Page 88 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
But his love for Annabeth was an absolute truth. There was no middle ground. There was no stopping it. It allowed him to see things that others couldn’t. Like now, and how the terror over what they were discussing was eating away at her. How there was guilt for wanting exactly what he was promising but thinking she didn’t deserve it.
“You have too much damn faith in me,” she whispered, her bottom lip trembling. “I don’t want to slip off into my mind again. If I spiral… I can’t doom you to that fate.”
And just like that, it hit him. He was never going to change her mind. Not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe not ever. To be with her, he had to accept that Annabeth wasn’t afraid of becoming his wife. She was afraid of hurting him, thinking that if she fell apart again, she would take him down with her.
But the thing of it was, he would gladly fall if it meant falling through life with her.
“Okay.”
She blinked. “Okay?”
He stepped forward and cupped her face, his thumb swiping away the tear that finally spilled over. “If you don’t want to marry me someday, I’ll get over it and accept your choice.”
Confused by the shift in his tone, she glanced around as if expecting another version of him to manifest and say something else. “You can?”
“I can.” Leaning down, he brushed his lips across hers. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t ask. When I’m ready, of course.”
She let out a sharp huff, her lips twitching. “I said I’d say no.”
“Say no. It’s fine.” He kissed her deeply and held her close as a light, misting rain began to fall. “I’m still going to ask. All the time, in fact. I’m going to ask and ask and ask.”
“I’ll still say no and no and no.”
“Will you? Okay, that’s fine. I can keep asking until either you give in, or I accept defeat.”
She snuggled against his chest. “It’s not a defeat. I love you, and we have something…”
“Special,” he finished for her. “Put your big girl panties on and say it, Annabeth. We have something special.”
“First of all,” she mumbled into his shirt, “I’m not wearing panties.”
He smirked, squeezing her bare ass. “And I thank you for that.”
“Second… wedohave something special. But—”
He growled playfully. “There you are with your buts again. Just because you have a nice butt doesn’t mean you get to always throw the word at me.”
“Very funny.” She traced a finger over his bicep tattoo. “Lots of people have something special, and they never get married. They live together happily and don’t feel the need to define their love by what’s considered normal. A marriage is only a piece of paper with two signatures.”
“If it’s only a piece of paper, then sign and be done with it.”
“You’re missing the point.”
“No, I’m not.” He tipped his head back so she could see his smug expression. “I’m being thickheaded on purpose, and this is what you’ll have to live with.”
She made a face. “Wonderful.”
Walking right into his trap, he kissed her once more. “You’ve had your buts,butnow I have mine. I’m okay with never signing a piece of paper…butonly if you give me something in return.”
“And what’s that?”
“Your vows.”
“Come again?”
“I want you, one day, to stand under that old Marriage Oak and vow that you’ll spend your life loving me, for better or worse, and listen to me do the same. I want you to wear my ring, and I want to wear yours. I want us to be a family with our house full of cats and the dog you’ll eventually let me get.”
She sniffled and kept her face buried in his black T-shirt. “That isn’t fair.”
