Page 17 of Candy Coated Curves

“Where they belong. Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

“Roni,” I lightly grab her shoulders. “Where can we go where you’ll feel safe to hear me out? You wanna go across to the park and sit on a bench? Back to the shop? Tell me, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

“I don’t need you take me some place special to break my heart, Nash. You can do it right here on the street.”

“Oh my sweet, sweet, kitten, I’m not going to break your heart. Not today. Hopefully not ever. Never on purpose.” I grab her hand and pull her so we can cross the street diagonally and step into the park. There are a handful of benches and I just find the first one. I sit and pull her into my lap. “Now, we can do this a few ways.”

“Just do it quickly,” she says with a sniff.

“Whatever you heard that I said to that fucker, it wasn’t the whole story. Roni, I am so wildly in love with you, I want to paint your name across the water tower.”

She sucks in a breath.

“You are my whole world, kitten. My everything. I rushed to Gator’s to be by your side when I couldn’t find you and you weren’t answering your phone.”

“My hands were full of crawfish juice and gunk.”

“Which is a good reason for not touching your phone.”

“I should have texted you an invite, but I didn’t really know what to make of what happened between us. You didn’t say anything about the future or tell me you cared about me other than wanting to have sex or whatever, and I was trying to be mature about the whole thing,” she says.

“I had some things I needed to take care of, and I couldn’t have you with me to do them,” I say.

“Oh.” Her voice sounds defeated.

I dig in my pocket and pull out the black box. “I wanted to surprise you with this. I didn’t want you tell me it was too big or too expensive or anything like that. But Veronica, I can’t hold it in anymore. I tried to stay away from you. I tried to be the good guy and ignore how I felt so you could be with a younger guy. But then you had to crawl all over my big body, telling me how much you wanted me and only trusted me. Christ, please say you’ll be my wife.”

She squeals and throws her arms around my neck. “Yes, of course I’ll be your wife.” Then she kisses all over my face. A hundred little pecks of her lips, everywhere she can reach, and it makes me laugh and just lights my fucking soul on fire.

“You are everything to me,” I say, slipping that engagement ring on her finger.

“I love you so much, Nash. I know all that stuff I said about needing a big family might have scared you or whatever. I’ll be happy just being your wife. So it’s okay if you don’t want kids.”

“Who said I didn’t want kids?”

“No one, I just assumed.”

I stand up, picking her up with me. “You want kids, let’s go make one right now.”

She laughs.

Then I remember what she told me before we made love last night. “Though you did say you were on something.”

“No, I said, or something, which probably wasn’t very nice. I wasn’t trying to like steal your sperm or anything. I wasn’t thinking that far in advance. I just really wanted you to put your dick inside me.”

“Fuck, kitten, you’re so perfect.”

“I would like your dick in me again soon,” she says.

“Let’s go back to my house this time so we can spread out in my California King and not have to squish all up in that small bed in the apartment.”

“I’m probably still going to squish up on you.”

“Anytime you want. Consider me your husband-sized teddy bear.”

epilogue

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