He reached a hand up and pushed my hair out of my face. “Only if you want to.”
“I do.”
He smiled back at me and pulled his hand away. I found myself slightly disappointed when he didn’t kiss me.
“Come on, girl, let’s go get you some new bookcases.”
He did not have to tell me twice.
Chapter Sixteen
RILEY
“What about this one?” I asked Fi.
She peered up at the cherry-wood bookcases that would look perfect in the office. She looked down at her phone, her long fiery-red hair sliding up her back at the movement. My hand itched to wrap around her hair, to feel her in my arms again, but I wasn’t going to press her right now. After our talk today, I was more aware that if this marriage was going to work, I needed to really woo her. So, as much as I had no desire to shop for furniture in the maze that was IKEA on my day off, I did want to spend time with her.
She put a finger on her chin. “I think it could work…”
“Sweetheart, it would fit perfectly!” I argued.
I pretended not to notice the color on her face at the pet-name or the way one corner of her lips upturned at it. She wasn’t as good at hiding her feelings as she thought. My job was to read people, to figure out what the other guy was thinking, so of course, I saw that she was fighting her feelings. Also, she had been my best friend before becoming my wife, so I knew her in and out. Probably better than she knew herself.
She nodded. “Okay, let’s get it. I’m sorry this is probably really boring for you.” She took a picture of the id number on the bookcase and walked away.
I followed her through the maze of the showroom. I caught up to her as she weaved her way through people trying to get to the bottom floor where we could get the boxes for the bookshelves. I reached out and grabbed her hand, smiling to myself as her fingers threaded through mine almost on instinct. Being away from her sucked, but I had a feeling that I was starting to chip through the wall she put up between us.
“You don’t have to buy this for me,” she finally said when we got to the lower level and were searching through the aisles to find the box for the bookshelf.
“You’re so frustrating. Let me take care of you,” I growled while I pushed our cart down the aisle to the row we needed.
I could afford to buy her a nicer bookshelf at a fancier furniture store, but Fi insisted that IKEA could do the job. I wasn’t about to have a pointless argument with my wife over where to buy her bookshelf. Maybe I should have thought about building them into the wall themselves. I didn’t really have time for that project and a half, though. Although I knew Benny and Noah would have helped in a heartbeat, and Noah grew up in the middle of nowhere Winnipeg and was really good with his hands.
She put her hands on her hips and stared at me with a cocked red eyebrow as if challenging me. I took the pushcart and pulled the box we needed on top of it. It was heavy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I glanced up and saw she was still giving me that furious look.
“Don’t be like that, Fi.”
She sighed and ran a hand across her face. “I’m sorry. You know how I don’t like to ask for help.”
“No? You?” I asked sarcastically.
She glared. “Riley, you don’t have to be this guy. You don’t have to feel like you need to take care of me.”
I pulled her toward me by her slender waist and grinned as she blushed at the public display of affection. I gave her a quick kiss. “Shush. I want to. I’m your husband. Let me provide for you.”
“But you don’t have to,” she argued.
I gave her another kiss to soften her edges. “But I want to.”
That seemed to shut her up, so we went to the checkout, and she didn’t refuse this time when I paid for her damn bookshelves. I loaded the SUV with the boxes, not really looking forward to having to put it together, but I would do this for her with no complaints. She was being so stubborn today, and I couldn’t stand it. Didn’t we literally talk about trying to make this thing work? She was really gonna make me work to woo her.
Fi was looking at her phone when I got into the driver’s seat. I checked the clock and saw it was around lunchtime. Fi looked up when I started the engine. She put a gentle hand on my arm. “Thank you. For doing this for me. I know this isn’t exactly how you want to spend your day off.”
I grabbed her hand in my bigger one and brought it to my lips to kiss it. “I want to spend time with you.”
Her eyes crinkled when she smiled at me. “In that case, do you want to go to South Street today? I wanted to stop in the comic book store. There’s a good Italian restaurant next door where we could go for lunch.”
“Sounds like a date.”
“Is it?” she asked cautiously and bit her lip.
“What?”
“Is it a date?”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
She shook her head. I kissed her hand one last time before letting her go and putting both hands back on the steering wheel.
We found a parking garage and then walked several blocks down to South Street. I didn’t mind, because walking in the city with her hand in mine was the best feeling in the world.
I had always dated women who were smaller than me - being six feet tall, that was a given - but Fi’s five-foot-nine height made her just a tiny bit shorter than
