Page 57 of Beautiful Storm

“Come on, Amelia. Arranged marriages happen all the time. Where’s that love?”

Dammit. He has a point, but… “I still think it’s a bad idea. I’m not even divorced yet.”

“For fuck’s sake.” For the first time since starting this conversation, a hint of his frustration slips through Luke’s facade. “I’ll fix that too.”

“Money doesn’t fix everything.”

“No, it doesn’t. But it can fixthis.”

“You’re making it sound likeI’mthe situation.”

“You are. You’re the one stopping this.”

“And you’re an asshole.”

“I thought we established that was never in question.”

I pause, running out of excuses. This is insane. I just walked away from my marriage; the last thing I want to do is fall into another one.

“I’m not marrying you.”

I can’t, can I?

“Don’t be so selfish. This is the perfect solution to all my worries.”

“Your worries. Not mine.”

“You’d seriously turn this down because of your feelings toward me? What if something happens? You’ll never forgive yourself for not having better care.”

“Jesus, Luke. Don’t say stuff like that.” My heart races now that he’s put that idea in my head.

“Marry me and you won’t have to worry.”

“Luke—”

“Is it because I didn’t get down on one knee?” He opens the door of his truck and jumps out before dropping to the ground and glancing back at me. “Amelia Joy Rosenberg,” he begins and I panic, my gaze darting around the parking lot to make sure nobody is watching.

“Please get up,” I whisper-yell, but he ignores me.God, what is he doing?

“Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

“No.”

“She said yes!” He stands up and cheers, pretending to accept some nonexistent congratulations from well-wishers while I thank God no one’s around. “Thank you. Thank you,” he gushes. “Yes, yes, we’re going to have a wonderful marriage. Oh, what a lovely thing to say.”

“Luke.”

“Yeah.” He drops the act immediately and gives me his full attention again.

“Please get in the truck.” I don’t bother hiding my frantic tone.

“You’re making this way bigger than it needs to be,” he says, as he sits down and closes the door behind him, cutting off the air supply. At least, it feels that way. “To paraphrase someone I know…” he continues as I stare at him, “‘I’d rather chooseanyoneelse to marry.’ But this is the hand I was dealt, so work with me here.”

“You’re so funny. I—”

“I’m just trying to protect you.” His voice rises, his words hitting me in the chest as they cut off what was about to be a smart-ass comment about the bachelor getting married. And when he adds, “I’ll do whatever it takes,” my heart stops and a tightness fills my chest.

Luke’s eyes widen as though he didn’t mean for that to come out of his mouth, but it was the right thing to say, because while it doesn’t solve all our issues, when it comes to this, it changes everything. He smiles uncomfortably and for a moment I see the young boy I thought I’d follow to the ends of the earth. My protector, my friend. I want to believe he’s still in there, but there’s so much hurt between us I’m not sure we can fix it, and he’s not the only one to blame.

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