“And what are you waiting for? My permission? This is between the two of you.”
His hand pulled the phone from his ear, and he nearly slammed it back into the cradle. But something stopped him. He pressed the phone back to his ear and said, “Why don’t you hate me more?”
“For the same reason you don’t hate me.”
“Bullshit. You haven't done anything wrong.”
“I’m with Eli, aren’t I? If not for me, he’d be all yours.”
He recognized the words. Not because Nathaniel had voiced them before, but because he’d heard them already in hisown head, and that meant he was prepared for them, having seen through and reasoned with them already.
“Even if he hadn’t met you. It wouldn’t—it doesn’t matter. I’m just a child to him. A puppy. I’m a replacement for Hailey, not you.”
Nathaniel laughed. The sound was strange and so sudden he nearly dropped the phone.
It pissed him the hell off. “It’s not funny!” He felt like an idiot. A class A moron. Why had he come to this man? Did he think that just because Eli had linked them together that he would just magically understand?
“You’re right, it isn’t funny,” Nathaniel said, but was still laughing. “It isn’t funny at all. Samuel, you dumbass, haven’t you ever looked in a mirror? Or do they not have those in prison?”
“That has nothing to do with it. Eli doesn’t care about things like that.”
“Oh? Have you ever seen a picture of Marie?”
His ex-wife? “Why would I have seen something like that?”
“I’ll send one in my next letter, and you tell me if your opinion changes.”
“She’s beautiful?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
“But then—” He stopped when he realized how abhorrently rude his next words would have been.
Nathaniel laughed again, louder and longer than before. “You’re not the first to think so. Why did he marry me, right? When I look so ordinary.”
If he’d had a paper bag handy, he’d have put it over his own head. How was he supposed to look Eli in the face andapologize for such a thing?
“You’re not ordinary,” he said, too little, too late. “You have nice skin, and gold flecks in your eyes.”
Nathaniel was still laughing, damn him. He’d never met a man so amused with being insulted. “Do I? I thought they were just brown. But that doesn’t matter. The point is, don’t base Eli’s preferences solely on me. Marie and I couldn’t be more different, and he’ll love Marie until the day he dies. Quit trying to pigeonhole him.”
“He loves her?Still?”
“Not everyone is so changeable. He likes what he likes.”
“But she cheated on him!”
“Yes,” Nathaniel agreed. “She hurt him. She really hurt him. So don’t make the same mistake. If you love him, you’d better not touch anyone else.”
“As if I would!”
“Well good. Any other issues you need me to iron out for you?”
If Nathaniel had been there, he really might have hit him.
“Don’t condescend to me.”
“And why not? You’re not listening to me either way.”
