Page 178 of Rock Chick

“I didn’t think so,” he muttered.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

“For what it’s worth, I’ll share my intentions,” he went on. “You and me, we aren’t practice for the real thing. It isn’t that too much is at stake with family and friends. It’s because I love you. You’re funny, beautiful and you care about people. I like the way you look at me, especially when you think I don’t notice it. I like that we have history and our kids will have a big family and share that history, because there was never a time when their mom and dad weren’t together. If you were a terrible lay, I might have second thoughts, but you and I are dynamite together. I intend to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you. If that freaks you out, tough, because now that we’ve started this, there’s no goin’ back.”

After a couple of beats I realized I wasn’t breathing, so I made a conscious effort to start again.

Lee was watching me. “Do you have anything you want to say?”

I had a lot of things I wanted to say, but none of them I was ready to say.

I asked, “When did you know you loved me?”

He sighed and slid off me onto his side. He brought me with him so we were face-to-face.

“I knew that last time you tried to seduce me before you started avoiding me. When I was home on leave and you tackled me in your dad’s living room and I told you that I thought of you like a sister.”

My heart lurched at the thought. That had been the most hated, humiliating, horrifying memory of my life.

“I didn’t tackle you,” I said.

“It was close to a tackle.”

Jeez.

Moving on.

“Why then?” I asked.

“Because what I wanted to do was get in your pants. It almost hurt physically to set you away from me. Itdidhurt when you got that look on your face after I told you that you were like a sister. It hurt to hurt you. That’s when I knew.”

“That was a long time ago,” I said to him.

His hand was resting at my waist but it moved around my back and pulled me to him.

“Yeah, we’ve wasted a lot of time. We’ve got a lot to make up for.”

He was nuzzling my neck, but I wasn’t quite finished talking.

“You want to marry me?” I asked.

“No. I’m gonna marry you.” He lifted his head from my neck. “You’re movin’ in this weekend. We’ll get settled, get used to each other, spend some time up in the cabin, maybe go away somewhere with a beach. In a few months I’ll get you a ring then we’ll get married.”

I didn’t believe what I was hearing.

“You have it all planned out,” I said.

“Well…yeah.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“That’s it. Isn’t that how it normally happens?”

I guessed it was, but still.

I felt his body move against mine and knew he was laughing.

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