If she’d had a shoe, she would have thrown it.As it was, she had to satisfy herself with a regal, albeit shaky, exit from the room, slamming the door shut between them with a solid thud.
“Does that mean you don’t want one?”Ryder yelled.
She yanked the door open long enough to give him what was left of her mind.
“You’re a swine.A gentleman would have covered my legs and bathed my head with a cold compress.”
“If you wanted a gentleman, you shouldn’t have gone shopping for a husband down in the Delta.”
She glared and slammed the door again, this time louder and firmer.
“I suppose this means no to the hamburgers?”
The door opened again, but the only thing to come out was the sound of Casey’s voice at its most dignified.The shriek in her tone was gone and she was enunciating each word, as if speaking to someone lacking in mental capacity.
“No, it does not.I will have a hamburger, well-done, light on the salt, heavy on the pepper.”
This time when she closed the door, it was with a ladylike click.The glitter in Ryder’s eyes was sharp, the grin on his face sardonic.
“So you like it hot, do you, wife?That’s interesting.Very interesting indeed.”
He reentered the tiny kitchen and began making patties from the hamburger meat before carrying them out to the grill.As he slapped them on the grate, smoke began to rise and the fire began to pop and sizzle as fat dripped onto the burning charcoal.
Oddly, it reminded him of Casey in the midst of her family, putting up a smoke screen to keep them from knowing how scared she was, and popping wisecracks and issuing orders before anyone could tell her what to do.
He closed the lid and sighed.He had married a total stranger for the hell of it, but he hadn’t counted on the family that came with her.In fact, they reminded him of snakes, writhing and coiling and biting out at each other in some crazy sort of frenzy.
He thought of his own family, of how loud and rambunctious-of how close and loving they’d been—of how empty and scattered they now were.And how the world as he’d known it had ended because of something he’d done.
He went back inside, leaving the hamburgers and his memories behind.
* * *
“Want another one?”Ryder asked, indicating the two remaining well-done patties congealing in their own grease on a pea green plate.
Casey eyed the plate.Besides being an atrocious shade of green, the plate was chipped.She’d never eaten from a chipped plate before.She suspected this night was the beginning of many firsts.Dabbing at the corner of her mouth with a paper towel, she shook her head.
“No, thank you, I’m quite full.”Grudgingly she added, “It was very good.”
Ryder nodded and continued to stare at a ketchup stain near his fork.What now?Conversation with this woman had been nearly impossible.Every time he opened his mouth to speak, she jumped.And she watched his every move with those big green eyes, as if she expected to be pounced upon at any moment.Hell, she was beginning to make him antsy, too.
He glanced at his watch.“It’s almost nine.”
She paled.
He sighed.
“Easy now, lady.”
“Casey,” she said.“My name is Casey.”
His expression darkened.“Yes, and my name is Ryder.Unfortunately, that’s all we know about each other.”When she looked away, his frustration rose.
“Casey, look at me.”
She did, but with trepidation.
“There’s something I think needs to be said.This is going to be a long haul for both of us.I suppose we each had an agenda for even considering this situation, but it’s done, and for your sake, it has to work, right?”
