Page 24 of Cocky Choices: Zoe Cocker

I point to Lexi. “Don’t say a word!”

She blinks, swallowing her words to offer a vague, “…I thought it was on a different subject.”

Samantha steps closer and tells the siblings, “It was family stuff, personal, you guys understand,” and I want to kiss her for lying.

Elena processes Sam’s words with an expression that betrays her doubt, but Tom accepts it and cuts to the topic that caught his attention, asking me, “What were yougoingto tell them that was important?”

I take a deep breath, feeling the heat of embarrassment still burning in my cheeks. “It’s… it’s nothing,” I mutter, worried that telling Tom about my new fiancé status will be hard, though I don’t want to admit why. And I never will! It doesn’t matter that I have a crush on Tom. I’m putting that behind me. They’re all staring at me, waiting, and I want to stop time, but the truth spills out before I can stop it. “I just got engaged.”

“What?” Elena blurts, clearly caught off guard.

My cousins are stunned into silence.

“I’m engaged,” I repeat, my heart pounding. “To a man I just met. I agreed to it.” The words feel surreal as they leave my lips, but there’s a strange sense of relief in finally saying it out loud to someone other than Ralphie. “He’s very handsome and comes from a highly respectable family. He said I could bring light into his life. He’s very wealthy and I think the money and status has stopped him from enjoying his…well…life! So, I said yes. I’m getting married.”

Tom’s expression is beyond somber. I watched his face as I gushed out all of what I just said. With each sentence the higher his wall went up. I don’t even recognize his voice as he asks without emotion, “Zoe, are you sure about this?”

Lexi and Sam are staring at me, still speechless.

“I am,” I insist, looking from one to the other, my voice steady. “I want a companion, someone to share my life with. I’m tired of waiting and hoping for something that may never come.”

“Shit,” Elena mutters.

Lexi whispers, “You saidyes?”

“I did.”

“Some wealthy handsome guy asked you to marry him right after you met him?”

“Yes.”

“And you saidyes,” she blinks.

“Zoe, this is a huge decision,” Samantha chimes in, tone cautious like I might start running again if she says the wrong thing. “You don’t even know this guy.”

“People used to have arranged marriages and they never knew each other until the wedding day!”

“But the families knew them,” Samantha reminds me.

“I know enough,” I shoot back, my frustration bubbling to the surface. “I’m ready to take this leap. It’s my life, and I make my own choices.”

“What did your brothers say?” Samantha asks me with warning in her tone.

Lexi finally catches up, her laughter ringing in my ears. “This is amazing! You’re really going to marry someone you just met? You did it! You kept your fucking promise!”

“Stop it, Lexi!” Samantha snaps, clearly irritated by her sister, though why she would be I don’t know. Lexi is a wild child and has always been — why wouldn’t Lexi celebrate that in others?

Celebrate that in…me.

Tom shifts on his feet, “What promise?” gaze steady but his expression unreadable to me. I suddenly catch a flicker of something in his eyes — concern, maybe? Or is it something deeper? I can’t quite place it, but I have a small shiver down my spine. What is going on? What is he thinking?

Samantha starts to speak but Lexi barrels over her, “I told Zoe to take a chance when it comes to love. I told her to do something wild.”

“Like what she did,” I tell him, adding to them all. “And that worked out great for you!”

Samantha gasps, “Zoe, it’s just…this is marriage!”

“So?”

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