Page 66 of The Home Grown
“Even better then, right?”
“I guess,” he shrugs. “But?—”
“But?” I prompt, turning in my seat to face him.
I study his expression but it’s like trying to read a badly drawn map. Impossible and confusing.
“Is this something to do with the wedding certificate? Did you find it?” My voice trembles, but he huffs, rubbing his hands over his face before tentatively turning towards me.
“Nah, it’s not that—I still haven’t had a chance to look yet but … I need to ask a favour.”
“A favour?”
I glare at him, racking my brain. What could he want from me? A red flag whips in the wind when he doesn’t look at me. He keeps his attention fixed on the forecourt straight ahead.
“Mike?”
But then his eyes meet mine and a knot forms in my stomach.
I’ve never seen him like this before. Serious … uncertain. And he looks like he’s about to pass out.
“Kitch—hear me out, yeah?”
Chapter Thirteen
ELLIE
“Kitch—hear me out, yeah?”
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
But the way he’s acting—the nerves, the hesitation—tells me everything is far from okay.
This is something huge.
He stares straight ahead for a few more seconds, then flicks a glance at me—only to retreat toward the forecourt when our eyes meet.
“Fuck,” he mutters, exhaling. He’s jiggling his leg on the spot, making the car rock slightly as he shifts in his seat.
“Mike?”
“So, I … I sort of—damn.” He pauses, swallows, then says, “I need you to be my wife.”
Silence fills the car. Mike freezes. The lull stretches, deafening, before I realise I’ve stopped breathing—a breath lodged in my throat.
I stare at him in disbelief, because there’s no way I heard him correctly.
There’s no way.
“What?” I squeak, my voice in a pitch I wasn’t expecting. “You—what?”
He runs his palms over his thighs, focusing on the footwell of the passenger seat. “I need you to be my wife,” he says. “I know you, well, I guess, officially are, but I sort of told my Coach I had a wife and?—”
“This is a joke, right?” I say, cutting him off.
He leans forward, elbows resting on his legs as he finally turns to look at me.
I see it. It’s written all over his face.
