“Let me go.”

“Not until we finish this,” he said, settling back in the seat while he kept his arms locked tightly around her.

“We’re done,” she said, reaching down to shove his arms away, but he simply ignored her.

“We’re really not.”

“I’m not having the surgery, Darrin,” she grumbled as she squirmed in his arms as she tried to climb off his lap.

“You really are.”

“I’m really not.”

“We’ll see,” he said confidently as he watched the rest of his family board the bus. When Kenzie stepped onto the bus, she rolled her eyes and muttered something when she spotted Marybeth on his lap. After making a mental note to have a word with his sister so that she would stop the bullshit, he focused his attention back on his wife to find her trying to ignore him.

It’s like she didn’t know him at all, he thought with a sad shake of his head as he pulled her closer so that he could whisper in her ear. “You aren’t doing this, Marybeth.”

“It’s not up to you, Darrin,” she whispered back.

“You really think so? Because the last time I checked, it took two to make a baby.”

“Just leave me alone,” she whispered, sounding exhausted and making him wonder if she’d spent the entire night missing him as much as he’d missed her.

“You know that I can’t do that.”

She shifted on his lap so that she could stare out the window and away from the curious stares of the rest of the bus’s occupants. Shooting them a glare that told them to mind their own fucking business, he shifted his attention back to his wife and said the one thing that had damn near killed him to accept.

“Children just aren’t in the cards for us, Marybeth.”

Chapter 35

“You need to stop screwing with my brother’s head,” Kenzie announced as she sat down on the bench next to her while the others tried to figure out what rides Danny could go on without aggravating the old back injury he’d received courtesy of Uncle Sam and a bullet that had lodged itself a little too close to his spine.

“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.”