Page 68 of Be My Bride

“No.”

His eyes drop to my lips—which are currently between my teeth. “You’re worried.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes.” He reaches out and gently tugs my bottom lip down. “You are.”

His touch is whisper-soft. I want to melt into it, but I have too many thoughts crashing through my mind to let the Hansley-effect take over.

Hansley continues to hover over me, his face inches from mine.

I’m struck again by the near poetic symmetry of his face. The defined jaw line, the stubble, the pink lips and thick lashes—if he wasn’t so masculine, he’d be almost pretty.

“Is it because we’re flying out to meet my parents?” His thumb gently grazes my cheek. “You’d prefer we didn’t?”

“No. I’m—I don’t mind.”

“My mom insisted.” He frowns. “But I can make up an excuse to postpone this. You don’t have to meet her today.” He pauses. Seems to consider it. “Or at all. I’m okay with whatever you want.”

“I want to meet your mom.”

“Are you sure? You look—“ His eyes caress my face. “Are you sure?”

“I can handle it. I put up with Thad’s mom which pretty much prepared me for anything.”

“She was tough?”

“It was two years of passive-aggressive comments. Little ‘notes’ about my cooking, my outfits, my job.”

“She insulted you?”

“Whoa. Put the killer eyes away, sir. It wasn’t that serious.”

He tilts his head. “Just say the word. I can key her car while we’re taking care of String Bean’s.”

I laugh.

“I’m serious. She should have been busting the door down, doing everything she could to get you to stay with her punk of a son.”

“Punk? No, Thad could do no wrong. He was the apple of her eye and deserved the very best.” I smile sadly. “Which is why she wanted him to marry a lawyer or a doctor.”

“You own a graphic design business. Isn’t that admirable enough?”

“What’s admirable about a struggling artist?” I dig my fingers into my palm.

Getting my brand out there turned out to be harder than I thought. Grit and determination don’t pay the light bills and I found that I had to work other, menial jobs just so I could keep doing my dream as a side-hustle.

My business recently started paying enough to cover rent and I’ve been living on Ramen so I could quit all my part-time gigs and give the site all my focus. It’s not the most glamorous lifestyle, but at least I’m off the ‘starving’ part of the ‘starving artist’ gig’.

Growth has been incremental, but I’m nothing if not stubborn.

And organized.

Very organized.

My progress has been totally organic. My work does the advertising for me. Most of my customers come back again and again.

Still, compared to Hansley’s billions, I have nothing to shout about.

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