Always be available for public appearances.
“Are you serious?” I asked, not sure I was reading this correctly. Was he insane?
“You may add points to the list, after I’ve approved them, of course. But that should be enough to get us started.”
He was serious. And he didn’t even look like he understood why this list might offend me. Or why I might not want to agree to any of the points he’d so kindly laid out for me.
I crumpled up the list and threw it on the floor. “I’m not agreeing to any of those points. I will be your wife—in name only. No way am I going to turn into your political puppet. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have suitcases to unpack.”
He followed me upstairs. “You don’t agree with the list? That’s fine, we can make amendments. But remember you signed a contract, which clearly states that this is going to be a five-year commitment. And that for all intents and purposes, it has to look real. And you know as well as I do that a politician’s wife needs to do all these things and more.”
I closed my eyes and hung my head. He was right. But that didn’t mean I liked it. “We can talk about it later. I just need to get my head around this.”
“Fine. But you can’t pick and choose what you like from this arrangement. You made a commitment and need to honor it.”
“I get it, okay? Just let me come to terms with it first.”
He left me in peace after I closed the door in his face. I half-heartedly unpacked one suitcase, but gave up when my hands started shaking from holding back my emotions that tried to bubble to the surface.
I guess I’d royally screwed myself over, going from one controlling home to another. I was a new kind of idiot if I thought I could finally have my freedom. David might be the lesser of two evils, but the next five years were going to be long.
“Italked to Mason. You can have your job back,” Willa said. I was on the phone with her for the third time today. I’d been staying with David for almost a week and talked to Willa every day.
First she tried to reason with me and insisted I send her the contract I signed. After I adamantly refused, she tried to talk me into moving back to her apartment. But since me living with David was the only way I didn’t have to move back home, it wasn’t an option. Not that I told her that.
“I don’t think I should go back to work, Wills. Things were bad when I left.”
“Since when are you such a chicken?”
Willa made a clucking sound and I looked up at the ceiling, praying for patience. I didn’t get a chance to comment on her impression of a chicken before she started imitated a rooster and was cock-a-doodle-dooing.
“What in the world are you doing?” I asked when the last note of her rooster noises rang out.
“Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Any good clucking needs to end in a serious cock-a-doodle-doo.”
“But seriously, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I tried again.
“All the guys called me. And they promised to have your back and keep Mason far away. So you have nothing to worry about. It will be fine. And you only have two more weeks until I’m back,” she pleaded.
“They called you?”
“Sure did. And they are totally on your side. They said that Mason has been the biggest asshole ever since you left.”
“He’ll probably be worse if he sees me come back.”
“Doubt it. Now are you a chicken or a lion?”
I really wanted to go back to the garage. I hated how I left things with Mason. I missed him even though he broke my heart. And I missed the guys. They were loyal and funny and had quickly become like a family to me. I wanted to go back. And I needed to try and talk to Mason again. I hated that he thought I had deceived him or planned any of this.
“Fine. If you promise to stop using analogies, I’ll pick the lion.” Because nobody wanted to be the chicken.
“Excellent. I knew you’d see the light. Now I have some calls to make.”
