Page 100 of Shortcake
ChapterNineteen
Addy
My fingernails were gone.
Okay, not gone. That’d be gross.
But I had pretty much bit them down to stubs. And I hadn’t done that since I was in fifth grade and went to school knowing I hadn’t finished my diorama on Little Women.
As I paced the foyer to Conrad’s house, Gus and Eleanor were at my heels, following right behind me. Every time I stopped to spin around, my short, little sundress billowed out around me, probably flashing my thong-clad ass to any neighbors who might be peeping in.
Eleanor’s plastic ball clunked against my heel as I halted to a stop on the other side of the room and Gus looked expectantly up at me, as though expecting a treat for heeling like a good boy.
“I know, guys. I know,” I muttered as though they could understand a damn word I was saying. “This is good though. You stay up here with me and look adorable. Maybe he won’t get so mad.”
Yeah right. He had trusted me. He trusted me to take Harper out and while under my watch, she had gone off and made out with Adam.
Harper had begged me not to tell her dad as I dragged her out of the store by the elbow. But how could Inot? Sure, it was just a kiss. Hell, when I was her age, I would have been in that hot tub downstairs making out with a guy while topless within a a week of moving in … but if there was one thing I knew for a fact, it was that I was no role model.
She was still supposed to be grounded and her dad was graciously allowing her this short leash… and she blew it.
And she turned me into a freaking rat. Yep, sign me up for witness protection because I was basically a narc.
Addy a few weeks ago? Never would have snitched on two teenagers making out in a bookstore.
Outside, a car door slammed shut and my heart leapt into my throat.
“He’s here,” I whispered, grabbing the treats from my pocket and holding them up to Gus. “Sit!” I hissed at the dog. “Look cute!”
Gus did as I asked and plopped his butt on the ground.Well, at least one of Conrad’s kiddos listen to me.
I tossed him the treat just as the front door opened and Conrad walked in.
Goddamn, he was gorgeous.
And that was not something I thought I’d ever say about a cop in uniform.
But the way those khaki pants fit tight around his firm ass. And the badges and medals that he wore from his years on the force in NY, combined with the aviator sunglasses. Holy hell. It was like he stepped right off the screen of some sexy movie or something.
“What’s going on?” he asked as I stood there staring at him like an idiot.
Gus didn’t wait. As soon as Conrad was in the door, he launched onto his hind legs, dancing like a circus dog. Conrad bent to say hi to his dog and he tapped the plastic casing of Eleanor’s bubble. “We ever gonna take her out of there and let her roam?”
He was bent on one knee, looking up at me and seeing him like that? Oh God. The feelings. All the feelings flooded my chest.
This man was down on one knee before me.
I love you… I mean, that. I love that about you.
His words from the other night spun in my head. Which was it? Did he love me? Or was it just a word fumble?
And as cool as I prided myself on being, and as much as I realized this man was not indeed proposing to me, it didn’t matter. Because in that moment, seeing him on bended knee, I was the furthest thing from cool.
It didn’t matter what he meant to say to me, because the truth was,Ilovedhim. Even now, for barely dating a few weeks, if he asked me to marry him, my answer would be yes.
I love him.
I love him and I was about to tell him something that was no doubt going to make him angry enough to probably not speak to me for the rest of the night.
