All They Need - By Sarah Mayberry Page 0,46
he guided her toward the car. He waited until she was busy fastening her seat belt before he spoke again.
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“More than a year ago. We pretty much did everything through the lawyers.”
There was a question in his mind, one that had been bugging him for a long time. He hesitated to ask it. Then he shrugged. If this attraction between him and Mel was going to go anywhere, there needed to be a certain level of honesty and understanding between them.
“Feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but how did you guys ever get together? I keep trying to picture him not being a complete ass-hat and failing miserably.”
Her lips bent into a parody of a smile. “We were both backpacking through Europe. I went for a year when I was twenty-one and stayed for four I loved it so much. I met Owen at the beginning of my last year at a bar in Portugal. I beat him in the limbo competition, and that was pretty much it.”
“Again, I can’t picture Hunter backpacking, either.”
The other man always seemed so aware of his own status, his own importance. Backpacking seemed to be the very antithesis of everything that Hunter appeared to crave and value.
“He loved it. I think he saw it as a challenge. He could make a euro go further than anyone I’ve ever traveled with.” She gave a sharp little laugh.
“What?” he asked.
“I was just remembering how shocked I was when I learned he had money. We got married a week before we were due home, on the beach in Thailand, and he told me that night about his parents and their money and his trust fund. He said he hadn’t wanted to tell me before because he wanted to make sure I was marrying him because I loved him and not because of what he could do for me.”
Flynn tried to think of something to say that didn’t have the word ass-hat in it again.
“Must have been a bit of a shock,” he finally said.
Another grim smile from her. “I thought I was in my own version of Pretty Woman. I mean, it doesn’t get much better, right? Working-class girl goes overseas, meets incredible guy, falls in love, and it turns out he’s rich as well. Cinderella, eat your heart out.”
He started the car and pulled out into traffic.
“The bit they don’t tell you in the fairy tale is all the stuff that happens after the happily ever after,” Mel continued after a short silence. “Like when Richard Gere’s friends won’t accept Julia Roberts because she doesn’t know all the rules, and how Cinderella wasn’t the type of girl King and Queen Charming wanted their son to marry.”
He flicked a look at her. She was gazing out the window, an infinitely sad expression on her face. “I’m sorry.”
She glanced at him, surprised. “For what?”
“For asking the question.”
She shrugged. “It’s not your fault that the answer is so sucky.”
They were both silent for the remainder of the drive to the burger place. He turned to face her once he’d pulled into a parking spot.
“Just so you know, this place has no ambience, unless you count graffiti gouged into the tabletops and a few old Coke posters. On the plus side, there’s no concrete and not a single waiter with an attitude. Plus the burgers are awe-inspiring. I recommend the burger with the works, but I’m a pig like that.”
Mel smiled faintly. “Are we talking egg and beet-root?”
“And pickles, and caramelized onions.”
“I’m in.”
He ordered while she slid into a booth toward the rear of the restaurant. He slid in opposite her and they immediately bumped knees. She shuffled along the seat and he did the same, and still they bumped knees.
“Okay, these booths were clearly made for midgets. I think we need some strategy here,” he suggested. “Staggered knees. It’s the only way this is going to work.”
“Staggered knees?”
He reached under the table and found her knee. He guided her left knee to the right of his, then did the same with her right knee so that they were effectively interwoven.
“Oh, staggered knees. Why didn’t you say so?” she said. Then she started laughing.
He watched her, a smile playing about his mouth, aware that she needed the tension release.
“Sorry. That just tickled my funny bone.”
“You have a great laugh,” he said.
Her gaze slid away from his and she reached for the straw dispenser. She pulled a straw free and