“I think you talk just the right amount.”
She smiled at him. Then her face clouded. “I don’t think she ever loved me. I think all the things she said to me were just reasons she made up for herself for why she couldn’t.”
He forced his hand to relax as he reached for his wineglass, letting his other hand fall flat over the slight swell of her belly. “Well, she would know.” He kept his voice toneless. “No one was more unlovable than her, except for my father.”
Jay shuddered. “I never understood how you could stay with him. It was like he wanted to snuff out everything that was good in you and make you more like him.”
“I stayed because it was easy,” Nicholas said. “And then, later, I stayed because I liked seeing him slowly realize that I was going to take everything that he had built and destroy it.”
“Including who he wanted you to be,” Jay murmured. He looked at her sharply.
Oblivious, she stared up at the trees. “Michael took me here once. He kept telling me how pretty I was, and howperfectwe were—like it was my face and your father’s money that made uswork as a couple, and absolutely nothing else. And I hated him a little that day, Nick. I really did. Because the person he kept describing to me, the girl he thought he was in love with—the person he wanted me to be, who was uncomplicated and easy—sounded so vain and shallow.”
“Don’t take it personally. He only sees what his father tells him to see.” Nicholas set his glass down, still disturbed by what she’d said about him and his father. “I know where he works. We could run him over with my car.”
She laughed uneasily. “You’re such a bad person, Nicholas. You shouldn’t joke like that.”
“I’m my own person. Good or bad—it’s all subjective in the end. We’re what we make of ourselves.”
“Uh-huh,” said Jay. “That’s why you run your father’s business from your father’s house.”
“Let’s not talk about our parents.” He poured the remnants of her wine into his glass while she was distracted. “Tell me more about you.”
“Oh, you’re going to be like that?” Jay picked up a date and growled when he tried to take it from her. “Get your own.”
“Those have honey on them, you drunk nerd.”
“Honey’s not so bad. It helps the bees. Agave is bad for the rainforest, anyway.” She began chewing it, looking at him through narrowed eyes. “I forgot how you can be.”
“What?”
“I mean, you were always smart—that was clear in the way you used to lead your little group of friends around. But I didn’t realize you could be like this.” Her face shifted to a soft, sad expression that turned the wine bitter on his tongue. “It makes me want to say yes.”
His heart pounded. “Yes to what?”
“How are you doing over here?” their server interrupted, and he wanted to strangle her. “Are you ready for the next pour?”
Jay frowned and looked for her glass. Nicholas gave a brief shake of his head, letting some of his irritation show.
“Oh, uh, actually, I was wrong,” she stammered. “Looks like there are no more pours. But I can give you a small taste of dessert wine.”
“I thought there would be more,” said Jay.
“Not for you. Tell me more about what you were saying before.”
“I don’t remember.” She wiggled against him, like she hadn’t just fucked with his head and heart as casually as one might say the sky was blue. “Did you know that the barnacle has the biggest dick-to-body ratio of any animal on earth?”
Nicholas paused. “No.”
“Up to eight times their body length—that would be forty-eight feet in humans. Imagine that.”
“I am,” Nicholas said, in a warning tone she cheerfully did not heed.
“How many inches is that?”
“About five hundred and sixty-seven more than you’dknow what to do with,” he growled, and she gave a little yelp as he pulled her onto his lap. “Stop teasing me.”
“Here’s your wine.” Their server blushed and looked away. “I’ll, uh, just set these both here on this side then?”
