Rekindled Read Online Free PDF Page B

labored. “See? Dessert first is good for you.”
    “You aren’t having dessert first, you already had dinner. And you don’t sound very
     convincing.”
    “I’ve never had piecrust done in quite this style,” he said, poking at the dessert
     on his plate with his fork.
    “I’m sure it’s not that different,” she said, pushing her own fork through the crust
     and quickly shoveling a small bite into her mouth.
    Oh, Lord, it was chewy. So chewy she was having a hard time getting through it.
    She swallowed. “Okay, yeah, that’s pretty bad. But the filling isn’t. Is fifty percent
     a passing grade?”
    “Not so much.”
    She peeled the top crust back from her piece and selected a cinnamon-and-sugar-covered
     apple from the center. She took a bite and smiled. “Actually, it’s really good without
     that rubber crust.”
    Mac stood up and went to the counter, taking the pie plate and bringing it back to
     the table. He took his fork and pried off the entire top of it, leaving only the filling
     exposed and digging a forkful of apple from the center.
    “You can’t do that!” she said.
    “Yes, I can. I can eat the part I want, and you can eat dessert first. Pull your chair
     this way.”
    “You’re lawless, Mac Denton.”
    “Happily.”
    She stood up and moved down to the chair that was just next to his and followed his
     lead, taking an apple-only bite. “Okay, this is better.”
    “There are perks to being a little bit lawless.”
    “Fine. Fine, there are perks.”
    “Like not having to take the good with the bad. You just remove the bad.”
    “Too bad life doesn’t actually work that way.”
    “Are you getting philosophical over pie?”
    She shrugged and took another bite. “Over pie filling, anyway.”
    “You seem like you might be a little lawless yourself.”
    She froze mid-chew. “Do I?”
    “You left your husband, even though the decision was unpopular.”
    She swallowed and looked back down at her plate. “Uh, yeah, unpopular to say the least.
     But that was a little bigger than just dealing with inedible pie crust. He was…
     Daniel Carter is a competent businessman, a respected boss and a beloved friend to
     many in our little circle. But the thing about Daniel is that he likes to be in control.
     He can hide that okay in other areas of his life, or apply it and use it to his advantage.
     In terms of being married to someone like that, though… I just couldn’t take
     it anymore.”
    “Did he hurt you?”
    “Not the way you mean. But that’s half of the problem. I didn’t show up at my parents’
     house with black eye and horror stories about Daniel’s temper. That, I think, would
     have made me justified in my parents’ eyes. But… it was a lot more difficult
     to try and explain the way he was. The subtle ways he made me feel like I was beneath
     him. Like I wasn’t smart enough to do anything. To get anything right.”
    Mac frowned. “What did he do?”
    “It’s… it’s hard to sum up eight years of that kind of thing. It’s like waves
     on a rock, you know? It just wears you down over time. The best example I have is
     that I spent weeks working on organizing this dinner party for him and his colleagues.
     Everything seemed to go fine and I was so happy because he seemed happy with it. So
     when everyone left I was shocked when he… he just turned around and asked me
     how I could be so careless with everything. He said it’s not like I had to do any
     actual work for it. I didn’t have to cook or clean, so why was everything done so
     poorly? The menu I picked was haphazard, the decorations were awful. And worst of
     all, I looked like I’d just rolled out of bed. He was always telling me I’d let myself
     go. That I was looking my age. Asking if I had put on a few pounds. That last time,
     that last dinner party, was my breaking point, and I don’t think you can possibly
     understand it unless you realize that it was like that all the time.”
    She looked