“Nope, you still can’t sing for shit,” he told her.
“Caleb!” She gave him a shocked look. Then she had to smile.
“Say Peter Piper had a pickled pepper, ten times really fast,” he said to her.
She tried. She really did but around the fourth time she completely messed it up. She giggled.
“Pat your head and rub your belly.”
“I can do that!” she protested. She showed him.
“You’re patting your head and your belly,” he told her.
“Nuh-huh,” she laughed.
“Uh-huh. Now, I’d ask you to demonstrate your ability to make a lemon meringue
pie but last time you set the oven on fire.”
“That wasn’t my fault.”
“Oh, so you’re saying it was the oven’s fault.” He nodded seriously. “Fair enough. Would you like to demonstrate your lemon meringue pie making ability?”
She bit her lip. “That’s a pass.”
“I thought so. And let’s not even start with your shoelace tying.”
“Hey, that’s a low blow. I tie a shoelace just fine, it’s everyone else who does it wrong.”
“Oh, is that so, brat?” He leaned in to tickle her and she laughed so hard she snorted.
“More proof! You don’t laugh perfectly either.” He continued to tickle at her sides. Damn him! He knew all of her worst spots. She tried to shove herself away.
“Careful! Don’t jolt your arm.”
Well, she wouldn’t jolt it if he wasn’t tickling her!
“Mercy! Mercy!” she cried.
He drew back, grinning at her. “So what were all those complaints about having to be perfect?”
Her smile dimmed. “I had to pretend to be perfect.”
“For William and your father?”
She nodded. “Anytime I messed up, my father would lose it. He’d berate me. Sometimes William would join in. It. . .wasn’t nice.”
“Wasn’t nice, huh? I’m thinking that’s an understatement. You realize that if everyone was perfect that we wouldn’t laugh or cry or get angry or feel joy, right? Life would be pretty damn boring.”
“Wolfe would like it.”
“Wolfe has issues that go a long way back. He’s taught himself to control his emotions, that doesn’t mean that they’ve disappeared. You have to be patient with him, all of this is something new to him. I know he’s obsessed with what you eat and keeping you on a schedule, it’s his way of controlling things. And showing he cares.”
“I know. I’m not upset by it.”
“Do you know that he fully expected to be kept in the background when we found a woman that we wanted to have a relationship with?”
She didn’t like the idea of them with anyone else, but she didn’t have a right to get upset at the idea. She’d been married to someone else. “What do you mean? In the background?”