His jaw dropped. “I’ll have you know I’ve been in the gym every day but Sunday.”
“And what do you think of our establishment?”
“Ugh. There is that boring work voice again. Can’t you put it on silent for the rest of the night?”
Her mouth opened, a squeak escaping. “Wow. Is it really annoying?”
“Makes me want to get up and shake my arms off to see if there are any bugs on my skin.”
He had to be joking, yet he wasn’t smiling. “That’s mean.”
“Natalie. No one has been polite in my life. They sure the hell didn’t have that soft soothing voice that made you feel as if everything was going to be okay. The calmness that you carry washing over them in waves while you try to correct whateverhorror they may think they have done. In my life, there was cold sarcasm, heated arguments, and nasty accusations.”
“I’m sorry for you,” she said. “That you had to live with that.”
“Since my mother won’t be at the wedding, you won’t see that side of things. Cold sarcasm, sure. That’s always present.”
“You’re not cold.”
“Nope. That might be why I distance myself so much.”
She couldn’t fathom her family acting that way. She’d left to see more of the world and couldn’t wait to return to those who understood her the best.
Maybe if she had opened herself up more to Arik back then she would have had a slice of that there.
She was a firm believer in fate. Their lives were on a course they had to steer and neither of them was ready.
“But you’re going back.”
“I’ll always go back for my grandmother. She’s the only one. The rest, I barely tolerate.”
So he had one person in his life that meant something to him.
It was important for her to know that.
Anyone who lived on the edge, who could pick up when they wanted with no recourse, wasn’t someone who was going to fasten on for long.
They’d end up breaking free and making a run for it.
But Arik always returned to his grandmother. It meant there was space for him for someone else.
Whether she was that person, she didn’t know.
In order to find that out, she had to spend time with him.
Last Sunday was more fun than she remembered having in years.
If she didn’t go with him to this wedding, she’d lose this weekend. She was too busy during the week.
When he returned from Baltimore, he’d only have two more weekends left on the island.
“And you’re being polite saying it that way.”
He pointed his fork at her. “See, you get me.”
Few understood her and she was used to that.
They finished their dinner and she put the plates back on the serving tray.
