Page 107 of Rules in Love
With all my strength, I lifted that asshole from the ground and was just about to strike when Scarlett jumped onto my back and wrapped her arms around my own. “No. No fighting. I am not some prize pig to be fought over. There is no violence in this house. Brett, you can’t be here. You have to leave. And Finn, I think you should go too.”
“Me?” I said, twisting my head side to side to try and catch a glimpse of Scarlett, who was still riding my back. “Why do I need to leave? I’m defending you. I came here to ask you to marry me and find this asshole pawing all over you, and you’re asking me to leave?”
“Marry you?” Scarlett slid from my back and landed with a thud. “You were going to ask me to marry you?”
“Oh, God. This is precious. Haven’t you two been together for, like, five minutes?” Brett scoffed.
“Shut up, Brett!” Scarlett and I yelled in unison. With a grunt, she kicked Brett’s unsurprisingly small feet out of the way and positioned her body between us. Her face was flushed red and full of confusion I couldn’t understand. “Finn, you can’t be serious.”
“I was. I am, I mean. Just hear me out, okay.” I captured her face in my hands and caressed her soft cheek. “I decided that, yeah, we should get married. Iris needs a mum, right? And that lady at the tree lighting thought you were her mum. Then, after you left last night, Iris had a nightmare and was calling for you. When I woke her up, she wanted to know if she could call you mum. And the last twelve hours have been wall-to-wall mum. Everything is pointing me in this direction, Scar. I think it’s some kind of sign.” Scarlett wincing and Brett scoffing should have perhaps been a deterrent. They were not. “So, I thought we could move in together first, and then in the spring, we’ll get married, and maybe begin making our own family together, just like you wanted. It’ll be perfect.”
My soon-to-be roomie stood frozen for a painfully long amount of time. The confusion on her face was not dissipating as she stepped back and out of my grasp.
“Finn, didn’t you learn anything from Evie and Nate? Not to mention the whole house debacle? You can’t decide all this on your own and just expect me to go along with it. And you most certainly can’t ask me to be your wife just because Iris needs a mum.”
“It’s notjustbecause she needs a mum. I love you, Red. And I know you want to get married. I’ve seen the Scarlett Austen signatures you scribble at work.”
Hysterical laughter halted Scarlett’s reply and made me jump six feet. “Please. Somebody bring me some popcorn. This is fucking gold.”
With one hand on her hip and the other pointed toward the hall, Scarlett replied, “Brett, so help me God, if you don’t leave right now, I’m going to…to…well, I don’t know. But I need you out. Now!”
“Lette, come on. You can’t seriously be choosing this clown over me.”
“Brett, that’s enough. Get out, and don’t call me that. My name is Scarlett.”
Still laughing, Brett climbed to his feet and grabbed his keys off the island counter. “She’s all yours, Flim.”
It took all my strength not to chase down and kick that guy’s ass. But I had more important things to deal with. “You don’t really want me to leave, do you, Red?”
“Honestly, I don’t know, Finn. I don’t know what’s happening. I feel like I’ve been sucked into a black hole of stupid.”
My hackles rose. “Stupid. Marrying me is stupid?”
“No, of course not. But Finn, we’ve only been together for a few months. The kids only just found out about us, and you want us to move in and get married without even talking about it first? We don’t even have a key to each other’s places.”
“You do now. Look.” I fished the key from my pocket and placed it on Scarlett’s palm. “It’s brass.” Okay, even I knew that sounded stupid.
Scarlett’s eyes darted between the key and me. Her eyes slowly pinched as she began to chew her lip. “This is the first time in my life I’ve been independent. I am just starting my career. I have my own home. I want you, Finn. I do. But I’m not ready to move in together yet, and I’m certainly not ready to get married.”
“But the signatures.”
“That’s just playing around. A fantasy. Scarlett Austen, Jane Austen. It was just a game.”
“Oh, so I’m a novelty to you?”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant. Stop twisting my words. I love you, Finn. Surely you can see this has just come out of nowhere. For goodness’ sake, until recently, I was convinced you were going to leave me and go back home.”
A little dumbfounded, I clenched my fist and held it over my mouth. “What made you think that?”
She swallowed heavily. The elegant, long lines of her neck clenched and relaxed, and my fingers ached to touch her again, to soothe her. “I never told you this, but that day you went missing after your fight with Evie, Jan inadvertently let slip about your three-year plan. The one that had you going home in two and a half years and starting your own firm.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,oh. I’ve waited for you to tell me about it. But you didn’t, and I wasn’t brave enough to ask. Just when I finally let go of the fear and began to feel secure, you throw this at me.”
“Well, this should make you happy, then. I tossed that plan ages ago. I want to be with you. And if we shack up and get hitched, we’re both getting what we want. Security for you, security for Iris.”
“And what about love, Finn? What about wanting to spend the rest of your life with me because you love me and because we share the same goals and dreams? I’m not becoming someone’s wife because they think I’m a good mum and have child-fucking-bearing hips!”
