Page 71 of Wild Ever After
“Declan,” Jade admonishes me and sends an elbow into my ribs. Like I care if this dude thinks I’m rude. I think he’s rude for gawking at my girl.
“Yes,wife.” I look at the guy as I speak, sending him a silent,Mine, buddy. Capisce?
“This is Elton,” Jade says. “He works at the store and offered to bring the chair himself.”
Yeah, I bet he did.
“Thanks, man. We’ve got it from here.” I motion with my head for Jade and step toward the house. “Show me where you want this, wife.”
This time she rolls her eyes at the endearment. “Okay,husband.”
She might be patronizing me, but I still kinda dig it.
Jade holds open the front door for me, and I walk through and head toward the stairs. “Your office or room?”
Walking into the living room, she attempts to move my favorite recliner. Attempts because it’s heavy and doesn’t budge. “I thought it could go here.”
“Where will the recliner go?”
“I’m not sure.” Bringing her thumbnail to her lips, she scans the room.
Since it doesn’t look like this ugly thing is going upstairs, I set the chair down next to the couch. The rest of the furniture is a dark gray. I bought it all new when I moved in here, so it fits the space perfectly.
“If you don’t like the furniture pieces that are in here, we can go pick out new stuff together.”
“I like them,” she says, moving to stand on the opposite side, like she’s trying to get a read on the room from every angle.
“Then why the sudden desire to wake up at the ass crack of dawn and buy an old chair?”
Her gaze snaps to me. “I want to contribute something. Everything in this house is yours.”
She didn’t have a lot when she moved in, but I guess I see her point.
“This chair smells like fifty years of ass.”
“It’s vintage.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You don’t like my chair.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
“I didn’t say that. Don’t care for the smell, but I’ve got a bottle of Febreze around here somewhere, or I can stop by Ash’s and see if he has some Axe body spray. That shit masks everything.”
Her smile slips, and I want to kick myself. Fuck, this really means a lot to her.
I close the distance between us and take both her hands in mine. “The chair is great. Thank you.”
“You hate it.”
“Nah. It’s growing on me. I’ll move the recliner into my office, and it can go right there.” I point to the spot.
A pleased smile curves her lips. “It matches the little flecks of green in your eyes.”
“That right?” I dip my head lower and brush my lips across hers.
“Mhmm.”
She pulls back and looks to the chair. Saying my apologies to my recliner, I take it into the office, and when I return, Jade is pushing the green chair into its spot.
