Page 16 of Love Me Reckless

Her eyes tense. “List?”

“The secret bucket list.”

“Bucket list? No. Donotcall it that.”

“Then what? The living will?”

“A living will is for someone dying. I’m not dying.”

“Marrying Birch sounds like a death sentence to me.”

She bursts out laughing. “You’re terrible!”

“Back to your plan, princess.”

Her eyes flash. “I am not a princess!”

“Prove it. Give me the plan.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not going to actually accomplish them.”

“Why not?”

“Because what if peoplefind out?”

“I thought that was sort of the point?”

She crosses her arms like she’s about to get stubborn, and it’s fucking cute as hell. “Imagining is enough.”

“To a princess, sure.”

“Ugh!” She flings water at me with her toe, splashing my face. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

Laughing, I wipe my eyes. “What’s your timeline?”

Her mouth drops open in shock.

I splash her knees. “Come on. Accountability is key here.”

With a groan, she leans back again. “I’m getting married January fourteenth.”

I ignore the burn eating my belly from the inside out. “The middle of winter?”

“When Birch proposed, the summer dates were already taken.”

I’m no sap, but aren’t weddings for pretty summer days with flowers and sunshine? It makes me think this wedding is the precursor to the rest of her life. A series of staged appearances, one after the next.

Fuck.

“Are you having a bachelorette party? Seems like you could bang out a couple of these goals in one go.”

She blinks at me. “I wanted one, but my mom said it was too risky.”

“Too risky for what?”

“Security and privacy are very important to my family.” She swishes her legs in the water, making little circles.

I let this go. She’s not seeing how fucked up this is and I’m not sure I’m the guy to spell it out for her.

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