Page 25 of Luke

“I think we should get married.”

Chapter Eleven

Luke

“You can’t be serious, Luke.” She stumbled back from the words he’d just thrown out.

“Why not?” Luke followed her.

“You don’t want this. This isn’t your life, and I won’t be the reason you resent us. We can make this work some other way, but I don’t think we need to get married.” Paisley’s voice trembled as she spoke.

Luke ran a hand through his hair in frustration, tempted to yank on it. “So you know what I want now? Did it ever occur to you that my wants changed?”

“For how long?” She sighed and stared back at him. “I swear I’m not trying to be mean or anything. It’s just, what if when this mess with your father is over, you decide you don’t want this kind of life?”

“Apparently, I need to do more to show you that this is what I want.”

Luke didn’t trust himself to stay with her, instead walking away and into the office downstairs. He wanted to slam the door but resisted, not wanting to scare anyone just because he was frustrated.

She had every right not to trust him but it still hurt. It was nothing but his own fault that she didn’t believe him. Luke had partied and gone through women like they were disposable for years, and that included Paisley herself. Now he was suffering the consequences of his own stupid actions.

He wanted this, though. He wanted a family with Paisley and Garrett and any other kids they might have. Proving it to Paisley was going to be his biggest challenge yet. Hopefully, she wouldn’t turn away from him now that he’d tried and failed to marry her.

As he sat there lost in his own world, he remembered that Paisley was supposed to be getting some work done today. She’d acted like it was no big deal more than once, but he knew that she was stressed about it.

Her freelance work was on her own terms, that much he understood, but she’d still have deadlines to meet, he assumed. Hell, he didn’t even fully know what kind of work she did, which only proved Paisley’s point.

Standing, he took a deep breath and pushed his emotions away. He left the office and hoped that she would eventually learn to trust him again and that it wasn’t gone forever.

“I’ll take him,” he told Paisley, holding his arms out for Garrett. “Go get some work done.”

Tears stained her face as she looked back at him, confused.

“You can use the office. Just move anything out of your way.” He wanted her to share the space with him.

Paisley stood quietly and didn’t move to hand him Garrett.

“Go, Paisley. I know you need to get some stuff done. Let me take care of our son, and you go do what you need to do.”

Luke took Garrett from her hands without issue.

“Are you sure?” she wondered out loud.

He ran his thumb over her cheek as he stood there. “Married or not, we are both his parents. I will make sure that you get time to do what you need to just like you take care of him when I can’t be here or with you.”

“About earlier,” she started.

“No. Nothing more to say right now. We can talk about it later if you really want to, but we are good, okay? I’m not upset with you, and I hope that you aren’t with me?” He wanted her to tell him that she wasn’t going to push him away again over the proposal.

“You’re not mad? I didn’t mean anything bad. I just worry.”

Luke chuckled, unable to stop it from slipping out. “Baby, you worry enough for a dozen people. Let me share some of that load, okay?”

Being there for them was only the first step in showing her that he wasn’t going to change his mind. He’d have to come up with more, but he wanted to take some of her worry away, especially after her panic attack.

“Thanks. I won’t be long.” Paisley turned to walk away.

“Take as long as you need. It’s just us here. No one is keeping track of your time doing anything.”

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