“I know he took you to dinner,” I remembered. “Didn’t he buy you a bracelet?”

“That was for our wedding anniversary. No, for my birthday we went to McD’s and then he took me to CostMart so we could get a new air filter for my car. I got a cheeseburger and an air filter, Taryn!”

“Did he at least change your oil too?” I teased.

“No! And it took him almost two weeks to put the damn filter in my car!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her.

“I tell ya, that Ryan Christensen is one hell of a romantic guy," Marie blurted, but then, very suddenly, she appeared to have said too much.

“What do you mean – romantic?” I asked, hoping she’d explain her interpretation of the word.

“Nah,” she muttered. “Just the dresses and stuff.”

I felt terrible – Ryan never got to see his planning come to fruition. I stared at Marie; there was more to her thoughts, but she apparently had reasons not to share them.

“I really blew it, huh?” I muttered the obvious.

Marie shrugged and shook her head. “If you would have only stayed in his suite for fifteen more minutes.”

“Oh, now what?” I groaned, wondering what else I screwed up.

“You don’t want to know,” she dismissed.

She glanced over at me quickly, observing my “just tell me already before I kill you” facial expression.

“Masseuse, makeup artist, hair stylist… Ryan hired a team to pamper you,” Marie uttered.

“Oh… fuck…” The word slipped through my lips.

“Yep!” Marie concurred. “Taryn, if you want a marriage to survive, you have to be willing to fight for it,” she counseled.

“I think I’ve learned my lesson,” I admitted. “Marie, you know I’ve been really worried. After the accident and with losing the baby, I knew he was blaming himself. Part of me still wonders how long we’ll last before he moves on to a relationship that doesn’t cause him pain.”

Marie rolled her eyes and groaned.

“I wish I could be so sure about things as you all appear to be,” I defended my current level of insecurity.

“If you only knew,” she muttered under her breath.

“Okay! What the hell is that supposed to mean? I heard you mumble over there, so tell me already. What is it that I obviously don’t know?”

“Come on, lady! Gas is on the right!” Marie complained about the slow car in front of us.

“Marie!” I shouted.

“What?” she shouted back at me.

“Thirteen years we’ve been best friends. Thirteen!”

Marie’s phone chimed, saving her from having to answer my question.

“Hey, what’s up?” she said happily.

“I’m telling you, Ryan, I’m willing to bet she told Kyle about your dinner plans. I’m sure that would have set him off. I’m waiting out in the car for Taryn; she ran into the store for bread.” Marie covered her lips with her finger so I’d stay quiet.

“She just had her cast cut off at the doctor’s and now I’m going to take her for a new cell phone.”

Marie held the phone away from her ear again. Ryan was apparently upset about something.

“Sorry! I didn’t know this required a security escort! Okay, okay…” she said sarcastically. “I’ll make sure she calls that big refrigerator-sized Jamaal guy from now on. But it’s too late now - we’re already out. You know she won’t go for that. Fine. Fine! I’ll see what I can do. Okay! Jeez!”

Marie dropped her cell phone back in her purse. “He can be a real pain in the ass sometimes,” she mumbled.

Things were not making sense to me. Why would Kyle get pissed if Ryan took me out to dinner? Even if Ryan took me to an expensive restaurant, which of course he would have, why would that set Kyle off?

“Marie - what the hell is going on?” I said in a tone demanding an explanation.

She took a deep breath. She was silent for a long time before she answered. “Kyle was poking his nose around down in Florida.”

“I know that,” I admitted.

“Well, the part you probably don’t know is that Kyle told a few people that you asked him to go down there. Word got back to Ryan that you sent Kyle to see if Ryan was cheating on you.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I groaned and rubbed my face. “You know I didn’t do that, right? I swear I had nothing to do with him being there.”

“I know. Ryan and I had a long talk about it too,” she admitted. “Mike checked with his boss at Protection Services. Kyle was reassigned immediately, but instead of going on the new assignment he took two weeks of personal vacation time. That’s when he stayed in Florida. Kyle knew you were coming.”

“I can’t believe Kyle would do all of this! What did he think? That I wouldn’t find out?” I shouted. “How convenient that he was in the airport at the right time. He was probably following me.”

“Ryan said he saw Kyle going in and out of Lauren’s trailer a lot. I wonder if she was doing him?” Marie mused.

“No wonder Ryan was so mad the other day when I talked to him… Kyle was going after all of his women.” Anxiety started to take me down again. “Marie, you know what… just take me home, please.”

“No, I’m taking you for a new phone. You and Ryan need to keep in touch and work this out,” she stated emphatically.

“Why? I haven’t spoken to him since last night. You’ve talked to him more than I have. You keep saying stuff to me about marriage, heck, I’ll be lucky if this relationship lasts another week.”

“That’s it! I’ve had enough of your negativity. God! Arg!” she groaned at me. “And you wonder why I slapped you last night. I want to slap you again right now! Taryn, just TRUST me!” she shouted as she turned the car ignition off.

“When we go in there I think you should get a log of all the calls made to your number. We’re going to find out just who the hell called you that day in Florida,” Marie said as we walked towards the store. “Oh, and Ryan asked me to try and convince you to use his credit card to pay for the new cell. He wants to replace it for you.”

I huffed as I opened the door. “I don’t think so.”

“Don’t fight it. You need to get used to spending your husband’s millions,” Marie kidded me.