“That’s not what I asked you, dick,” I growled, getting tired of him constantly calling me the wrong name.
I knew he was doing it on purpose.
“Then what did you mean?” He rinsed the dishes before loading them neatly.
I huffed, looking over my shoulder, checking that my family stayed away. “You know exactly what I mean. Now is not the time to be cute.”
Nash looked up with a smirk. “Aww, wifey, you think I’m cute?”
“Fuck you, Nash, you know what the fuck I mean.” I threw my hands up. “Why are you here? Why did you decide to work for my family? Why did you have to barge into my life?”
“Well, Violet, if you had just answered my calls, we wouldn’t be here,” he said, getting back to loading the dishwasher.
“That’s rich coming from you,” I snapped. “A lot of this could have been avoided, husband, if you had just answered your phone too.”
“You’re right,” he said, catching me off guard. “I’m sorry. This hasn’t been easy for me and I—well, I didn’t know what to expect from our marriage, so I did what I did best, which was to run from everything that had to do with my father and unfortunately that was this marriage.”
I was too stunned to say anything, not expecting him to apologize.
“This marriage was pushed on me as I know it was for you?—”
The sound of a chair dragging had Nash shutting up quickly. I huffed and turned around looking for Tupperware to put away their leftovers. Sol’s chatter moved to the living room in front of the kitchen as we continued to clean in silence.
My brother and his family were so damn cute together. I didn’t understand it at first, thought it was unnatural, but when I realized those were my parent’s words and not my own, I saw that they truly loved my brother and nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter what my previous version of love had looked like.If this made my brother happy, then it made me happy too. I was glad my brother had found people to love him through thick and thin. He deserved it.
I looked over my shoulder to the man I had tied myself to, wondering for the hundredth time what I had gotten myself into. Now that some time had passed, I questioned if I should let go of the past and move on, find love like my brothers had and live for me. I loved my parents, they gave me life and raised me, but they left so much destruction in their wake. That wasn’t a legacy I wanted to continue.
Once the dishes were done, I felt emotionally exhausted, too tired to sit around and pretend everything was ok.
“Sorry I crashed and thanks for dinner,” I said, forcing a yawn. “I hate to eat and run, but I’m exhausted.”
“I’m going to head out too,” Nash said. “Gotta be up early again.”
I wanted to be upset, but I was mentally capped out. Nova looked at us warily.
“Yeah, we will be knocking out soon too,” Colt said, looking half asleep.
“Izzy! Don’t leave yet.” Sol ran to me giving me a big hug. “I wanted to play or read.”
“It’s getting late, little one,” I said, hugging her back. “I’ll be back soon and we can play and read all you want, ok?”
Sol might not be my niece by blood, but this little girl was my niece no matter what. I’d do anything for her.
“We have to shower too, Sunshine,” Theo said, getting up.
“I promise this weekend we can spend a whole day together if you’d like,” I said.
“Even horseback riding?” She mumbled. “I gotta be better.”
“Yeah, even horseback riding,” I said, even though I had a night shift at the bar.
“Hey, did you know Nash is a bronc rider?” she asked as she pulled away.
“Yeah, I’ve seen him before,” I said.
“Oh my god, really?” Her eyes lit up with excitement. “Is he good?”
“Eh, he’s alright.” I shrugged.
