Page 138 of Outside The Wire

“Hate is such a strong word. Maybe we could use a word that’s not so hateful, but put a lot of force behind it.”

“Ooh, I can get on board with that. What did you have in mind?”

A million words ran through my mind, but there was only one that really stuck. “I highly disfavor that woman.”

She nodded approvingly. “Aye, I too highly disfavor that woman.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Are you a Scot who’s also British?”

“We’re coming up with nice words to say we hate your boyfriend’s wife, and you want to judge me for the way I’m speaking?”

“Fair point.”

I turned back to the door and glared at it. “I have an aversion to her company.”

“I shall only regard her with distaste,” Noelle spouted.

“I approve of your disregard for her and shall commence with my revulsion by spewing hatred, antipathy, and loathing whenever I am in her presence.”

“That’s the opposite of not hateful.”

I sighed heavily. “I know. I just had to let one slip by.”

“Would you look at that,”Noelle scoffed, staring out the front window. “Now he shows up. After the wife leaves, dropping the bomb about staying in town. And he brought Wyatt with him.”

I hurried over to the window, not that I needed to lay my eyes on him to know she was talking about Asher. That didn’t mean I didn’t want to see him. I’d been driving myself crazy with insane thoughts all day long about Jade and her evil plans to win Asher back.

Noelle spun around with her game face on. “Alright, how do you want to play this?”

“Play what?”

“Are we blasting him with the news or did you want to dangle the carrot?”

“Dangle the carrot? Noelle, this is my life. I want this over as quickly as possible.”

“Really?” She actually looked disappointed. “Well, that’s no fun.”

“Sorry to ruin this for you. I know it’s depressing to take all the joy out of your life.”

“You should be. You know I thrive off the chaos that’s become your life as of late.”

The door opened and Wyatt walked in first, straight over to Noelle. “Honey, I was thinking we could go out to dinner tonight.”

“Honey?” Noelle repeated, her eyebrows shooting to the ceiling.

“It’s kind of a special day for us,” Wyatt grinned.

“Special?”

He grinned at her, pulling her into his arms. “Come on, you know. It’s our anniversary.”

“Of what?” she retorted, pushing herself out of his arms. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I was thinking we’d go somewhere nice. Fancy. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Noelle’s head snapped in my direction and panic flashed across her face. Whatever Wyatt thought he was doing, he was screwing up big time. This was not the way to her heart.

“We have nothing to talk about and there will be nowhere special.”

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