CHAPTER FIVE #3
“Well, the ferry was full. And every person on there got rerouted to Wayman. Every person is stuck here for a second day. And no vessels are leaving the island, so nobody can leave. Not previous guests of accommodations. Not us.” I shrugged.
“I need to go buy socks. Wanna go check out the town center?”
“You find this hilarious, don’t you?” she said, almost on the verge of tears. “It’s not like you have a kid at home waiting for you or anything. This is just one big joke, right?”
“Just because I’m not a parent doesn’t mean this isn’t massively inconvenient for me.
I’ve been the extra parent to my nieces and nephews for over five years.
I would kill and die for all of them, and me not being home right now is probably fucking things up because I do a hell of a lot of babysitting.
” I shrugged. “Or maybe it’s not. I don’t know.
What I do know, is that there’s no sense dwelling on it.
We’re not leaving the island. It’s not safe to leave the island.
At least we have a place to stay. And I need socks. ”
Her glare softened … minimally.
“I’m asking you if you’d like to go with me into town. Or whatever semblance there is of a town on this tiny-ass island. I’m sure I’ll be able to find socks somewhere.”
“I don’t have any clean or dry clothes,” she said, swallowing hard, which did a bang-up job pulling on my heartstrings and making me feel sorry for her.
“Then wear your pajamas,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t think anybody will care. And if they do … fuck ’em.”
She blinked at me a few times. “We are going to need food for lunch and dinner, I suppose.”
“We?” I asked. “I seem to remember you telling Lenora you were checking out. I’m paying for tonight because I’m the only occupant in this room. Gonna consummate this honeymoon suite with my hand.”
Her mouth dropped open because she was either scandalized, or terrified that I might actually boot her tight ass to the soaking wet curb, or both.
I let the silence pound between us for a few heartbeats. She could at the very least ask me if she could stay, considering I’d been nothing but cordial to her this morning.
“Y-you’re going to kick me out of our room?” she asked.
“It was our room last night. It’s my room tonight,” I corrected, getting a sick satisfaction watching her sweat a little. It shouldn’t be this easy to push her buttons. However, the rush of color up her neck and staining her cheeks made me want to keep pushing them and push them harder.
“Jagger,” she breathed. A hardness came over her eyes and she tightened her mouth. “Fine. And now, I won’t go with you to get socks. You can get trench foot for all I care.” With a huff and another cute little stomp, she took off to the bathroom, making sure to slam the door.
Rolling my eyes, I went to the door. “Raina, come on. I was kidding. Fine, you can stay here another night. You want to throw your pukey, wet clothes into the laundry with mine? Then we can go get some socks and groceries.”
“Go away, Jagger,” she said, clearly now crying on the other side of the door.
Fuck.
I pushed her buttons so hard I broke her. I should have been showing her some compassion. She was away from her kid—which had to suck—and trapped in a honeymoon suite with her nemesis. She was also hungover.
I tried the doorknob, and surprisingly, it turned. “I’m coming in,” I said, shielding my eyes. “Are you decent?”
The eye roll in her voice was as clear as a tidepool. “Yes, I’m decent, you Neanderthal.” She sniffed.
I brought down my hand to find her sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, a wad of Kleenex crumpled in her fist. “First time you’ve ever been away from your kid, huh?”
She blinked teary eyes at me. “How’d you know?”
“Dom got super emotional the first night he had to be away from Silas.” I scratched my beard. “Come to think of it, all my brothers did.”
“It’s not just that—” but she stopped herself from saying any more, then shook her head. “Never mind.”
I didn’t push.
“I could do one night, and two was tough, but three? Maybe four or more? I’ve never done this. He’s never been away from me this long either.” She let out a brittle laugh. “I’m sure he’s totally fine. Probably doesn’t even miss me.”
“I’m sure he does. Doesn’t matter how old they get, boys always miss their mamas.”
Her gaze found mine and held it. A thousand questions burned behind the golden-green shades that seemed to swirl and move the longer I stared.
“I was just playing you the whole time. You know that, right? I might be a jerk, but I’m not an asshole. I wouldn’t cast you out into the winter storm, even if you do drive me absolutely bonkers.” I nudged her shin with my toe, which made her hiccup a laugh.
“Pot, kettle. McEvoy,” she said, her chin stuttering rapidly as she sucked in a breath.
“I would like to go to the store.” Lifting her gaze, she blinked at me, and I don’t know what the fuck compelled me to crouch down in front of her, take the wad of Kleenex from her hand and dab away her tears, but I fucking did it.
She glanced down at my feet. “You have nice feet.”
That made me smile and follow her gaze to where she also had bare feet. Her toes were painted a bright, almost-neon shade of pinky-orange. “You have nice feet too.”
She swallowed, and I offered her a hand. Then we both stood up, and with our bare feet in our matching, wet Blundstones, our jackets and knit caps on, we ventured outside to go explore Wayman Island.
And hopefully, find me some socks.