Page 48 of Score Her Heart

I shook my head and batted his hand away. “Sorry, it’s such a mess. And sorry for not waking you; I got lost in the words.”

He studied me for a moment but didn’t say anything at first. “Okay, I think we need to go get you some new bookshelves.”

“You don’t need to buy me bookcases.”

He smiled. “I have the day off and no practice, so let me do something nice for you.”

Normally, I would have put up a fight, but the way he looked so earnestly at me, I couldn’t say no. I nodded. “Fine, yeah, okay.”

“Come on. You know you’re excited to buy new bookshelves.”

“Maybe…” I trailed off but grinned from ear-to-ear. Riley totally knew the right things to say to me. “I would totally marry the Beast to get that sick-ass library.”

“Are you saying I’m a beast?” He laughed and flexed his muscles.

I visibly rolled my eyes at him, but I smiled.

“Come on,” he urged. “I’ll make breakfast, and then we can go get you something better than the floor to put your books on. Damn, you have a lot of books.”

I cringed but stood up to follow him out of the office and into the kitchen. “Sorry.”

He kissed the top of my head. “Don’t be. I’m just teasing.”

I watched him make another pot of coffee and start cooking up some eggs for omelettes. I had asked him if he wanted help, but he absolutely refused. It was almost like he was trying to woo me, which I guess made sense if he really wanted this marriage to work. There was that old saying that a way to a man’s heart was their stomach, but I think they were talking about me.

He opened the kitchen cabinet looking for plates and looked back at me with a smile. “Did you do dishes while I was gone?”

“Yeah…” I trailed off like it was the dumbest question I had heard all week. “And the laundry.”

“I thought the sheets smelled fresh. That’s—you didn’t have to do that,” he stuttered.

I shrugged. “You weren’t here. Shouldn’t I help around here? I am your wife, after all.”

Riley set a plate down in front of me and handed me a fork, then he came around to the barstool next to me and took his own plate. He shoveled some food in his mouth, and I did too. I almost moaned at the taste. We were both quiet while we ate. More like Riley devoured his food, and I took my time eating because I was thinking too hard. When we were done, I took the empty plates and loaded up the dishwasher. He tried to protest, but I glared with a killing look, and he held up his hands in surrender.

When I finished the clean-up, I saw he was sitting on the couch and furrowing his brow while reading the book I had been reading last night. Embarrassment colored my face as I walked over to him and sat on the couch next to him.

He turned to me with the biggest smirk I had ever seen on his face. “I can’t believe they let people write books like this.”

I barked out a long laugh. “Oh, honey, you don’t even know. That’s not even like a BDSM book. That one’s pretty tame.”

He flipped to the back to read the summary. “Wait a second...this is a hockey romance?”

I put my face in my hands but laughed. It was kind of ironic to be reading a hockey romance book when my life was currently feeling like one. Riley closed the book, leaving my bookmark where I left off last night and putting the book back on the coffee table. I would definitely be picking that back up when he was back on the road.

He sighed. “So I think we should talk about things.”

I swear I could hear my heart, it started beating so hard. No one ever wanted to hear that sentence, and I was worried about what he wanted to talk about. But I nodded and calmly said, “Okay.”

He twisted his ring around on his left hand, and subconsciously I started to fidget with my own. Even though I had asked to get divorced the day after we got married, I hadn’t taken off my ring, not once. I was a little confused about what that meant. I watched him sigh and run a hand down his chiseled jaw. He hadn’t shaved in a couple days, and I couldn’t help but think the rugged look was damn sexy on him.

“Look, I’m done with the single life. I want something real, and I think…I want something real with you.” I was sensing a ‘but’ coming here, but I stayed quiet and let him continue. “I feel like I trapped you into this marriage, so if you really want a divorce and to not give this a shot with me, I’ll understand.”

I did want that...or at least I thought that was what I wanted. But I had really missed him while he had been away. And now, seeing this man before me so vulnerable and so caring, I wasn’t sure what I wanted.

“I don’t know what I want,” I admitted. “I do feel like this marriage was a bit rushed, but I told you I would give you a couple months to prove to me that this could work between us.”

He turned to me with a surprised look on his face. “I think we could have a happy life together, but if you’re not happy, I don’t want that. You’re right, though, and Mom said the same thing, that we rushed into this too quickly after what happened to you.”