Page 437 of Now and Forever

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“Lil?” Drake asks next to me.

The entire cabin is quiet and everyone is fast asleep. I was about to join in their peaceful slumber, but the annoying man next to me keeps me up.

“Yes, Drake?” I ask, exasperated.

“When you think of being married to someone, who comes to your mind?”

Is he fishing for some information? That will never happen. As if I will dish out to him.

“No one, really. Marriage is not something I dwell on.” Well, not anymore, I don’t.

“My parents think I shouldn’t marry anyone that isn’t you. Do you think they’re right?” Drake keeps pressing the stupid subject.

Kill me now, please. “Your parents always wanted that, but they’re wrong. We both know that.”

“I thought they were. Now, it looks like they were right all along.”

That makes me look at him. “Can you shut the hell up already? This is getting icky, Drake. We were through before we even began. There’s no going around it, no matter how we rehash things. You left me. You asked me to move on. And I did. I did as you asked me to. Now, you want to press rewind? I’m afraid I can’t do that. Not even for you.”

“If you want me to give up, it won’t happen. Even if you wish it hard enough to happen, Lil, because I haven’t been this sure of anything in my life—and I want you in it. In you, with you, day in and day out. That’s all I know and if you ask me to see reason, I am seeing it. You are my reason. It took me eight years to see it, but now that I have. I am taking action.” He halts and makes sure I stare at him, understanding him with full certainty, before he speaks again. “Run if you must, Lily. I will catch you, either way. Do not doubt that.”

I will resist you. I won’t give in until I have no strength left in me.

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