Well, that was…great.
Eli caught Marlee’s gaze. She shook her head slightly.
He sighed and headed back to the patio.
“Excuse me for a minute.” Marlee followed him to where Dean stood watching the grill.
“Hi. It’s Dean?” Marlee asked.
“Yup.” He smiled an easy smile.
“I’m still learning names.” Marlee moved beside Eli as he checked the roast. “Do you mind giving Eli and me a second?”
Dean did a quick take between the two of them. “Yup.”
Clearly sensing Eli’s tension, Dean hurried inside, pulling the door closed behind him.
Marlee leaned against the railing overlooking Washington Park. “You know I’m not going to see anyone while we’re still married, right?”
He looked straight ahead, no emotion in his features. She couldn’t help but notice how his jaw clenched and his grip on the railing made his knuckles go white. “You can do what you want to do.”
She squeezed his arm. “Well, I knowthat. But you’ve been great to me and I don’t want you to think I’d just go off with someone else.”
“Mar.” He caught her gaze, pinned it with his. “I don’t have any claim on you.”
Her heart clenched.
No, no, he didn’t.
But yes, yes, he did.
“Do you want to see anyone else while we wait for the divorce?” she asked, hoping like crazy he didn’t want to date while they were married. But she didn’t have a claim on him, either. The sensitive skin along her arms prickled at the idea of him with someone else. Which made no sense.
He pressed his palm against his neck, bunching the muscles of his triceps. “No. I guess not.”
She let out a breath. “So we’ll just not. It doesn’t mean anything. We’re just trying to not be awkward about the situation we’re in.”
“That’s all it is?” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.
Was that all this was? She was still supposed to be mourning her relationship with Scotty, not having a conversation like this with Eli.
The air seemed to snap between them, waiting for her answer.
“It’s all it should be, right?” she asked. “I should take some time to figure out my life. I mean, you don’t want me to work for you forever. I need to find something permanent. And a place to live.”
“Ninety days and you get your old life back,” he pointed out.
“Looks like it.” She shook her head, refusing to go back to a numb reality that included attending dinner parties with “friends” who only cared about her American Express and working at a job where she didn’t even get a paycheck. These months would be about Marlee finding her footing in a life that she designed herself.
The thing about Eli was that he took a lot of time to think before he spoke. Sometimes, he took a lot of time and then never said anything. It’s who he was. Had been ever since Marlee first met him. He didn’t use words unless they were words that meant something. Important words.
He cleared his throat. “In all the time I’ve known you, and it’s been a long time, you’ve never been without a guy on your hook. If that’s what you need, I don’t want to stop you.”
That’s what he thought? She needed a guy? Always needed a man?
No.
Had she always been with someone? She went back through the years before Scotty. There had only been small patches where she wasn’t dating someone…all the way back to seventh grade and her first “official” boyfriend. Huh. She’d never realized that before.
