Page 72 of Tequila & Lace
Add stalking to my resume. Or creeper—whatever. Joselyn was either going to arrest me after what I was about to do, or have hot monkey sex with me. I was obviously hoping for the latter. I wasn’t used to the whole dating for real thing, so if this went south, Gabe was going to need to bail me out of jail.
After I’d followed the truck, I wrote down the address. It was a house still in Vegas so I knew Joselyn was staying in town. I called Mark on my way to the jewelry store where I was going to buy her the biggest diamond I could afford. I didn’t care we were broken up and she’d moved out. I loved her.
Mark was pissed he was losing another one of his escorts. In fact, he’d said he was losing his best escort. What could I say—I knew how to fuck. Joselyn hadn’t seen my best moves yet because she was only getting into her groove, but if she said yes… oh, if she said yes, she’d know why I’d had so many dates and repeat clients.
After the jewelry store, I went home to pack and wait.
That was the worst part.
Waiting for the right time to make my move felt like torture.
My entire house was packed in boxes and myJeepheld my suitcase. I told Mark that I’d be out by the end of the month. If what I was about to do didn’t work out, then I would find a place of my own.
I was sitting out front of the house that I’d seen the moving truck deliver all of Joselyn’s belongings to and I was beginning to get nervous.
I was starting to second guess my plan.
I wanted this.
I wanted her.
I wanted her more than anything in the world.
But what if she didn’t want me?
Taking a deep breath, I opened theJeepdoor and got out. I needed to find out my fate. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty, and the damn velvet box with the two-carat, solitaire cushion diamond on a platinum band was burning a hole in my jeans pocket. I’d never been so nervous in my life. War wasn’t this nerve racking and that was crazy to think about. Going into combat, you had no time to over-think, but the last few days, that’s all I’d done.
I walked up to the front door, my suitcase in tow, and rang the doorbell. I hadn’t seen her for almost a week and it had been the longest week of my entire life. I hadn’t eaten. I’d canceled my classes at the gym. Gabe and Autumn had tried to see me, but I’d told them I was sick. I didn’t want to see anyone until I knew what the future held for me and the girl who’d come into my life like a wrecking ball.
She opened the door with a smile spread across her face and then it fell—so did mine along with my heart.
“Are you going to let me in or are you going to leave me standing on the porch?” It was the same line she’d said to me the first time we’d met. It was my only saving grace.
She looked down at my suitcase and didn’t say anything, so I moved to the next part of the plan and just walked in. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m barging into your life, gorgeous, just like you barged into mine. You don’t get to walk out of mine when we have a fight.”
“We had more than a fight.” She closed the door, but I was on the inside. This was a good sign.
“Did we?”
She nodded. “We broke up.”
“Why?”
She stared at me. “Because you didn’t think that I really loved you.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring box and got down on one knee. “This will answer my question once and for all now, won’t it?”
Her eyes became huge and her hand covered her mouth. Tears pricked her eyes and she uttered the words I didn’t want her to say. “Stop.”
“What?”
She removed her hand. “Stop,” she whispered.
My head hung. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. I’d thought her tears were tears of joy and she was on the verge of saying yes. I had no idea that her tears were because she wanted me to stop. I started to stand, but it was no use; I had no energy. All of it was consumed by everything in me trying not to break down and cry. No one had ever seen me weak and no one ever would—not even Joselyn. She didn’t deserve it. I stuffed the ring back into my pocket and stayed on my knees.
“It’s not that I don’t want to marry you,” she continued, “but I can’t.” My head shot up. She knelt down to my level and we were eye-to-eye. “I’m undercover. I can’t get married. Plus, how would it look when two escorts got married?”
