19. Naina
Chapter Nineteen
NAINA
I went to Yale.
Knew there was a reason I didn’t like you. I’m a Harvard girl.
If being married was somehow supposed to feel special or different, it didn’t. After Grayson dropped us off at home, I unpacked my bags and made dinner, which we ate vegged out on the couch. We drank some of the champagne that was left over from yesterday.
I wasn’t sure how to be a parent to Sami as well as the older sister. Legally, she was an adult. Though, what did that mean when you were only eighteen and had lost both your parents?
She had grown up so quickly and I wanted her to experience being a teenager. I was never going to be comfortable with her drinking with friends, I would die of worry.
A little champagne with me? That was fine. I trusted her and I wanted to show her that.
“We can either rewatch a movie or we can rewatch a show,” she said.
I bit off a piece of my grilled cheese. No fancy wedding feast for us.
“Put on that British spy show.”
“Ooh, the one with the pretty actor.”
Sami grabbed the remote, changing to one of the subscription TV services we had.
“Aren’t they all pretty actors?”
“That’s what they want you to think.”
I settled into the couch and tried to keep my mind on the moving pictures on the screen, though it insisted on drifting off. Okay, so I was attracted to Kash. Probably ninety-percent of the population with a pulse would be. He was a very attractive man.
That didn’t mean I was going to have sex with him.
It didn’t.
It. Didn’t.
I couldn’t have sex with my husband, that would be disastrous.
I bet fighting with me makes your pussy wet.
I groaned quietly at the reminder of those words. I was a grown woman, I had some control over myself.
Maybe.
“You’re married.”
I looked at Sami, glad to have something to distract my mind from thoughts of Kash.
“Yup.”
Her eyes shifted to me.
“Married.”
“Yeah.”
I held up my left hand and flashed her the wedding band.
Turning her body towards me, she crossed her legs on the couch. She widened her eyes.
“No, but you’re married . There’s a Mr. Hollister.”
“Sadly, I have to be Mrs. Sutherland.”
Sami covered her mouth with her hands.
“I can’t get over it. Like I know I was there, but I can’t believe it.”
I couldn’t believe it, either. Of all the things I thought I would do for money, marriage wasn’t one of them. Which was funny, because it wasn’t even the worst of the options. Not that I was going to do any of the other things but desperate times lead to desperate thoughts.
“You’re the one who put it out in the universe,” I said.
“But I didn’t mean this! I said no.”
“Yeah, and I tried to get a loan. It didn’t work.”
That was the whole reason I gave in. It wasn’t because it was the easiest option available. I could have taken out a second mortgage on the Inn, but we were already struggling to pay the first off.
The bank denied the loan because we didn’t qualify for it. If we wanted to renovate the Inn then we needed to take drastic measures.
I looked at my father’s chair in the corner of the living room. What would he have said about my decision? It was too late on all accounts.
I was already married.
I couldn’t stop staring at my bank statement because what the hell. That was a lot of money, more than I needed for the renovation even though I told Kash exactly how much I was quoted by the contractor. It had made me squirm, sharing all that personal information with him.
Dad wouldn’t have liked it. My parents had been intensely private people who, while friendly, didn’t share their personal information with people. It was why so many people hadn’t even known Mom was sick before she died.
Picking up my coffee cup, I took a sip and set it down. All of this felt too much sometimes.
I picked up my phone and voice messaged Kat.
I considered telling her I was married but that wasn’t a thing you voice messaged, was it? It also wasn’t a thing you did without your best friend but desperate times and all that.
“Someone called this morning to pick up an item they forgot here two years ago. I’m sorry, but do we seem like a storage facility?”
My message delivered and Kat’s reply came immediately.
“Give them the wrong item and offload your other junk. It’s an exchange offer.”
I laughed lightly at that. It actually wasn’t a bad idea.
The office door opened unceremoniously and Sami poked her head in.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but your husband is here.”
“It’s a Wednesday.”
For some reason, that was what I focused on. Why was he here on a day that was not appointed for him? And as far as I was concerned, Tuesdays (and sometimes Fridays and Saturdays) were our standard appointments.
“I know, that’s what I told him.”
