Page 37 of Forgotten Desires

When is he going to get it through his thick head that money isn’t what I care about? I sigh heavily. “I don’t want a destination wedding, Carson.”

His eyes jerk to mine. “Don’t call me Carson. I’m Crew. Always to you. Always.”

“Okay, Crew. I’m saying that you kind of told me the plan, which is great because you’re clearly a great businessman, but my brothers know I would never want that. If we want to sell them, and anyone who knows me, on a wedding, they know I’d want to do it on this farm.”

I watch as he processes this, his jaw tics a little and he studies me. “On this farm?”

I nod. “Right here.”

“You want us to get married here and not on an island with everything you can dream of?”

That’s just it, I don’t dream of those things. I’m sure at some point or another I did, but that’s not who I am. I step closer to him, placing my hand on his chest. “If this was really a magical reunion and we are so desperate to never spend another moment away from one another, I would want to do it here, where I spent all my days and nights dreaming of you. Either here, or on the beach in North Carolina, where we fell in love. I’m sentimental.” I shrug because it’s just who I am.

He smiles down at me. “Okay.”

“You’re agreeing to what?”

“To letting you plan the wedding and do whatever you want. If it’s here, we’ll do it here. If it’s in North Carolina, I feel like that would be perfect too.”

That was easy. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Here would be easy, but I think there’d be a really beautiful sentiment doing it at OBX. We met there, fell in love there, only seems fitting to marry there.”

“And it’s still a destination wedding,” he reminds me with a grin.

“Whatever. That was the easy part, now we move on to actually going to see my brothers. I need to handle Asher first because he’s going to be the worst, and they all tend to follow his lead. If I get him alone and on board, the other two will be putty in my hands.”

For the first time, I see a bit of hesitation in Crew. Good, he should have to suffer this. “We’ll need to tell my siblings as well. We’ll do a lunch or something tomorrow, even if the news will break tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.”

The two of us stand here, my hand over his heart, the diamond glittering in the light, and he lifts his hand to cup my cheek. “You’ll never know how much this means to me, Brynn.”

“I can guess.”

“No, Bee, you really can’t.”

He leans down and places a soft kiss on my lips that I feel down to my toes.

I feel the loss of his heat when he lifts back up. “Tomorrow the world will know, so let’s go tell our families and do what we can to sell this.” Then, he raises my hand to his lips and kisses my ring.

I have a feeling it’s going to be a lot easier to act like I’m in love with him than I hoped.

Curse me for having an open heart.

ten

CARSON

“You’re getting married?” Asher asks with disbelief. “To each other?” He stares up at us from his couch after inviting us inside after he just got off his evening shift.

Brynn nods. “Yes. This week or next, I’m still planning.”

That’s when he gets to his feet. “What? What are you doing? Who the hell are you, Brynlee? You’re marrying someone no one has ever met before!”

I tamp down my desire to punch her brother in the face for being a dick, but if this were Kimberly, I can’t say I wouldn’t be acting the same. My sister is the only thing my brothers and I are willing to stand up to our parents over. We protect her at all costs and Brynlee is much the same from what she’s said.

She remains completely calm. “He’s not some guy, Asher. I love him, I always have, and now he’s back in my life and I don’t want to waste another day without him.” Brynlee takes my hand in hers. “We already know what it feels like.”

He scoffs. “Give me a fucking break.”

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