Page 99 of Blindsided
“The new contract I signed had a buy-back clause. Bethnal Green wants me back, and Rangers have agreed to it. Which means, when the transfer window opens up in January, I’m coming back to London to play for them again.”
“What? How? How is that possible? Why did you never tell me that?”
Mac’s brows lift. “I didn’t know myself until last week. It was Santino, of all people, who set that all up. Apparently, he’s not the bawbag I thought he was.”
I blink rapidly as I struggle to absorb everything he’s saying. “So, you’re coming back to London.”
“I’m coming back, Cookie.” He reaches out and cups my cheek with his large, warm hand, his thumb stroking my lip briefly before he adds, “But I don’t want to wait until January to be with you. I want to be with you now. Always. I’m miserable in Glasgow without you. I want you to come out and live with me until I move back. We can spend Christmas in Scotland while you design your plus-sized pet clothes. We can be together and get back to the way we used to be.”
“The way we used to be?” I croak, my throat closing up with anxiety because his words are so close, yet so far away from everything I need to hear. I pull away from his embrace. “Mac, I’m done with what we used to be. I have spent far too many hours with you, and now I have these beautiful romantic ideas stuck in my head. Stuff that’s even more romantic than a Canadian cowboy onHeartland! And I want them for myself. I finally believe I deserve real love with someone who knows how they feel about me. I can’t do this with you all over again. I can’t survive losing my best friend and the man I love all over again.”
Mac exhales heavily, my words clearly knocking him off his feet. But I don’t care. I won’t be silent anymore. I won’t have quiet feelings about what I want out of life anymore. I’m not the same person who just accepts what’s in front of me. I need more. I’m worth more.
Mac growls, agitation written all over his face. “Christ, how did I know you’d bring up bloodyHeartlandtonight?”
“Because it’s the hallmark of our lives together, Mac!” I snarl, my voice sounding seriously scary.
“I bought you a fucking kitten, Cook! I’d say that’sHeartland-level romantic. I at least thought it would soften up your disposition towards me as of late.”
“Of course, a kitten would soften me up. I love kittens!” I shriek.
“I know!” he roars.
The two of us breathe heavily in each other’s faces for a long moment, both of our bodies vibrating with anger, lust, attraction, and something else. Something…bigger.
“Excuse me,” a man’s voice says from beside us, breaking us out of some serious eye-fucking going on. I look over and see it’s the person Mac handed the balloons to. “Do I still need to hold these? My food has arrived.”
Mac reaches over, yanks the balloons out of his hand and releases them into the air. “Happy fucking Birthday, Cookie. Christ, how am I still screwing this up?” he grumbles, gripping the back of his neck and shaking his head as he appears to search his mind for a moment.
He exhales heavily and pins me with a look. “Freya Cook, I want you to live with me because I’m madly in love with you, and I don’t want to wait to start our lives together. I’m trying to show you that I’m all in. I want you in London, Scotland, anywhere you’ll have me. I don’t want less with you. I want more.Heartlandmore. That’s why I want to fucking marry you, you stubborn woman!”
“What?” I shriek, scaring the poor kitty in my hands. “How could you possibly know you want to marry me? Are you an idiot?”
“If that makes me an idiot, then aye, sure. I’m an idiot!” Mac snaps back, his Scottish accent getting thicker with his intensity.
He clenches his teeth and hisses something under his breath before moving into my space and cupping my face in his hands. “My love for you is as real as your love for that daft horse show, Freya. I even love how you sound like Hagrid from Harry Potter when you’re feeling poorly. I love that you hate drinking out of anything other than a coffee cup. I love that most designers would sketch beautiful women’s dresses or shoes but you sketch cat pyjamas and paw slippers.”
“I just think some cats would like sleepwear.”
“I know,” I reply with a laugh, my lips itching to kiss this beautiful, maddening woman in front of me. “I love how your crazy mind operates and how you’re always doing something unexpected. I love how you hum when you brush your teeth, and have conversations with your food even when I’m standing in the room with you.”
“I don’t have conversations with my food,” Freya replies with a nervous snort-filled laugh as she looks at the people around us.
“You do, and it’s so fucking adorable, it’s hard for me to keep my hands off you. You also have this uncanny ability of making me happy and at peace. I’ve never felt more at home than when I’m sitting on your sofa, watching you sniffle duringHeartland.”
“I’m sorry for how I told you I loved you at my parents’ house. You were right, I was a mess that day, but I’m not anymore. I’m seeing everything clearly now, Cookie. I think I’ve loved you since the moment I met you in that damn boutique when you spoiled Shameless for me. You blindsided me, Freya. You blindsided me with everything I never knew I wanted.”
He leans in and presses a hard, chaste kiss to my lips, his breath coming heavy and fast as he pulls back and adds, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you because you’re my wee treasure, and despite how crazy mad you make me and how much we bicker, there’s no one else I’d want to fight with in life.” He hesitates and gets a serious look on his face before adding. “I wasn’t going to do this here, but you’ve given me no other choice.”
He drops down on one knee.
He’s dropping down on one bleddy knee!
He reaches into his pocket.
He’s reaching into his bleddy pocket!
A blue velvet box appears in his hand. Like he magicked it into existence just by sheer will. He cracks open the box, and there sits a ring. A giant monstrosity of a thing that you would see dangling for dear life on one of those lanky supermodels with bones for fingers. It’s the kind of ring that’s so enormous it probably tips those tiny model’s weight over from ninety-nine pounds to one hundred and two.