My sister’s eyes danced with mirth. She was entirely too amused at these turn of events.
“Maybe he missed you. You got married only a couple of days ago.”
I made a face at her. What a ridiculous notion.
I followed her out to the restaurant to find Kash sitting at his usual table with his usual crossword puzzle in front of him. I would it strangely adorable that he did crossword puzzles.
The night we met, he told me he used to do Sudoku in class at college when he was really bored. Though, now that I thought about it, he hadn’t told me anything meaningful about him that night, either.
Not that it was needed.
We had this strange connection that night. We talked about nothing and everything. There was a rose-colored film over the memories of that night.
Hadn’t he told me that he didn’t have time for hobbies because he was always working? How did he have time to come here so often?
“You do know, some of us don’t have a trust fund to fall back on if all else fails?”
Kash’s mouth lifted into a smile even before he looked up.
“That’s why you have to find yourself a rich husband.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sounds like too much work. And you never know who you might end up with. He could have zero personality.”
Kash’s grin widened. “Who needs a personality when you’re extremely rich and handsome?”
“And as shallow as a puddle.”
He laughed, his eyes crinkling around the corners, and heat bloomed inside my chest. Butterflies exploded in my stomach.
Oh no. No. Come on.
It was bad enough I married him.
This was too much.
Rule no. 6, don’t have a crush on your husband.
“Admit it, you miss me when I’m not around.”
I scoffed, shaking my head.
“My day goes by a lot easier when you’re not around. What are you doing here, anyway?”
He shrugged. “My wife is here. Where else would I be?”
Yup, there went the butterflies.
“Dear diary, I married my stalker.”
I noticed that he was doing his crossword puzzle with a Montblanc pen. Who did that? I could barely find a pen when I needed one.
“Do I need a reason to see my wife?”
Before I could reply, a crash sounded outside the restaurant. I turned, walking hurriedly through the restaurant, and out into the Inn lobby.
Janice, the front desk clerk, had bumped into a vase and sent it falling to the flower. The shattered pieces of it lay on the floor right in front of the door.
“I’m so sorry, I was just walking by and my arm brushed against it,” Janice said.
I waved off her apology. “Don’t worry about it. Can you please get Maria to clean up?”
Grabbing the waste basket from behind the desk, I crouched on the floor and gingerly picked up the flowers that had fallen out of the vase.
“What are you doing?”
Startled, I looked up to see that Kash had followed me.
“I’m cleaning up. I’ll place your order in a minute.”
I reached for a broken piece of glass.
“Don’t touch that!”
I huffed in annoyance. Why had he even followed me out here?
“Kash, I’m not running a billion-dollar empire and I don’t have another lobby for people to walk through. There is just this one door to enter and exit unless someone wants to go all the way through the lobby to the restaurant and through the restaurant to the door. I have to clean up.”
I turned back around, gently picking up the pieces of broken glass and putting them in the waste basket. Kash loomed over me for long moments, but I ignored him. He couldn’t come in here and tell me what I needed to do.
The next thing I knew, he was crouching down next to me, his expression stony.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m cleaning up,” he replied acerbically. “Marriage is supposed to be a partnership, right?”
He didn’t look up at me.
“I don’t think this is what they meant,” I said.
Finally, Kash lifted his eyes to me, his brows drawn. His arm rested across one knee, and I had to stop to admire his forearms for a second. Good god, what magnificent forearms they were.
“This is our marriage, and we make the rules,” he said. “If I want to help my stubborn wife pick up broken pieces glass, then I will. If you think I’m the sort of husband who’s going to let you do the hard stuff alone then you’re utterly mistaken.”
The sun streaming through the windows lit his hair and I noticed that there were shades of red and brown in it. His lashes were really long and there was a very faint scar above his top lip I had missed.
“Do you treat all your temporary wives like this?”
“I wouldn’t know, Goldie. You’re my only wife and this is the way you deserve to be treated.”
Again with that nickname. He called me that the night we met because I told him my name was Marigold. A part of me wanted to ask if he remembered, and the other part was worried about how stupid I would look if he didn’t.
Not that it even mattered when he was out to ruin me for all other men.