Arrogant Bastard - Julie Capulet Page 0,67

and back, my Luna. You’re the one.”

It’s a strange thing, that you can live a life for twenty-seven years and not feel anything. And that you can then wake up the very next day and suddenly feel everything. On fucking steroids. I never thought I would turn into my father but that’s basically what’s happened, overnight. Except I think I’m even worse. I’ll give her the world and I’ll kill anyone who touches her. I don’t remember my father being the jealous type. He was too distracted by his crazy projects and his own thoughts.

For me, though, half of me is a walking cliché straight out of a cheesy romcom, buying flowers and secretly shopping for wildly expensive diamond rings, and the other half might as well be a digitally-enhanced Spartan with only one thing on his mind: protecting his woman to the death.

I take her to Nashville and they laugh at me. My new nickname is Caveman. Because if any of my cousins so much as glance in Luna’s direction I eyeball them with murder in my eyes.

We have a good time, other than that. Both my brothers’ girlfriends are beautiful people. Millie is quiet and sort of ethereal and Bo, hopeless romantic that he is, finally seems comfortable in his own skin. And no wonder. That promise he made to our mother was something I never could have done. I thought he was a sucker for having that much integrity. But now I think differently. Now I think of everything differently, like I’m seeing the world and all the people in it from a fresh perspective. The Luna effect, I call it.

The outcome of which is that instead of being a total prick all the time, I’m a much better person. I have to say, it feels good.

Caleb’s girlfriend Violet is perfect for him. He’s a lot calmer than he was last time I saw him. His eyes don’t look quite so spooked and he even laughs again. She’s easing him out of his dark place, healing him right before our eyes.

I guess that’s what love is, and what it does. As the saying goes, it’s the cracks that let the light in.

Snow has started lightly falling outside the wall of windows. It’s after dinner and we’re all sitting around the large game room in Travis’s house, with its leather furniture and bar and pool table. There’s a fire in the fireplace and the music is turned up. Kade and Violet are playing pool against Millie and Vaughn. Roxie and Luna are standing by the old-style juke box, picking out songs.

I walk over to where Caleb and Bo are sitting in leather chairs by the fire.

We clink glasses.

“She’s good for you, Gage,” says Bo.

I glance over at her. She’s the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever seen. Every time I look at her she takes my breath away. “Yeah. She is.”

Caleb actually grins. “Who would have thought it would happen to all three of us? Just like it happened to them.”

We raise our glasses and toast to our parents’ memory.

“I just want to know when it’s going to happen to me,” Travis says, joining our circle. He elbows me.

The song ends and I pull the small blue box out of my pocket.

“I have a question I need to ask a certain someone,” I say, to the room.

They all turn and look at me.

I walk over to where Luna is standing there in her jeans and her yellow sweater with her eyes that look gold in the warm light and her face like a dream. Better than a dream. Because she’s real and she’s mine. “It’s Christmas Eve so I thought it might be a good time to do this even though I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now but I wasn’t sure if she was ready. And I sure as hell hope she’s ready now.”

Everyone gets very quiet.

Luna stares at me with wide eyes as I get down onto one knee and open the small box I’m holding.

I take a deep breath. “Luna. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you because when you know for sure that something is real and too good to be true you want to hold onto it as hard as you can. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of. I love you so much. Luna, will you marry me? Please say