“Not a damn thing.” I let out a breath. “I asked Alex to get me a meeting with him and if he won’t go for it, then we’ll work through your father, but the fact is that you and I are married, whether Gregory and your dad like it or not. We just need to deal with their bruised egos, is all.”
She nodded slowly but she didn’t look relieved. If anything, she looked even more drawn. I reached out and took her hand, surprised to find that it was really cold. “Charlotte?”
She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t squeeze back either and I sighed, ignoring the ache in my chest about being shut out like this. “I’m not going to pretend it’s not complicated, but I’m not letting anyone wedge themselves between us, okay?”
Her eyes flicked to mine. “I know.”
“But?” I pressed when she averted her gaze again only fractions of a second later. “I’m going to handle this, baby. Trust me.”
“I do. Of course, I trust you. There is nobut.” She took a shaky breath. “It’s just that you shouldn’t have to keep fixing everything. You don’t have tohandleeveryone for me.”
“I know I don’t have to,” I said. “I want to.”
She looked down at our hands like she was trying to memorize the way our fingers looked laced together. A long silence stretched between us, thick and weighted. Something was wrong, bad wrong, and she wasn’t telling me. I felt it like static under my skin.
“I can see when you’re hurting,” I said quietly. “Even when you’re trying not to show it.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, but she didn’t answer, so I squeezed her hand before bringing it to my lips andkissing the back of it. “We’re going to get through this together, Charlotte. Gregory is just one guy. We’re not going to let him beat us.
For a moment, she closed her eyes, making it seem like she was absorbing what I’d said. When she opened them again, she finally leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder like she’d taken to doing when she needed comfort. I wrapped an arm protectively around her.
Something had happened today, and eventually, when she was ready, I’d find out what it was. As soon as I did, I’d handle it. Just like I’d promised, but for now, I’d just keep her tucked against me, warm, soft, and quiet, but not relaxed.
Not really. Her breathing was too shallow, her fingers too still on my arm. I could also practicallyfeelher thinking.
When she looked up into my eyes again after a few long minutes, relief trickled through me, but it only lasted until she opened her mouth and said the last thing I’d been expecting to hear. “Wouldn’t it just be easier if we considered this a loss and backed out? I mean, we still have time to get the marriage annulled.”
My whole body went cold.
“What?” I asked, because there was no universe in which I’d just heard that right.
She winced like the word itself had hurt, but she didn’t take it back. “I’m just saying that maybe we rushed into this and maybe it would be easier on both of us if?—”
“No.” I shook my head. “Where the hell is this coming from?”
She tucked her hands into her sleeves, drawing her shoulders up defensively. “I thought it would get easier after we got married, and for a little while, it did, but now, we’re basically right back where we started. People are upset and there’s all this drama, and it’s my fault for pulling you into it all.”
“That’s not an answer,” I said, heat creeping into my voice. I wasn’t angry at her though. I was really fucking pissed off at whatever had gotten into her head. “You’re dodging.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.” I took a steadying breath. “Why are you suddenly asking if we should get our marriage annulled?”
She looked away. “I just don’t want to keep putting you out. I don’t want you constantly having to fly back and forth between Chicago and the ranch, dealing with God knows what, only because of me. I know you have a life. Work. Family. You didn’t sign up for constant chaos.”
“I married you, so yes, actually, I did sign up for it,” I said slowly and deliberately. “It’s also not constant chaos, Charlotte. It’s been a couple of complicated weeks. That’s all.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah, I do. I’ve been right here through it all, choosing it day in and day out. We knew it wasn’t going to be all rainbows and daisies once your dad and Gregory found out what we’d done, but I’m still here and so are you.”
“That’s what I mean,” she said, her voice cracking at the edges and her eyes too shiny when they came up to meet mine. “You’re here now, but what if it keeps getting harder? What if it doesn’t stop? What if all of this just becomes too much?”
The pain hit fast and sharp because what she’d just said? That was the truth. The reason for all her careful words, the circling, and the deflecting.
After everything we’d been through, shestilldidn’t trust that I was staying. She still thought that she was somehow temporary to me. Disposable.
I sat back an inch, not because I wanted distance, but because I needed enough space to breathe past the sudden searing pain in my soul. “Do you want this, Charlotte?”
