Page 68 of Falling for You
“Oh! By the big rock where we can see the sunset?” That is her favorite spot.
“Sure, Sunshine. By the big rock. Wherever you want.” I smile over at her.
She smiles out the window, excited for such a simple pleasure in an otherwise hard day.
Once we’re seated with our ice-creams, a mocha milkshake for me and a Milky Way on a sugar cone for Ems, the sun is starting to lower over the cliffs.
“Am I overstepping?” she asks suddenly.
“With what?”
“Olivia. I mean she isn’t my daughter, and here I am helping you fight this battle, being more emotional about it. I don’t… I mean… I don’t know. She isn’t mine.” That last part is said on a whisper.
“She is yours, Sunshine, as much as she is mine. She loves you. You love her. You have every right to feel and do whatever you want.”
“I don’t know. What would Blair think that I’m acting like she is my daughter?” She leans her head on my shoulder.
“I think Blair would be happy you’re treating her as your own.”
Olivia is hers. And if she wants it to be official, fuck, I’ll make it official, because that would make her mine.
“Marry me, Sunshine. Today, tomorrow, next month, next year, I mean preferably not the last one, but marry me. You’re mine. I’m yours. And Olivia is ours. Let’s make it official. Let’s start our family together. Officially.”
I stare at Rome like he’s lost his damn mind.
“What? Are you crazy?”
“I’m serious. I want nothing more than to be with you. All of this has taught me that I can’t breathe without you. When you were hurting I thought my own heart was breaking. I want you to be mine, forever, my wife, Olivia’s mom.Mine.”
“You’re serious?” I turn to face him, letting the Milky Way ice-cream drip down my hand and onto my leg.
“I am. I’ll marry you right here. Right now.”
“How about tomorrow?”
I launch myself into his lap, smothering him with kisses, our dessert, long forgotten in the sand.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn't in love with Roman Thomas. What started as a childhood crush that was never attainable, has turned into my dream.
When I come up for air, he finally speaks. “We need rings. And you need a dress. And your parents, and—”
I cut him off with a kiss. “I only need you.”
“Emma Thomas, you are all I will ever need. You, me and Livvy Girl.”
A grin spreads across my face, “That has a nice ring to it.”
“Sure does, Sunshine.”
I sit silently for a minute. This is everything teenage me could have dreamed of, but something is off. It doesn’t feel totally right.
“Rome, do you think we could wait?”
His brows furrow together as concern crosses his face. “Why?”
“Livvy Girl needs to be with us. We need to do this with all three of us together.”
He kisses my forehead. “Of course we can. I agree. Maybe she needs a matching dress?”
