Page 106 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

“Don’t worry,” I said as I caught on, “you don’t have to look it up. I’ll show you how to test and adjust it.”

“Where did you learn that?”

“I do know how to use Google.”

“Sorry, that came out wrong.” She lowered the plastic bags back into the cooler and turned to me. Her delicate hands curved around my jaw, soft and sweetly coconut-scented. “You got me fish, and you learned how to take are of them for me. Thank you.”

“Anytime,” I brushed her hair behind her ears and kissed her. It only took a millisecond for me to realize she wasn’t kissing me back. I sighed. “You want to put the fish in the pond right away?”

“Yes, I do.” She grinned and whirled back around.

Thirty minutes later, Cordelia stood ankle-deep in the pond, cupping water into plastic bags. She was fixating on the fish but her nose was turning bright red. Maybe we should have waited a few more weeks to do this. As soon as the sun was down, temperatures still dropped quickly.

“Just warm up for five minutes.”

“I’m plenty warm,” she sing-sang.

I reached for her paling fingers and she swatted me away.

“Stop being annoying or I’m sending you back inside,” she warned.

“Try sending me away. I’d like to see how that goes for you.”

“Ooh, I’m so scared. Is the big bad man going to be mean to me? Is he going to make me put my socks on? Boohoo.”

“Come here.” I grabbed her hand the moment she’d tied up the plastic bag. She tried pulling out from my grasp, but it was too firm. She finally looked at me. Her lips were turning blue, for fuck’s sake.

“Leave me alone. Go inside if you’re cold.”

“Cordelia, come here.”

My shoes sank into the first inch of water. I wrapped my arm around her middle and hauled her back.

“What are you doing?” She protested and slapped at my arm. “The fish need-”

“The fish neednothingfor the next ten minutes. Just let them get used to the water.”

I tried to just set her down on the blanket, but her jittering knees folded right up, and she plopped to the ground with a grimace.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“I’m not leaving them.” Cordelia glowered up at me, all that stormy determination in her eyes.

“Fine.” I slipped my suit jacket off and knelt down to wrap her up. She sniffled, brows still drawn deep. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not a child.”

“I know that.”

“I’m also not being stubborn just to annoy you.” She flexed her shaking fingers, then pulled the sleeves over her hands to wrap them up.

“I know that, too.” I sat down in front of her, pulling her legs into my lap and rubbing some life back into them. “I’m not complaining, am I?”

She looked past me at the pond. “I know that I’m not easy to spend a lot of time with. I’m really trying not to be so self-centered all the time.”

“Excuse me?”

“I got really excited about the fish and I want to make sure they’re happy and they’re safe, and I snapped at you, and I ruined our date.” Her voice clogged up. “I’m so sorry.”