“Does it have to be jewelry?”
“Is there something else you want?”
I stared at the crisp lines of his bow tie. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to pull it loose. I wanted to make a mess of him. “What about books? I need a new class set ofThe MiraculousJourney of Edward Tulane. Most of them are more tape than book these days.”
“Buy whatever you want. I’ll add you to my Amex account.”
A startled laugh burst out of me. “I was kidding about—about the books. I don’t need?—”
“If you don’t order the books, I will.”
He wasn’t being serious. About any of it. I knew that. Even so, I said, “Okay, but don’t be surprised if you see some major bookstore charges coming your way.”
“Even if you ordered class sets of every second-grade book you could ever want, that would still cost less than the jewelry Wren selected for you.”
Such an attitude with this one tonight. I rolled my eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to be saving up to buy some soccer teams? Maybe it’s not a great idea to be throwing around the cash like it’s confetti.”
He dragged his fingers down the length of my hair, pulling just enough to send a wave of tingles running over my scalp and down my neck. “I’m going to spend a little over sixty million on these teams when the ink is dry,” he said, the words low and husky. “That’s less than what I earn in a year before postseason bonuses, before endorsements.” He released my hair and let his fingers trail down my bare arm to circle my wrist. “Buy all the books you want, wife.”
I swallowed hard, but didn’t say anything for a minute. Ines coughed from the other side of the kitchen but made herself look busy when we glanced in that direction. Eventually, I managed, “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Wildcat. We’re not married yet.”
“I’m getting warmed up,” he said. “You know how I am about practice.”
“You guys are going to be late,” Ines called.
Ignoring her, Ryan leaned in close, saying, “In the future, I’ll take care of the jewelry.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I nodded as another round of tingles softened my skull.
Ines held the tail of the cape while I gripped Ryan’s forearm and moved toward the stairs. “Wait, wait just a second,” I said, carefully gathering my skirt. I tried descending the step again, but I felt the same tension in the dress that screamedI’m gonna rip!
“What’s wrong?” he asked, staring down the curve of the stairwell.
I pulled the skirt up as high as the fabric would allow—which wasn’t much. Still no progress. “I guess I should’ve gotten dressed on the sidewalk.”
“Emme,” he sighed. “I don’t know what that means.”
I drew in a shallow breath because it was all I could manage with this skirt bunched all the way up to my knees and the bodice slicing into my rib cage. “There’s not enough room in this skirt to make it down the stairs. They’re too steep and the dress is too tight.”
“Fuck it,” he growled. “We’ll stay here. We don’t need to go to this thing.”
“That isnotthe answer,” I said at the same moment Ines cried, “But the cape!”
“You said this was important,” I continued. “That you needed to be at this event.”
“It costs five thousand dollars to attend,” Ines said.
“Oh, we’re going,” I said. “I am surgically attached to this dress, my hair’s been blown out, and I have twenty-nine different products on my face. We are going to this party even if I have to parachute out a window.” I motioned to my face and hair. “There’s no way I’m letting you waste fivethousanddollars per plate tickets and all of this.”
“She spends most Saturday nights in bed, eating cheese and yelling at movies,” Ines added. “She needs to get out of the house.”
“Thank you for that,” I snapped. “No one needed to know those details, but thank you so much for announcing them to everyone.” Turning back to Ryan, I said, “I’ll just change out of the dress now and duck into the hotel lobby bathroom when we get there for a quick switcheroo. Just drop me off at a side door or something.”
“I’m firing this fucking stylist,” he said under his breath. He shoved a hand through his hair and sighed in a way that made me long for lung capacity. Fists propped on his hips, he turned around and I could see in his face that he was in quarterback mode. He waved a hand at the cape. “Can you take that off? Until we get downstairs?”
“Yeah, but?—”
“Good. Do that.” To Ines, he said, “You’ll carry that thing and the little bag.” He snatched the clutch away from me and passed it to her before shrugging out of his jacket. “And if you don’t mind, this.” He pressed himself back against the wall, adding, “You’re running ahead. I’m gonna need you to clear the way and open the doors.”
