And certainly not me.
Yet somehow, this woman I had married in what was supposed to be a strategic arrangement had looked my mother in the eye and dismantled her condescension with nothing but calm logic and polished grace.
Ruthless.
Elegant.
Brilliant.
I sighed again—this time, what I felt was dangerously close to pride.
“You’re awfully quiet,” she murmured, finally glancing at me.
“I’m thinking.”
“That’s never good,” she teased, though there was uncertainty behind it.
I shook my head, a slow smile tugging at my mouth. “You have no idea how proud I am of you right now.”
Her brows knitted together. “Proud?”
“Yes. You handled my mother better than I have in thirty years.”
Her lips parted slightly in surprise. “You’re really not upset?”
“Upset?” I let out a short laugh. “Evania, I was ready to applaud.”
Her entire face lit up with that bright, unguarded smile that did something reckless to my chest.
She studied me carefully, as if searching for any hint of irritation. When she found none, her shoulders visibly relaxed.
“You really mean that?”
“I do.”
My stomach growled loudly enough to be heard over the roar of the engine.
She blinked, then laughed. “Did you eat anything?”
“No,” I admitted. “Did you?”
She shook her head. “I was too busy being interrogated.”
That settled it.
I slowed down, signaling as I pulled into the parking lot of a nearby restaurant. If I knew my mother was going to be unreasonable, I would have skipped lunch altogether and brought Vani somewhere else.
“What are we doing?” she asked, curious.
“Feeding my wife,” I replied simply. “We didn’t survive that battlefield just to starve afterward.”
Her eyes widened with excitement as she looked at the restaurant’s sign. “Oh! I’ve wanted to try this place.
She didn’t even wait for me to turn off the engine before unbuckling her seatbelt. I barely had the door open when she was already halfway to the entrance. When I didn’t immediately follow, she turned around and waved both hands dramatically.
“Callahan! Come on!”
I chuckled under my breath. The sight of her standing there, glowing in the afternoon light, did something to my composure. For someone who had agreed to marry me with such businesslike clarity, she possessed a kind of genuine enthusiasm that caught me off guard every time.
