Page 226 of Repairing the Wreckage

“I love you, Muffin.”

“I love you too.” She carefully rests her arm over my chest and hugs me.

The thoughts that have been swirling around in my head since I arrived in Vegas spill out of my mouth. “Let’s get married. This week. Before we go home.”

Molly slowly lifts her head and blinks at me. Excitement and confusion play over her face. “But this week is supposed to be about you. You won your first professional fight.”

I trace my finger over her cheek. “Marrying you would be the biggest win of my life.”

She lets out a happy sigh and leans into my touch. “Mine too.”

Then anxious Molly checks into the conversation. “But where would we live? I don’t want to go back to New York and live in the dorms while you’re all the way in Johnsonville. That’s not how we should start our marriage.”

“You have to finish school.”

“I don’t want to live in the dorms anymore, anyway.”

I nod quickly. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.”

“You have?”

“When we get home, I want to look for an apartment or a house to rent near campus.”

“What do you mean?” She frowns. “Why would we waste money on an apartment when we can live at home and I’ll commute?—”

“No.” I cut her off quickly. “You need to be near school. And I want to be with you. It’s not that long of a commute for me. There are all those nice houses with apartments for rent around the college. We’ll look for one of those.”

“You’d do that?”

“I’d do anything for you.” I squeeze her leg.

“But then you’ll be an hour away from everything important to you—The Castle, your job, the gym you work out at, all your friends…”

“You’re the most important thing to me. The Castle isn’t going anywhere. Jerry pretty much lets me come in when I want, I can find a new gym or just go there after work, and our friends can make the drive to visit us.”

“You really have been thinking about this,” she says.

“Yup. This way you can roll out of bed, walk to class, come home for lunch if you want, stay at the library as late as you need to. You can still have your full college experience. Without all the noise on the weekends.”

“I can take classes online, you know,” she insists.

Why is she being so stubborn when what I’m proposing is the best solution? “But you say you prefer going in person. It helps you learn better.”

“Well, yeah,” she admits.

“Good. Then when we get home, we’ll start looking for a place.”

“Can we afford it?”

“Uh, after this weekend, we can pretty much afford anything. Within reason.” Fuck, how much money did our friends make from their bets last night? “And hopefully Remy’s sitting pretty today and won’t miss my rent money too much.”

“Why?”

I glance over at her confused expression. “He bet on me to win.” I flick my gaze to the door. “I’m pretty sure our entire entourage did. Since I was the underdog, the odds were very much in their favor.”

She stares at me with a blank expression.

“It doesn’t matter.” I kiss her forehead. “We’ll be fine.”

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