Page 52 of The Omega's Fake Mate

“How can you stand being ordered around by your husband like that?”

“He's not ordering me around.” He handed me a plate to dry. “I knew what I was getting into when I married him. It's just a different culture.”

“It's just a different culture, my ass,” I said, ignoring the way Rhys cringed at my language. Even before he'd married into this community, he'd been the more sophisticated of the two of us. I really had no idea where he got it from. “Tell me why you're not sleeping.”

“Just as soon as you tell me why you suddenly decided to marry after all these years of saying you never would.”

I looked at him. Had he seen something today that made him doubt my relationship after all? For some reason, that only made me want to dig my heels in. “It’s different with Zander,” I claimed. “You should know. You bet on us.”

“I did…” He turned toward the sink again. “You ever wish we could go back to being children? Things were simpler then.”

“I guess. Yeah. I don’t know.” I loved having all the freedoms I had as an adult, but some things from my childhood I wouldn’t mind going back to. Like holding hands with Zander on the way home from school without worrying about what that meant. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“I’m sorry. I do believe you about Zander. I see the way you look at him.”

What was that supposed to mean? How was I looking at Zander?

“Is something wrong?” Rhys asked. My thoughts must have shown on my face.

“Nothing. Just wondering about something your husband said earlier,” I lied, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from me.

“What did he say?”

“Something about kids. Do you want kids with him? Are you two trying?”

“Is there a problem with that?” Rhys asked, all his attention focused on the plates instead of me. “Because if you don’t want to be an uncle, it’s too late. I’m afraid our older siblings have already procreated.”

I side-eyed my brother while drying a plate. He did have some spark in him when he wanted to. “I'm not saying that you shouldn't have children.”

“No, I get it.” Rhys turned to me. “You're saying that I shouldn't have children with the man I love.”

“Do you really?”

“Do I what?”

“Love him?”

For a second, Rhys only stared at me and I got the feeling that I'd said something really, really stupid. Like that time I thought brown cows gave chocolate milk. “Why do you think I married him?” he asked eventually, still with that disbelieving look on his face.

“Honestly? I don't know. I don't know how you can put up with living here or him being Vinist. I don't understand how you two even got together in the first place.”

“I put up with it because I love him.” He made quotation marks with his fingers. “Why won't you just believe me?” A loud clank followed his words as he dropped some cutlery into the sink a little too forcefully.

I remembered why he'd started ignoring my phone calls. We always ended up fighting lately. But now that I was seeing him in front of me with that pained look on his tired face, I didn't want to fight anymore. “I'm sorry. I'm only worried. I want to know that he's treating you right. I want you to be happy.” In a way, I felt like Rhys ending up here was my fault. I'd left him on his own. He went to college and I was too lazy to go with him.

“There's nothing for you to worry about,” Rhys said again.

I only wished I could believe him, but his husband was giving me the creeps. This whole community was giving me the creeps. That couldn’t all be in my head, could it?

Slowly, I took another plate and started drying it while I considered my next words. “I have this friend, you know. I think that's why I worry so much.”

“Your friend Kade?” Rhys asked, barely glancing at me. “You've told me about him before.”

“I heard a lot of stories about the Vinist community from him.”

“People aren't all the same, you know? That applies to Vinists too. You wouldn't believe how much variety there can be between different states and churches. I've researched all this, it's how I...”

“How you what?”