Page 80 of Lipstick Kiss

“Gotta love practical Daisy,” Luke replied.

“I think she knows as well as we do that we’re outdoors, practical people and staying cooped up in an office all day won’t work. Jason’s happy in the kitchens because he still gets to create and feed people. I have the best of both worlds because I get to go around and fix things, and most of those things are outside or in one of the rooms in Edward Hall. I’m not sitting in a chair watching my belly grow.”

“No, that’s my job,” Erica said as she came back into the room.

“Think about it,” Archer said to Luke, then gazed at his wife.

“I don’t have to. I love the idea. But what about the C&B manager’s role?”

“That is a future Turner problem. We can manage therole between us until the baby arrives,” Archer said before kissing Erica’s large belly.

“All right, who wants pie?” Erica asked as she pointed the cake slice to all of them. She got four nods, and then Luke nodded to his brothers and grinned.

He had his job sorted. Luke knew he would never get Cynthia sorted, so the only other task was to speak to Freya.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Freya

“You’re not breaking up with me, Luke Turner!” Freya bellowed as she marched down the quayside as dusk was settling.

She saw Luke leaning against the wall, his arse resting against the stones and his ankles crossed. He turned his head towards her and gave her a dazzling grin. She faltered in her hasty steps and covered tripping up with a hop and a skip. Luke burst out laughing, but when she narrowed her eyes and scowled, he pressed the back of his hand to his mouth and swallowed his laughter.

“Hey, Peaches,” he said.

Freya came to a stop a few feet away and put her hands on her hips. She had a letter in her right hand and clutched it firmly.

“Don’t you hey me,” she said.

“You’re the one who has avoided me for a week, not the other way around. You are super stealthy when you don’twant to be found. I thought this island was tiny until you disappeared.”

“You made it very clear you didn’t want me anymore, but I am here to tell you breaking up with me is not on the table. So get it right out of your head.”

“It’s good you feel that way because I didn’t want to break up with you. I wanted you to break up with me.”

“What? Why? You are the most exasperating man I have ever known,” Freya said.

She turned her back to walk away. She got three steps away, let out a muffled scream, and put her hands on her head. She would never break up with him. She would never end their relationship. It had taken her a week to write the perfect letter to tell him, and then she got a message from Heidi to come to the quayside. Determined to see her speech through, she turned back around.

Then she looked down.

“Oh no, no, no,” she said, waggling her finger from side to side. “I’m still mad at you. You can’t do this now,” Freya said.

Luke was on one knee, holding a black leather ring box open. She thought the ring was stunning and itched to put it on. It seemed larger than the one she lost.

“Freya Riley, I want more than anything for you to be my wife.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Please let me finish,” Luke pleaded quietly.

Luke waited for her confirmation. She nodded and lifted the envelope, and pressed it against her mouth.

“Does that mean the letter will have two lipstick kisses now?” he asked with a nervous laugh.

“Is that it? Is that all you have to say? Can I say yes now?”

“No, Peaches. You have to understand that I love you,” he said, then cleared his throat.

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