Page 65 of Burning with Desire (Forbidden Heat 1)

I laughed. “Actually, yes. This is a big deal. It’s a very big deal and for some reason I’m scared that I’m going to fumble it up. I fight fires for a living but asking a question has me scared out of my mind. Can someone explain this to me?”

“You are doing fine,” Becky said. “You just have to breathe. This is all going to work out for the both of you. There is no way that Julie would say no to you. She loves you. I know she wants to be with you always. You’ve talked about marriage with her before?”

“Some, in passing,” I said. “But we’ve never really made any definite plans. I’m just worried that she is going to feel trapped again and this might cause her to bolt and go back to school, or decide that she has to go on the road to follow something else. I’ve been thinking a lot that maybe before I was smothering her too close and I scared her away. I don’t want to do that again.”

“That’s not what happened,” Becky said. “You didn’t scare her away. She just wanted to do something for her. And she is back now. That had nothing to do with you, but coming back had a lot to do with you.”

“Yeah. And she apparently hated school. We’ve talked a bit and she said that place made her feel worthless. I hope this doesn’t undermine her confidence until she now doesn’t want to pursue her art. She is way too good to not be pursuing her dream. And I want to make sure she knows I’m behind her a hundred percent no matter what she wants to do.”

“She knows,” Becky said. “She knows.”

“I’m glad you are on the same wavelength with her, because sometimes I feel that I don’t really know what is going on inside of her head.”

“Julie is that type of woman. She is headstrong and doesn’t always share her feelings, especially with those closest to her.”

“I’m learning that, but sometimes that’s the thing that drives me crazy,” I said with a chuckle. I loved Julie so much and talking about her with Becky definitely helped put my mind at ease about a lot of things. She’d become kind of the primary confidant for both Julie and myself. She was a great friend to have.

“Ok, so you are going with this one?” Becky asked holding up the last ring we’d looked at. I had to admit that even in the light of the store that it did look really great. I tried to imagine it on Julie’s finger. It would match her very well, actually. Becky knew her stuff. I wasn’t sure why I’d second guessed her. It was a nasty little habit I was getting myself into.

We left the store and I said goodbye to Becky. She was going to pick up her kids from school to take them shopping for some new swimwear. The summer was about to begin. I could hardly believe that it was the last week of school. Zoe would be having a blast this summer. She would mostly hang out with Stephanie while Julie worked on her art all summer, but if Zoe really needed her, Julie would be there. Stephanie’s mother had already promised Zoe that she could come over and swim in their pool whenever she wanted. That was great for Zoe. She had made a great friend and she seemed way happier for it.

When I got back home, Julie was working on a painting. It was the same one she’d been working on at six that morning when I’d gone to work. I had only put in a half day at work, leaving the afternoon free to hang out with Becky and shop for the perfect ring, which I now felt I had. Now I just had to put everything in motion for the perfect proposal. I was getting giddy with glee thinking about all of the ideas that I had. I hoped Julie liked them. The proposal was something she should remember for the rest of her life. It had to be out of this world and spectacular.

“Hey, honey,” I said.

Julie stepped back from her painting and kissed me. “Hey sweetie. How was your day?”

“Good. Zoe not back yet?”

“No. I guess she is having fun at Stephanie’s. They haven’t called me to come and pick her up yet.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” I said. “Wow, this is impressive work, babe.”

I walked over to inspect the painting. It was beautiful. It was an image of a young woman stepping off a train and two male strangers rushing to her aid. It became apparent that one of the men was after her heart, while the other man was after her wallet. The details weren’t quite filled in yet, but the outline of the painting was mostly done. I loved to watch Julie work.

“Thanks,” Julie said. She grabbed a beer from the fridge and took a long swig. I could see she was tired. Doing creative work like that all day will exhaust your mind. And it was fun coming home to see Julie’s eyes totally exhausted from a day well spent in front of the canvas and her paints. This was spectacular. And I could tell that she was happy and very content.

“What do you want to do for dinner? Want me to order a pizza?” I asked.

Julie wrinkled her nose. “Pizza? Again?”

“Yeah, it’s good, cheap, and they deliver. What’s the problem? You aren’t going to tell me that you don’t like pizza, are you?”

“Pizza is fine, but not every single day. Can’t we get some Chinese takeout?”

“Sure, we can do that. I’ve got no problem with Chinese food. You know that. Well, the only problem is I’m going to be hungry like two hours later, but that’s fine. I can snack.”

“You need to start watching that little belly,” Julie said.

I looked down at my midsection and laughed. Julie was messing with me. Since she’d been working so much, she didn’t have time to cook, so we were eating mostly takeout foods. And that was not necessarily the healthiest options. I had to stay lean as a firefighter, but due to all the training I still did and all of the years of training thus far, I still possessed a high metabolism.

“You are on crack,” I said. “You are the one getting a little pudge on your belly, which I am not complaining about. I love that you are getting that little extra padding. It’s very sexy.”

Julie stared at me in shock. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.” She couldn’t keep the laughter out of her voice.

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“Well, you had to go there. Sorry, if you can’t take the heat.”

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