Chewing on her lower lip again, I watch while she comes to the same conclusion I did—that going two hours, let alone twoweeks, without verbally assaulting each other is going to be next to impossible.
“Right.” Sitting back in my seat, I take my wine glass with me. Lifting it to my mouth, I take a drink before I set it back down. “So, what if we make it interesting?”
Brow furrowed, she shakes her head. “Interestinghow?”
“Well…” I cross my arms over my chest. “Doesn’t a littlerule followerlike you think there should be some sort of consequence for breaking them? I mean, I know I’ll be more likely to keep my mouth shut and play nice if there’s some sort of incentive involved.”
“Okay.” Giving me a head nod, she takes a drink from her own glass. “That makes sense—what sort of consequence do you have in mind?”
“A mission, assigned by the insultee, performed by the insulter.”
“A mission?” She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “You mean like a dare?”
“Exactly like a dare,” I tell her with a head bob. “No shit talk. No insults. If I break the rules, you can tell me to run naked through the hotel lobby and I’ll have to do it—and vice versa.”
“No.” She shakes her head emphatically. “That’s ridiculous. Can’t we just pay a fine or something?”
“It can’t be money,” I tell her plainly. “I don’t have any and you have so much of it that losing it would be meaningless to you. No—it has to be equal. Something neither of us would want to lose.”
“I seriously doubt that running naked through the hotel lobby would be a hardship for you,” she tells me, her cheeks flushing slightly at the thought.
“I’m sure you’re more than capable of finding some way of torturing me, Mercurial,” I say with a shrug. “Besides—isn’t that the point? The consequence needs to be heavy enough that we’ll do everything we can to avoid it, right?”
“Wouldyou tell me to run naked through the hotel lobby?” She looks worried. “Because I?—”
“No public nudity.” I hold my hand up. “Scout’s honor.”
When I say it, she snorts. “You werenota Boy Scout, Dean.”
“Jokes on you, Medusa—I was a fuckingEagleScout.” I tell her, lowering my hand to offer it to her across the table. “Do we have a deal?”
Staring at my hand, Millie chews on her lower lip for a few seconds before she looks up at me. “Can I tell you to sleep on the couch?”
Shit.
I didn’t think of that.
“You can tell me to sleep on the couch for thatnight,” I tell her, back already stiff from the thought of it. “But not the whole trip—and no being extra bitchy to trigger me either. We’re on our best behavior—both of us.” Wiggling my fingers at her, I roll my eyes. “Come on, Mackinac—do we have a deal or not?”
“Does that count?” She frowns at me in frustration. “Does calling me Mildew and Maalox, constitute as an insult?”
“I don’t know,” I tell her with a shrug. “Does it make you feel bad about yourself when I do it?”
She sits back in her seat a bit when I ask like it’s something she never considered before. “No…” Shaking her head at me, she gives me a soft, defeated sigh. “it doesn’t.”
“Then it doesn’t count.” Looking at her, I give her a much heavier sigh of my own. “My arm is getting tired here, Mills—in or out?”
Looking down at my offered hand again, she frowns like she’s contemplating all the ways this might be a horrible idea. “Okay.” Finally, she lifts her own arm and thrusts it across the table, practically shoving her hand into mine. “Deal.”
TWENTY-FIVE
Dean and I finished our dinner in relativesilence, neither of us willing to test the suddenly calm, unfamiliar waters we find ourselves suddenly drifting in. As soon as I’m finished, I stand.
“It’s been a long day,” I say, offering him a polite smile. “I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”
“Okay.” He gives me a flat, polite smile of his own.
Feeling awkward and exposed for some strange reason, I turn away from the table, forcing myself to walk across the deck to the bungalow, instead of run.
