“Complicated how?”
“Look,” she says, glancing back at me, the kitchen lights glinting off her curls. “I’m sure it’s a long, boring story, and I’d love to tell it to anyone who might be interested?—”
Her eyes soften for a split second, and damn if that doesn’t squeeze something in my chest.
Then she straightens, tucking a stray curl behind her ear.
“But, as you already pointed out, you’re not.”
“I’m not?”
“Not interested in me. So.”
That hits. Hard. And I wanna argue, but she’s not wrong. That is why I came here.
To confront this whole Date to Mate situation, tell her it was my brother and not me who signed me up, and to get out of this magically binding contract to attend Uncle Uzzi’s holiday shindig.
Only now that I’ve met her? Well, let’s just say I think my initial response might have been too hasty.
In fact, I’m almost positive that it was.
Yep, walking away now would be a terrible mistake.
But even if I’m not ready to admit that out loud yet, I know I’m not ready to end this conversation.
She dusts her hands, grabs a tray, and heads for the massive walk-in fridge.
“Well, thank you for coming by Mr. Rogers. I appreciate you letting me down in person, but I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other. So just fix the app thingy. Cancel the match or whatever. I’ll move on to the next guy who is interested. And you can go back to counting your gold coins or whatever it is Scrooge McDuck does in that cartoon,” she mumbles the last bit.
I freeze.
She said it lightly—like it’s no big deal—but it is.
My Badger bristles at her words, snarling inside my chest.
Move on?
The next guy?
The fuck she will.
I grit my teeth, but I don’t step closer.
Not yet.
“Marigold,” I say slowly, my voice a low rumble that makes her pause at the refrigerator door. “You think I don’t want to be here? You think I don’t?—”
I stop myself before I say something I can’t take back.
Something like mine.
Because I don’t get to say that.
Not when I came here to—I don’t even know what. Confront her? Correct a mistake?
None of that feels right.
Still, I’m here now.
