Page 73 of How To Fake A Fiancé

“Is that weird?”

“No. That was my first time without one, too,” I confess.

She chuckles. “That’s a relief.”

It sucks that she and I didn’t make a baby together, but maybe it’s for the best. If being alone is what she wants, who am I to hold her hostage?

“How do you feel about me not using one?” I ask timidly.

“Strange, but for some reason…I trust you.”

Those are three of the best words I’ve heard in my life.

Turning over to her, I cup her face in my hand. “I trust you, too. I love you.”

She stares into my eyes, shocked and searching. As though she were looking for some sense of proof.

“I loved someone once.” She tears her gaze from me as tears flow from her eyes. “Not sexually, but platonically. I trusted him like I would my father when I was a kid. I thought he loved me like his own, and trusted him completely. Without question. But one day he packed his bag, told me he never considered me as his kid, and left.”

“I was in love once, too,” I tell her.

She looks surprised to hear my confession.

“I planned to marry her when my mom was diagnosed. We chose to wait, but five years went by and she got tired of waiting. Putting my life on hold put our relationship on hold, and it wasn’t fair to her.”

“What did you do?”

“I let her go.”

“Why?”

“Because I had to. At the time, I was tired of making promises to her that I couldn’t keep. The rest of the world kept moving forward when I was standing still. I let her go because I knew nothing would change.”

“But things have changed.”

“Exactly. And I don’t intend on wasting that.” I wrap a hand around her waist, bringing her closer to me.

She shakes her head. “What is it about me that you want so badly? What makes me different from her?”

“You’re not afraid to tell things how they are, you’re honest with the ones you care about, and you don’t take crap from anyone.”

She looks at me seemingly in disbelief. “So you’re pursuing me because I’m eccentric?”

“I’m pursuing you because you’re unapologetically you. That’s why I want you. And that’s what I love about you.” Kami may want me to lay it on thick and propose with a grand gesture, but nothing about my proposal will be fake.

She stiffens as though stunned by my declaration. Almost defeated. She remains silent for a long time, perhaps processing my words and maybe figuring out what to do or say next. “I need to think about this.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Thursday, November 24

Hernandez Home

Abilene, TX

Kami

Well, that didn’t go as planned.

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