Page 161 of Protecting What's Mine
“Don’t call her. Don’t email her. Don’t even think about showing your face here. Ever. As far as you’re concerned, Mackenzie is an orphan. You never deserved her.”
“Oh, and you do?” she snapped back.
“No, but I’m sure as hell going to try.”
He hung up.
“What are you doing?” Mack asked.
He turned around and found her in the kitchen doorway. Sleepy and sexy. She was wearing his discarded t-shirt from the night before. Even with the bloodstains on the cotton, the bruises on her face, she was breathtaking.
“Taking out the trash,” he said innocently.
“You yelled at my mother. You threatened her.”
“Yep. And now I’m figuring out how to block her number from your phone. You’re done with her. Forever, Mackenzie. She’s no longer a concern of yours.”
“Did you mean what you said?” she asked.
“The part about you being an orphan?”
“The part about you convincing me to marry you,” she said.
Oops. She had been there a while.
Linc dropped her phone on the counter and casually started pawing through her refrigerator. “Maybe,” he said.
“Because if you did mean it, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”
He poked his head over the fridge door.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I’m saying if we’re both in this, then why not? I wouldn’t mind a nice barn wedding.”
He crossed the room in two swift steps and lifted her up.
“Just so you know, I’m not officially asking yet. I wouldn’t do that without a ring, and I want to meet your parents. Yourrealparents,” he said. “When they come here for Thanksgiving.”
Her eyes went watery. “And I’m not officially saying yes yet.”
“But it’s on the table?” he clarified, almost afraid to breathe in case this delicate truce would shatter or pop like a bubble.
She nodded. “It’s on the table.”
“So we’re staying here, or we’re moving away when you’re done at the clinic?” he asked, cocking his head, holding his breath.
“We’re staying here.”
He kissed her and swung her around until they both groaned.
“That Garrison can throw a punch,” Linc muttered.
Mack reached for the ibuprofen. “We are quite the pair. What’s Georgia Rae going to say when she gets a load of our faces?”
“One of a kind, Dreamy. You and me.”
“Thank you for standing up for me even though I didn’t need you to.”
