Page 16 of After this Summer
“Only if you do.”
“Really?”
Chuckling, I release her hand and cup her face, my lips a gentle brush against hers. “It doesn’t matter, Stunner. Our baby is already perfect.”
“Dammit, Beau.” Indie sniffs, blinking back tears. “We’re not even married yet. You can’t be tryin’ already to make me fall for you.”
“I’m just warming up, Stunner, and I like my odds.”
Slanting her mouth over mine, she kisses me hard and unapologetically. And I keep kissing her because I want this.
I wantus.
And more than anything, I want this to be real.
Indie’s doctorhad humored me, patiently answering my questions.
All of them.
I’d been a half second from needing to do some deep breathing into a paper bag because while Indie and the baby were fine, she’d still fainted.
What if it happened again? What if no one was around to see?
“You’re gripping the steering wheel like you want to rip it right out of there,” Indie says, her voice tired but still amused.
“Sorry,” I tell her, adjusting my position in the driver’s seat as I try to settle myself into the leather.
Jesse had taken Indie’s keys when he dropped me off at the hospital and then picked us up when she was discharged. The guys had been busy, and after eating a couple of pizzas and packing up a few more things, we’d all crashed for the night.
Harlan and Reid had picked up the moving truck and we’d loaded up her apartment before getting on the road. She’d argued about cleaning the place, but after I begged her to let me pay someone, she relented.
It wasn’t about the money or the apartment. I need her home.
With me.
Where I know she’ll be safe.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” I tell her, moving one hand to her thigh and squeezing gently as “Hands of Time” by Eric Church plays on the radio.
“Are you having second thoughts about getting married?”
“What?” I ask, turning my head quickly to stare at her before looking back at the road. “No, I’m definitely sure about that.”
It kept me up half the night—not whether I want to or not buthow.
“Then what?”
Letting out a heavy breath, I squeeze her thigh again. “I need you to let me do something and hear me out on something else.”
“Like what?”
“I need a couple of days so I can ask you to marry me.” Glancing at her, I add, “The right way.”
I can already hear every one of her objections before she even says them out loud so I just shake my head. “If we were going to the courthouse I could let it slide, but people will ask and I want you to be able to tell them something real.”
“Beau, youdidask me the right way. I was there; you made me a real nice ring on the spot.” She rubs her bare finger, the wrapper lost in the shuffle at the hospital. “I thought it was rather romantic.”
