Page 197 of The Casualty of Us
“Go be happy, Ollie,” she breathes out suddenly. “Get the girl and be so happy for me, okay?”
“Okay.” He nods, pulling back to give her a wide grin before grabbing her cheeks and kissing her forehead. A smile lights upher face again, leaving her with a happy look on her face as he runs from the room. “Bye, Dad!”
“Oh, don’t mind me,” their dad scoffs, rolling his eyes and clueing me in as to who they got that habit from. “Not like I might have some advice or anything.”
“You can call him,” O’s mom sighs at him sympathetically. “It’s the nature of things, love.”
“Don’t worry, Daddy,” O calls out joyfully. “You’ll like Marley way more than you did Hayes at first.”
That makes me narrow my eyes at her, debating whether she’s ready for round three, and the wink she throws my way lets me know she’s definitely on the same page.
“It’s so pretty,”O sighs happily, stretching her hand up out of the bath to admire the panther cuff wrapped around her delicate wrist. “I’m going to have to socialize more to find places worthy of taking it.”
Round three having been excruciatingly enjoyed in the slowest way that I could possibly manage.
“You’ve been socializing just fine.” I laugh quietly, reaching up from behind her to twist it around. “There will be plenty of places and plenty of more pieces to choose from.”
“Hmm.” She sighs a little deeper this time, her back moving against my chest as she does and dropping her hand back to the side of the tub. “You planning on dragging me to a ball sometime soon?
“Or a date,” I scoff.
Hating that the entire world doesn’t already know we belong to each other.
Her head moves against my chest, turning until her eyes find mine. “That’s awfully risky.”
The instant worry there makes me move the hand still on her bracelet up to her face, running my thumb over her bottom lip while reminding her softly. “Spring break, right?” I drop my thumb to lean down and bite at it, loving how it’s a bit fuller than the top. “That’s the end of the line. No more playing games with stalkers or hiding behind closed doors.”
“Right,” she breathes tensely, making me nip at her lip one more time before pulling back to smirk.
“So I get to take you on a date.”
She snorts softly, turning her head back and lifting a leg from the bath while droning, “I’m so glad the prospect of my stalker wanting to murder you is exciting.”
It is actually. I would have dropped a fucking pin for him already if I didn’t think she would have murdered me herself for it.
Which would be really sad for our future hypothetical babies.
“It is actually,” I repeat out loud, moving my hand down to her hip and pressing the issue that I’ve been putting off. “What are you going to say back?”
Knowing that if I don’t bring it up, I can’t get mad when she pops up with ten more notes a month from now. That some things happen so fast in her head that she really doesn’t think to share them. It’s just how she’s built.
“Really?” She glances back at me with a scowl. “On Christmas?”
“You already know what you’re going to say.” I squeeze her hip. “Out with it, Freckles.”
“Fine.” She pouts up at me with a blink before turning back and starting to run her foot along my shin. “I think a two-part approach is best considering the condensed timeline now.”
“And that means?”
“I throw something innocuous in there first.” She pauses, rushing out the rest with an empty voice. “Like asking him his age or favorite color to play up the fact that it will make him think I’m interested at all.” I clench my jaw to stop the word no from immediately springing out as she continues quietly. “I’m hoping it will distract him enough from the second question that he won’t worry too much over it.”
I lift my other hand to trace the shape of her collarbone, trying to force some normalcy into my voice. “What’s the second?”
“I need to know more about what escalated this,” she muses. “So I’m going to ask him what the moment was when he realized he wanted me.”
“Wouldn’t that be obvious though?” I argue, in part just because I don’t want her anywhere near this really. “With the kidnapping?”
“It could be.” She shrugs, shoulders moving against my skin before posing softly. “But what if it’s not?” Giving me the impression that she’s talking more to herself now. “What if everyone’s linchpin assumption is wrong?”
