Page 41 of Terms + Conditions
“I—We bought a house in Jupiter Beach,” Elizabeth adds, her eyes never leaving mine.
“Charleston?” Georgie scoffs. “Why Charleston?”
“I’m not in Charleston proper.” Elizabeth rolls her eyes. “Besides, Jupiter is more private; the tourists stick around the other beaches, like Folly and IOP.”
“Well, I won’t be visiting.”
“No one was inviting you, Georgie,” I quip. I hate the way she criticizes Elizabeth’s choice of beach home. So what if Georgie doesn’t like Charleston? Elizabeth does.
The raven-haired woman whips toward me with a death glare, but before she can get out whatever snarky response she’s formulating, her husband places his hands between her shoulder blades, grazing the back of her neck in a slight hold. “Who’s hungry? I’m making burgers!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THEN
November 2018
I’VE REREAD THE SAME damn sentence forty fucking times now. Every time I try to focus on this damn book, my mind wanders to the woman standing on the other side of the wall with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. The water gushes from the faucet as she finishes brushing her teeth and begins her nighttime face routine. It’s the same thing every night—brush teeth, remove makeup, wash face, apply lotion and serums (don’t ask me which ones, but I know there’s a particular order), apply Chapstick, and change. Same thing. Every night. How do I know this? Because we have been “together” for almost three years. Sometimes, it feels like it’s been much longer than that. Others it feels like just yesterday we were signing on the dotted line.
We’ve had our ups and downs, like everyone else, but despite it all, we’ve managed to become friends.Realfriends. And right now, I wouldn’t say we’re “dating,” but we aren’t on bad terms either, and that’s okay. After our breakup last October, we never got back together. Christmas helped us ease back into friendly terms, though. Slowly but surely, we found our footing, and we have been able to open up again little bylittle. I’d rather be friends than nothing at all. It’s better than being stuck together when all you want is space from the other person. And two months ago, when I came down for the sixth anniversary of her parents’ death, we had the conversation we’d been dreading since the beginning of all this: the engagement. Elizabeth was graduating in the spring, which meant the clock on our impending nuptials was ticking. We had six months after May 31st to sayI Do,per the contract. That meant we had to be married before the end of November, which was only one year from now.
Elizabeth moves to the closet to finish her routine and change out of her jeans and black floral blouse into her nightgown, but I interrupt her.
“Can we talk?” The words tumble out and she steps out of the closet—one foot in and one foot out—about to undo the buttons of her blouse. She throws a suspicious glance my way. “I just, I want to…do something.”
I clamber out of bed and meet her on the other side.
“Okay.” She draws out the word. “Is something wrong?”
“No!” I clear my throat. “No, I just…Liz, I—”
Okay, Josh. Relax. Take a deep breath. You can do this. It’s just Elizabeth. Your friend. Your partner. The other half of your equation for the next seven-ish years.
Taking her hands, I take another breath and drop to one knee. Her brown eyes widen—bigger than I have ever seen before. Normally, the scene would be quite romantic. Cozy night at home, a fire in the faux fireplace across the room, the only other light coming from the Christmas tree in the corner. I had come down two weeks ago to help her decorate for Christmas because Elizabeth did not play when it came to decorating for her favorite holiday. “Elizabeth Regina Cain, I—”
“Josh, what are you doing?” She interrupts me. “We said we’d do this at—”
“I know.” I stop her. “I know we said we’d do this at Thanksgiving with the family, and that’s fine. We can. But I wanted to do this here, just us. Without all the fanfare and glamour that Brina and Nina forced upon me as soon as I told them what I was planning to do.”
Her features soften, and she squeezes my hand slightly.
“When I met you four years ago, I never imagined we’d be where we are today. But from the moment I met you, I knew you’d be an important piece of my life. You were beautiful and kind, funny…and you never took any of my shit. I liked that, even if I didn’t want to admit it. And now…Now, I can’t imagine my life without you in it. Whether we come out of this as friends or lovers, I just know that I don’t want to do life without you.”
Tears begin to brim her eyes and mine. Fuck, I didn’t think I’d be this emotional.
Swallowing back the tears, I say, “I know this isn’t perfect. It’s not the life you imagined, and I’m not the husband you imagined but just know that I’ll do everything I can to make the next seven-ish years as painless as possible for you. So, Elizabeth Regina Cain…Will you be my wife?”
A tear slips down her cheek as she takes a shaky breath and nods. I don’t hesitate. I stand and capture her lips in a kiss that catches us both off guard. We haven’t been intimate in over a year unless you count the PDA we have to display in front of others. Every time, it leaves me wanting more. But this kiss…There’s something different. Something real and raw. My mouth moves against hers; our tongues dance in a desperate embrace. Elizabeth wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me impossibly closer, and I delve deeper into her, earning a soft moan against my lips.
“Elizabeth,” I whisper against her.
She presses a chaste kiss to my lips as her fingers move to undo the buttons of her blouse. I take her hands, stopping her.I don’t want her to feel pressured into something she doesn’t want.
Just because I proposed doesn’t mean shehasto offer herself to me, even if I’m desperate for her. We haven’t slept together in the three years we’ve been together. It was a conversation we had on my second trip down to Savannah after I kissed her and left to drive back home on her first night in the townhouse. Elizabeth said she wanted to wait until marriage. She wanted her first time to be with someone who she knew truly loved her.
After she told me, William’s eagerness to jump ship and screw around with the girls at Duke made more sense. He didn’t want to wait around when he had plenty of fish right in front of him. Elizabeth told me she would consider compromising since we were going to get married eventually, but I refused. I wasn’t going to compromise something she believed in, regardless of if we were going to get married. I wouldn’t push her. And while a man hasneeds, it hasn’t been that bad. There are other…ways to keep the needs at bay.
“Liz—”
