“You’re not going.”
She froze then turned to look at him. “Excuse me?” He hadn’t just said that, had he?
“You’re not going.”
“Yes. I am.”
He turned his head from the T.V. to give her a firm look. “No. You. Are. Not.”
She tapped her foot against the floor. “Listen here, buster—”
He grinned. “Buster? Really?”
“Duke! You cannot stop me from going shopping with Jewel! It’s not unsafe. I’m going.”
“No.”
“Yes! And stop being a. . .a. . .big old jerkface!”
His eyes widened and she suddenly realized what she was doing. Why was she arguing with him? What if he got annoyed with her and didn’t want her anymore? So what if he didn’t want her going out? It wasn’t like staying with him was a hardship.
“I. . .I’m sorry,” she said suddenly. “I won’t go out if you don’t want me to.”
He frowned, studying her.
“Do you want me to do anything while I’m here? Housework? I could make us some dinner to take to work.”
“Okay. Rewind.”
“What?” She stared at him in confusion.
“We were having an argument and suddenly you turned into some timid, stepford wife. Let’s go back to that argument.”
“You want me to argue with you?” What was happening right now?
“No. Cute as you are when you try to insult me, I don’t like arguing with you.”
“Then what are you trying to say?” Because she was confused as hell.
“I don’t want to argue with you, little rebel. But I do want you to know that you can argue with me.”
She rubbed her head. “I’m sure that makes sense in your mind.”
“Why’d you stop the argument, Sunny?”
“Um, because I don’t like arguing?”
“I’m sure that’s true but that wasn’t the reason you stopped.” He came closer and grabbed her hips, tugging her towards him. “Why, Sunny? Tell me.”
“I don’t want to,” she whispered.
“Why not?”
Her head was starting to really pound. “I don’t want to tell you what I was thinking.”
“But you’re going to. Why did you stop, Sunny?” He ran his finger down the side of her face.
“Because I had the thought that if I argued with you then you might get sick of me. You might decide you didn’t want me anymore,” she blurted out.