Page 52 of Wild Ever After
I REALLY HATE BEING BAD AT THINGS
DECLAN
Two weeksafter Jade’s big promotion, Scarlett invites everyone over to celebrate. The girls are in the living room, talking and laughing.
The guys are standing in the kitchen with the food.
“How’s married life?” Ash asks.
“Good. Fine.” Annoyance hums under my skin at the question. It’s hard, and I feel like I suck at it, and I really hate being bad at things.
The guys all stare at me with expressions that range from calling bullshit to feeling sorry for me.
“Her stuff is everywhere,” I say on an exhale. I’m surprised how good it feels to say it out loud.
My friends chuckle.
“She didn’t even have that much stuff.” Leo raises one brow in question.
“I know,” I say. He’s right. It seemed like nothing when I brought it over. “Somehow, it’s multiplied. And she uses like three different mugs every day.”
“Mugs?” Jack asks. “Like coffee mugs?”
I nod adamantly. “She gets one, has her coffee, puts it in the sink, and then five minutes later, she decides she wants more and grabs another mug. Why can’t she use the same mug?”
Ash is holding back his laughter. “You’ve never lived with anyone, have you?”
“Not since I was eighteen.”
“Ask her to put them in the dishwasher when she’s done?” Leo offers the suggestion.
“No. It isn’t about them sitting in the sink. By the time I get in from my morning workout, there aren’t any ofmyclean mugs.”
“So buy more mugs, man.” Ash shakes his head with a small laugh.
“Oh, no. We have so many mugs, they’re coming out my ears. Mugs of every shape, size, and color. Did you know they make a coffee cup for every holiday? She has all these mugs, but she only ever uses mine. Then I have to drink my coffee using a Lisa Frank unicorn mug.”
Mav bumps me with an elbow. “Forget the mugs. What we really want to know is are you still sleeping with your wife?”
“Dude,” Leo says, “none of our business.”
I’d bet my new contract that he knows. Jade and Scarlett are tight. I can’t imagine any world in which she didn’t share what went down between us on our wedding night.
“Waitstill?” Jack asks.
“None of our business?” Mav huffs a laugh. “You weren’t sleeping in the room next to theirs after the wedding.”
All eyes are on me, but I stay silent. I love these guys, but I’m a steel trap on this topic.
“I think you knocked your head against the headboard one too many times that night,” I say to Maverick.
“Oh no. I know what I heard, bro, but if you don’t want to talk about it, all right. Mums the word.” He pretends to zip his lips and throw away the key. With Maverick, that’s highly unlikely.
Jade and I walk home together a few hours later. Besides the presence of her stuff, I haven’t actually seen that much of her. She spends a lot of hours at the office, and even when she’s at the house, she has her laptop open in front of her.
“How’s work going?” I ask, holding open the back door for her.
“Really good.” She beams at me, and I get a reminder of why I’m doing this. For her. To give her the opportunity to prove herself and have the job and life she wants. “Are we still on for the charity event next week?”
