Page 60 of The Marriage Narrative
She shrugged him off. “You don’t need to worry about what’s going on between me and mine. I’m sorry Eric can’t visit and I’m sorry they made you believe that’s our fault. We didn’t make that decision.”
“You—”
“Aht.I don’t wanna hear it.” Zinnia stepped forward.
Lulie, incredibly, stepped back.
“Please understand that theonlyreason I tolerate you is because Jordan asked me to give you a chance. But if this is how you treat people youlove, throwing vases and being wildly disrespectful? I don’t want to know you and you don’t want to know what happens when I stop trying. Don’t ever talk to him like that again.” She spun around and faced Jordan. “And you are coming with me. Now.”
Chapter 16
Zinnia
Some rules weremade to be broken. After making their dramatic exit, they headed straight for the bungalow. Mabel, unsurprisingly, was already there and waiting.
Zinnia closed the front door after Jordan came inside, ignoring Mabel’s intense dead-eyed stare. That look—the disappointed showrunner special—meant they were going topayfor denyingZaffre Hoursaccess to the conversation about to happen.
Well. She’d worry about that bridge once it was burning.
Zinnia had been caught off guard, but anger rolled off Jordan like a rockslide. She pressed her back against the door to give him space as he headed for the sunroom.
Defending him had seemed like a good idea at the time. Personally, she was willing to put up with a lot. Shehadput up with a lot and would take even more, but nothing stopped her from protecting her family. Not fear. Not rules. Nothing. That had always been different for her.
She’d held back what she truly wanted to say, as a Sweetheart should, but at the end of the day that was his little sister. Jordan might be mad at Zinnia for stepping in.
He was a thoughtful, attentive, and loving man, but he wasstill a man. Who was bigger than her. Whom she’d married on the inside of a week. And even though he’dneverdone anything to make her feel afraid, other men had already put in that work.
Zinnia opened the group chat on her phone and stared at the screen. She took several deep breaths to push past her fear and put all her lingering doubts to rest. This would be okay. She set her phone down on the kitchen counter and headed outside alone.
Jordan was standing with his head bowed, arms crossed, and shoulders hunched as if he were trying to cave in on himself.
“Can I join you or do you need some space?” she asked, clutching the door handle with uncharacteristically sweaty palms.
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “I don’t like this,” he said, voice hoarse. “I hate it.”
Her heart, currently pressing against her damn windpipe, ached for him.
“I thought I’d be fine competing with storylines designed to hurt me, but coming fromLulie? Talking aboutyoulike that? And I don’t understand how living like this isn’t killing them.” He turned around. “By dinner, everything will go back to the status quo like it never happened. Two months from now, they’ll rip open all thisdramaagain for the interviews and relive everything. When people watch it, they’ll have to do itagain. It festers inside them like a wound that will never heal.”
Zinnia worried at her hands, unsure what to do other than stand there listening to him.
“Lulie isn’t—” He paused to breathe. “That wasn’t about us. I don’t understand how they can watch her yell and be so cruel like that, and not be affected by it. It’s just Monday.” He laughed incredulously. “Sadie says she’s fine, but what if she’s not? I don’t know how to help her.”
“Jordan—”
“I don’t want this to infectourlife,” he said fiercely. “But that’s myfamily. I just got them back.” He all but collapsed in the chair behind him, sitting with his elbows on his knees and head in his hands.
Zinnia crossed the sunroom and knelt in front of him. “I do this thing with my friends where we check in before we talk to make sure I’m responding the way they need,” she said calmly. “Would you like solutions or support? Because they’re not always the same.”
“I don’t know.” The utter misery in his eyes almost sent her spiraling.
“Would you like me to be serious or make jokes?”
His brow furrowed. “Both. I guess.”
“Okay.”
“But not if you’re gonna talk shit about my family. I don’t want to hear that.”
