Ina Reads’s Reviews > Promised Land > Status Update

“What do you want?”
“I want us to go hand in hand.” He blushed. “Sorry, I never said I wasn’t sentimental.”
She slipped her hand in his.

“We’ll sort the rest out,” he said. “We’re imagining a new way to be a country, where our leader isn’t a king. A new way to be a Jew, where God isn’t a king. Let’s imagine a new way to be married, where I’m not a king either. I don’t want that anyway. I don’t want you to be my subject, or even my queen.”
“What do you want?”

She had been so angry that he always pretended, that he never came out and said anything. But she’d been just as bad. She’d never come right out and told him what she felt, what she wanted.

She supposed that was being happy to see him, in its own way. Nathan’s way looked more pleasant for both of them. He seemed content with her accusatory interrogation, but didn’t he deserve more? A smile?
That felt impossible, unimaginable. A kind word, then.

She wanted to say something more, but there wasn’t anything. Not meeting his eyes, she took his hand in both of hers and crushed his palm against her lips. So hard it stopped being a kiss and became a demand. A direct order to be careful, because there was no point saying it out loud.

He fingered a scrape on his chin. “You know, when I’d get really scared, I’d think, Rachel could do it, and that helped. It inspired me. I didn’t do it for you, but you made me want to do it, and I think it was a good thing to do. So thank you. Thank you for giving my life meaning.”

Nathan is a cinnamon roll and Rachel is so prickly and this is a second chance romance I can totally get behind.

But now he thought it over, the song was nonsense: roses had thorns and briars flowered. He had deluded himself that kindness came in one guise, and that was a sweet voice and never saying anything that might wound his own delicate feelings.

He had ascribed to her any number of wonderful qualities, but he had never particularly thought of her as kind. He’d even had a sneaking admiration for her hardheartedness, had fancied himself the rose twining round her briar, like in the song. But now he thought it over, the song was nonsense: roses had thorns and briars flowered.

Now that I’m finally actually *reading* this, I’m loving it. Why have I gone so long without picking up anything by Rose Lerner again?!

He’d never fully understood that until now, any more than she’d understood that Nathan’s nodding agreeably when his mother talked didn’t mean he was under her thumb. It was just easier to pretend to go along, and then do as he liked.

To name an obvious example, he’d married Rachel.