Free Keeping Her Love by Tiger Hill Page A

right now.”
    Rhett raised an eyebrow. “What were you doing in an electronic store like Fry’s?”
    “I can go to a place like Fry’s if I want to, Rhett,” she responded in a sassy tone. The few words they shared together often had a spicy element to it. Their relationship with each wasn’t aggressive so much as like a game of handball. “Anyway, you have to come see it. It’s an A-line, just the shape you like. Satin, pearls, bling… You just have to see how great this thing is.”
    Rhett could have sworn he heard her groan as she got up from the bed. As he laid there, just thinking about what he had talked about with Tula, his tiredness got the better of him and he passed out. When he woke up, Tula was on his computer, staring blankly at the large monitor.
    “Hey,” Rhett said, sounding like a frog was in his throat. He slowly lumbered himself into a sitting position, rubbing the stars out of his eyes. “What time is it?”
    “Nine,” Tula responded without turning.  
    He cleared his throat and looked around the room. “Wow, I was asleep for three hours? I wonder what happened there. I guess I’ve been working too hard.”
    Tula didn’t respond and continued to stare at the screen.
    “Something wrong, love?” He asked, scooting closer. Once he got a better look at his fiancée, he saw that her eyes were red and irritable. “Oh shit, what’s the matter?”
    She waved him away. “Don’t ask. It’s stupid.”
    Now that he was closer, he could sense that her nose was backed up a bit. She had been crying. “No, tell me. What happened?”
    She turned, not exactly locking eye contact with him. “Well, remember how Layla was asking me to look at that stupid magazine of hers? I didn’t mind, of course—I like it when people are thoughtful, and she was being nice—but when I told her that I didn’t exactly care for the dress, she told me that I had tacky taste and didn’t know what I was doing when it came to planning this wedding. I brushed it off, because she was being a little facetious when she said it. But then we kept flipping through the magazines she brought, and every time I pointed out something that I liked, she had to undercut me in some way. I just feel terrible.  
    “It’s ridiculous, because she probably isn’t even thinking when she makes comments about how she doesn’t like my taste, but it gets to me. She’s been saying stuff like this ever since she found out that we were getting married. I kind of wish that she wouldn’t butt her nose into our business, because I almost never ask her for her opinion. Between her and my mom, I halfway wish that I were just planning this whole thing by myself. With them, I do get help and support, but it feels like I spend twice the amount of time figuring things out because I have to gain their approval. A part of me just wishes that I could have some kind of crazy wedding with Halloween decorations or something just to piss them off.”  
    She sighed, then gazed up to his wide-eyed expression. “I’m sorry, Rhett. That was a lot to just land on your lap. I guess that I’ve been thinking about it a lot these past few weeks. I love my family, but they certainly can get on my nerves sometimes.”
    He took her hands. “It sounds like you’re going through a lot of stress lately trying to please everyone. I bet you wish that you could get away for a bit.”
    She let out an exasperated laugh. “Yes, that would be nice. I did enjoy the trip to San Francisco. But we can’t go on any extended trips. We have bills to pay for the wedding and the business I want to open.”
    “We don’t have to go anywhere far. Your birthday is coming up soon, and I want to treat you. Let’s go somewhere like the ocean. We could go to Big Sur or somewhere up by Humboldt. Would you like that? We could leave early in the morning, have a barbecue, start a bonfire at night, and then listen to the waves as we fall asleep.”
    Her eyes lit up—something he