“And you need to mind your own business,” she said, instantly dismissing the woman who’d made it her personal mission to shove Marybeth out of Darrin’s life since the moment that she’d met the youngest Bradford, who’d made her feelings clear by chucking a juice box at Marybeth’s head.
“He is my business,” Darrin’s overprotective sister said casually as they both watched Danny pull a blushing Jodi onto his lap and kissed her cheek.
“Shouldn’t you be hovering over Danny with the rest of your siblings?” she asked, barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes as all the Bradford boys narrowed their eyes on the small woman making their older brother smile.
“He doesn’t need my help.”
“And neither does Darrin,” she shot back.
“It would appear that he does,” Kenzie murmured with a slight tilt of her head, drawing Marybeth’s attention to the left where Darrin stood among his arguing brothers, watching her. “You need to let my brother go.”
“Oh, but I already did,” she admitted as shifted her attention to the soda bottle in her hands.
“Doesn’t look like you tried hard enough,” Kenzie said, taking the empty bottle from her hands and tossed it in the trash barrel next to her.
“Oh, but I did,” she said dryly as she leaned back against the bench and watched her husband laugh at something Garret said.
“Apparently not hard enough,” Kenzie pointed out with a mocking smile.
“Apparently not,” she agreed with a nod as she held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger, showing off the Celtic wedding band that Darrin had placed on her finger only an hour ago after he’d stopped by one of the many stores located throughout the park and purchased it along with a matching ring for himself.
Kenzie froze seconds before her eyes narrowed suspiciously on her. “Is this a joke?”
“No.”
“You really married my brother?”
“I prefer to think of it as the time that I gave into blackmail, but yes, yes I did.”
“How long ago?”
“A little over three weeks now.”
“I see,” Kenzie murmured thoughtfully as she glanced over at her brothers.
“I’m sure that you do now.”
“Well,” Kenzie said, sighing heavily as she got to her feet, “that takes care of that I suppose.”
“I suppose it does,” Marybeth agreed, wondering if this was going to change things between them now that she’d married Darrin.
“Hurt my brother and I’ll break every bone in your body,” Kenzie said with a friendly smile and a wink as she sauntered off, leaving Marybeth slumping in her seat.
Maybe not.
*-*-*-*
“Why exactly are we standing in this line?” he had to ask as he joined her in line for what was probably the most hated ride in the history of amusement parks.
“I just needed a break,” she admitted with a sigh as she reached over and relieved him of the cold drink that he’d purchased for her while he did his best to block out the music playing over the sound system that still had the power to make shudder with dread even after all these years.
“From…,” he prompted, taking back the cold soda and took a sip before he handed it back.
Sighing heavily, she looked off. “From everything.”
“That really narrows it down for me,” he said dryly, earning a mocking glare that had him smiling.
“I just needed a break from the glares, looks of pity and your mother asking me if I knew any nice men that might be interested in you or Reese,” she said with a shrug as the line came to stop.
He rubbed his hands roughly down his face. “I’m going to kill those meddling bastards.”
“As you should,” she murmured in agreement as the line started to move again.
For several minutes neither one of them said anything as they walked into companionable silence until finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and he had to ask.
“What do I need to do to fix this, Marybeth?”
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. “I don’t know that this can be fixed, Darrin.”
“And why’s that?” he asked, placing his hands in his pockets to keep himself from grabbing her and shaking some sense into her.
“You know why,” she said, sounding sad and confirming his earlier opinion that she’d been put on this earth to drive him out of his fucking mind.
“You’re turning this whole thing into one of those seriously fucked up Lifetime movies that you’ve got my brother addicted to, you know that, don’t you?”
“I am not!” she said, gasping in outrage as they walked around a turn and headed down a long slope.
“Oh, but you really are,” he said, not really caring at this point if he was pissing her off, because she was certainly doing a hell of a job of pissing him off.
“I am not!”
“Really?” he asked, arching a mocking brow. “Then what would you call this bullshit that you’ve been putting me through?”
“Trying to make sure that you didn’t throw your life away,” she grumbled with a scowl as she quickened her step and tried to
He rolled his eyes, not bothering to quicken his pace since there was nowhere for her go. “Yes, because marrying the woman that I’m madly in love with and want to spend the rest of my life with is throwing my life away,” he said dryly as he followed after her, noting the way that her shoulders went tense as she rounded another corner. “That bullshit line is getting old, Marybeth, so why don’t we get to the real reason why you’re willing to do something so fucked that you’re willing to risk your life, hmmm?”
“I’m not risking my life,” she bit out, shooting him a murderous glare that said it all.
Once again, he was right and she fucking hated it.
“Really? Then what would you call putting off a surgery that you need so that you could take a bunch of drugs that have dangerous side effects and get off medication you need to slow down the tissue wrapping around your lungs on the off chance that you could find a doctor willing to do a procedure that doesn’t have a chance in hell of working?”
“You don’t know that,” she snapped, but the way that she couldn’t quite meet his eyes when she turned to glare at him told him that she knew that he was right.
Since he was on a roll and all, he decided to keep going.
“Don’t I? I thought that we’d already covered this. How exactly are going to do this without my help?”