Page 118 of Fighting Jacob

She twirls back around, her hand shooting up to her chest. I play it cool, even though I’m anything but. After glancing my way to see if I’ve noticed the ring—I pretend I haven’t—she cautiously bends down to pick it up. My heart beating is the only audible noise when she slowly cranks it open. When the lid pops up, she takes in a sharp breath while I move into place.

“Don’t freak out.” I kneel in front of her, making her shocked gaze stray from the diamond solitaire ring in the box to me. “I know you don’t do hearts and flowers, but I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you. I want you to be my wife and the mother of my children, even more than I want you to have my last name.” I gather her other hand in mine. I’m so jittery with nerves, I need two hands to hold her dainty one. “If you accept this proposal, I promise this will be the last romantic gesture I’ll ever do for the rest of our life.”

Hope clutches my insides when she smirks. It's not the smile I was aiming for, but it's better than a flat out, "No!"

“I’m not asking you to marry me today; I’m just asking you to marry me one day.” I remove the ring box from her deathly tight grip. “Will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife, next week, next month, next year or within the next decade?”

The silence in the room is near deafening as I wait for her to reply. She’s said many times that she has no intention of getting married, but I want her to be my wife. I want her to have my last name, and I want my ring on her finger, declaring to the world she’s taken.

“I love you, Lola.” My declaration nearly has me missing the slightest bob of her head. “Yes?”

“Yes,” she repeats as tears spring into her eyes.

I stare at her with bewilderment, certain I heard her wrong. She just said yes, didn’t she?

Laughing at my shocked expression, she lowers herself to her knees before slapping my cheeks with her hands. “Yes, Jacob. Yes!”

I’m so overwhelmed with excitement, I wrap my arms around her before she’s prepared. We hit the floor with a thud, but Lola doesn’t mind. She giggles before requesting I roll because she can’t breathe. When I do as asked, the glimmer of a one-carat diamond catches my eye.

The ring! I’m supposed to put the ring on her finger.

After gathering the ring box in my hand, I clumsily remove the creation my dad helped me choose last week, then raise my eyes to Lola’s. Her smile competes with the moon when I slip the ring on her finger.

It glistens as brightly as the tears in her eyes when she murmurs, “It’s beautiful. Classic yet refined.” — Much like its owner. — “I love it, Jacob.”

When she straddles my lap to show me just how much, I make love to my soon-to-be wife.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Lola

Six months later...

* * *

The day Jacob has been waiting for is finally here. His rematch with The Constrictor will be held tonight in Hopeton. The winner, whom I have no doubt will be Jacob, will be crowned national champion in our region. That will give him an instant green light to fight in the professional league. Jacob is giving it his all to win. His workout regimen the past year has been brutal. He’s the fittest I’ve ever seen him. There’s not an ounce of fat on his body. Believe me, I've checked every inch of him—more than once.

“Are you sure you can’t cancel your class today to come to the arena with Hank and me?” Jacob asks as he paces into our kitchen.

I shake my head. “No, sorry, I can’t. Those ladies rely on me. I can’t just cancel on them.”

He jerks up his chin in understanding, but his eyes still show the disappointment he’ll never express. He knows how much the ladies in my class mean to me because he saw firsthand my reaction when I volunteered with him at Hopeton House one weekend. At the start, I was confused as to why children were living in a home if they had parents, then I realized most of the children’s mothers lived on the streets, and over half were victims of domestic violence.

With memories of Jacob and Hank teaching me how to defend myself filtering through my mind, I offered Chloe’s mom a private lesson. I was shocked when she turned up the following weekend with two women in tow. Since then, the number of attendees has climbed tenfold. I don’t make any money teaching them what Jacob and Hank taught me, but the reward I get seeing their confidence soar is plenty of compensation for my time.

“I’ll be there as soon as my class is over. That’ll be good a good hour or two before the first bell.”

Jacob kisses my temple, revealing he’s pleased with my negotiation. He’s not surprised, just pleased. I’ve matured a lot the past few years. It’s hard not to when you surround yourself with people like Jacob and Hank every day. They kind of rub off on you. Does that mean I no longer have a resting bitch face? Hell no! But Jacob loves me for who I am, so he puts up with all my prickly personalities.

Jacob stops guzzling orange juice straight out of the carton. “Just don’t be late. You know how much Hank hates tardiness.”

After rolling my eyes, I bridge the distance between us. “I was late once.” I hold my index finger in the air to amplify my reply. “And you’ve never let me live it down.”

When I balance on my tippy toes to give him a chaste peck on his juice-flavored mouth, he talks over my lips. “Have you decided on a date yet?”

He chuckles when my teeth get friendly with his lower lip. He’s asked this exact friggin’ question every day for the past six months. Although my ego loves his eagerness, I’m five seconds from killing him.

My brow cocks when a brilliant idea pops into my head. “Actually, I have.” I let him stew a little before saying, “When you become the heavyweight champion of the world, I’ll become your wife that same week.”

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