Page 67 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

This makes her laugh just a little. “You didn’t miss anything. They did.”

“And suddenly they’re qualified to be a family?”

Maeve just shrugs. “I don’t know what the end game is. Something isn’t right. I had a weird feeling when Josh told me they got married. And now? Something still isn’t adding up. But I don’t have time to figure that out. I need to figure out how to stop them.”

“No, Love. Howwestop them.”

She shakes her head. “I couldn’t ask you to do that, Logan. You have enough on your plate.”

“I know you didn’t ask, Maeve. I offered. I’m helping.”

We stare at each other for a beat before she’s the first to break eye contact. “I don’t know, Logan. I don’t even know what wecoulddo. That’s what I’ve been trying to do all morning. Because no matter how much I think this is a travesty and that I’m missing a piece of the puzzle as to why they want this, Josh is right—in the eyes of the great state of Tennessee, they are a family. They’re married. And I do work a lot. I travel more than I’d like, but that’s what I need to do to take care of my business and Jayce. What if a judge looks at that and says, ‘Sorry, Mom. I know you did the hard stuff. Dad’s going to take it from here.’ I don’t know if they would, but it’s a possibility, and I can’t stopfreaking out about that. Just thepossibilityis driving me insane. I feel out of control. And I can’t stop it.”

I can see the panic in Maeve’s eyes. I don’t blame her. She feels like her world is crumbling, and for a woman who likes to control everything, this has to feel like an avalanche.

I want to help her. Ineedto help her.

And that’s when it hits me.

“Is that all they have over you? That they’re married?”

Maeve’s eyebrows shoot up her forehead. “As far as I know.”

“Well, then, that settles it.”

“Settles what, Logan?”

I smile and take Maeve’s hand back in mine. “How we’re going to fix this.”

I move her off my lap but just so I can go to the floor in front of her couch. Her eyes are nearly popping out of her head by the time I’m down and on one knee.

“Maeve Banks?”

“Logan, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Marry me.”

guide to love rule #50

Love isn’t always convenient. Sometimes marriage is.

20

maeve

“What did you just say?”

He didn’t say that. He couldn’t have. In my fear and grief, I’m now hearing things.

“Marry me, Maeve Banks.”

I’m frozen as I wait for him to give me the good ol’ “Bazinga!” How many times can I be onPunk’din a week?

But he doesn’t move. Not an inch. If anything, his devilish smile that I clearly remember from that first night together is coming out in full force.

“You’re fucking serious, aren’t you?”

“Never more serious about anything in my life.”

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