” I admitted.
His eyes darkened as he ran a finger across my cheek. “Good girl.”
