Page 89 of Lyrical

“Stop arguing with me.” She looked past my shoulder. “Hey, Chase. Jills really needs a break. Maybe you two can take a little walk? I’ll go help my hubby-to-be.”

“No problem.” He came up behind me and slipped his hand in mine. I did feel a release of tension, so maybe Perry was onto something.

“She wanted to check out the flowers all over by thosehillsover there. That’d be a good place to start.”

I gave her a look that she ignored. What was up with her? I walked off with Chase, deciding the only break I needed was from her lunacy.

“Not going so well?” he asked.

“No, it’s been going fine. Perry’s just acting like herself, I guess you could say. What about with you?”

“One of the poles is bent, giving us a little trouble, but nothing we can’t work around.” We swung around the edge of the property and stepped up one of the small hills. “Before I forget, my parents would like us over some night. Fine with you if I set something up soon?”

“Definitely,” I said, giving him a quick kiss before bending down to pick one of the violet flowers, streaked with yellow. “This is beautiful here. I had my doubts, but I can’t envision anything more romantic for the ceremony.” I just had to pray it rained neither that day nor the few days leading up to it.

He pulled me down beside him, enclosing me in his arms. I could detect Perry and Stephen off in the distance, but just barely with the sun bright in my face.

“What type of wedding did you have the first time?”

“Nothing like this, that’s for sure. We just got married at the courthouse. It was meant to be more practical than romantic.”

“That sounds a little sad.”

I shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal. I got Daniel out of it.” I turned around and kissed him. “And I have you now.”

“Yes, you do.”

I faced forward again. I knew I should’ve been scouting out places, but it was nice to just melt into him and do nothing but watch the butterflies and bumblebees. It all felt so simple.

He nuzzled his face against my neck. “And I’m never letting you go, Jillian.”

“I never want you to.”

We sat in silence for a while, and I don’t know what came over me—probably all the damn bees flittering from flower to flower—but I brought it up.I brought it up.

“I know you want kids, Chase.”

“Jillian?” He swiveled me to look at him. I was kinda hoping to stare anywhere else but his eyes for this, but….

“I’m sorry I wasn’t even willing to discuss it with you before. You really scared me.”

He smiled. Warm and soft. “I noticed.”

“My answer’s not definite, but… at this stage in my life, I’m not sure I want to have a baby. You need to know this now before any more time passes. In case it changes anything.”

I couldn’t read his expression because he’d dropped his forehead to mine. He gathered my hair in his hands. “It changes nothing, Jillian.”

I placed my palms on the sides of his face. “Chase, you have no idea how much I love you for even saying that, but it’s because I love you so much that I don’t want to hold you back from everything you want.”

He pulled back, keeping my face still so I could see deeply into him. He didn’t speak, just gazed at me until his eyes appeared to swirl into a multitude of different shades, drawing me in fully and giving me no choice but to believe him.

“It changes nothing, Jillian.”

“Wait! I think I changed my mind.”

“Changed your mind?”

My body stiffened, my relaxation scale dropping from the triple digits down to the negatives the instant his cock touched my ass.

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