Page 184 of Mexico Can Choke On It
He steps aside, patting my arm—a silent touch of forgiveness.
Petra stands there, arms crossed, hip cocked. “B, you cannot be serious. You just survived a Sterling family implosion, nearly got into a fistfight with your father, and proposed in the middle of a felony arrest. Youmightbe concussed. Maybe we save the emotional declarations for when you’re not drunk on rebellion and adrenaline?”
After everything, she’s thinking I’ll change my mind. That this is some temporary breakdown.
“The adrenaline didn’t prompt my proposal, Pip. It simply gave me the balls to voice it out loud.”
“Pump the brakes there, billionaire boy. You said it yourself—it’s not even legal. There’s no marriage license. No prenup. Your father’s probably halfway to convincing a judge you’re having a full psychotic break.”
“Screw the prenup—If I hurt you ever again, you can have it all. I want to marry you, Petra. I’ll do anything to make you mine. I’ll crawl through broken glass to make it happen.”
“So you’re telling me you’d live in my sketchy-ass neighborhood? Where dudes are barbecuing over barrels and the rats have side hustles?”
My sterile mansion flashes through my mind—twenty thousand square feet of loneliness wrapped in Italian marble. Then I picture her tiny apartment with its duct-taped shower curtain blinds, cookie dough stash in the freezer, and laundry piled on the floor.
“Pip, I’d pitch a tent on your sidewalk if you were sharing it with me. Whatever it takes to earn the right to wake up next to you. I’ll drive that death trap you call a car. I’ll eat boxed mac and cheese every night until I die of powdered cheese poisoning. I’ll fight cockroaches the size of cats. Bare-handed. Shirtless, if that helps.”
A tiny laugh slips out before she locks it down again.
I reach out and cup her cheek. “If you’re there, I’m home.”
She exhales sharply, like I’ve taken the wind right out of her. Her eyes are waging war again—hope battling fear, dreams duking it out with doubt.
“Do you know why I called you Pip when we were kids?”
She huffs. “Because I was an annoying little gremlin and you couldn’t remember my real name?”
I chuckle. “‘Pip’ means something small. And there you were, this fierce little tornado barely reaching my chest, all elbows and attitude, stomping around in those adorable boots like you were ten feet tall.”
She watches me, guarded but waiting.
“Everyone else looked at you and saw trouble: a scrappy loudmouth from the wrong side of Beverly Hills. But I saw a force of nature trapped in a pocket-sized package. You’d get in the face of guys who could bench press you, tell off teachers who tried to shame you, and defend kids who couldn’t defend themselves. And I’d think,How the hell does someone that small contain so much fire?”
Her breathing stutters, and vulnerability flickers in her gorgeous eyes.
“I fell in love with that fire. That defiance. That mouth that never stops running. Every stubborn inch of you, Petra. You’re the storm I never saw coming.”
“This isn’t how it goes for girls like me. I’m not the princess in this story—I’m the sarcastic friend who gets the best one-liners from the sidelines. I don’t get chosen.”
“You’re the only girl worth choosing. My life is nothing without you in it. Let me stand beside you. Love you. Support you… and sometimes piss you off a little just to keep things interesting.”
Her lower lip trembles, but she’s still holding back. I turn to face the three hundred witnesses and make my declaration.
“I love this woman. And if she’ll have me, I choose her over every single one of you. And that includes you, Mother.”
A collective gasp ripples through the crowd. Judith Sterling-Holloway’s bejeweled hand flies to her mouth.
I drop to one knee, pulling out the ruby ring. The afternoon sun catches the stone, sending crimson fire dancing across Petra’s stunned face.
“I love you. I realize now I always have. Ever since that first kiss you were brave enough to give me. You’ve always been the brave one.”
A pulse ticks in my neck. My hand shakes a little as I extend the ring, my gaze fixed on her shiny eyes.
“You’ve loved me your whole life. Let me love you for the rest of mine. Marry me, Pip. Please.”
“Yes.”
I surge to my feet, ready to seal this moment with a kiss that’ll knock us both sideways.
