Melting Hearts (Loving the Soun - Kat Obie Page 0,65

now?”

Petey hated how Lucas could read him so well. But he should talk things out with him. "I feel like I should have done more. I knew Jared was an asshat, and when he showed up in Cleveland, I knew he was going to do something. But I didn’t trust my gut and invest in a security system, because Maddy didn’t want it. Add in the fact that I wanted to tell her how it nearly killed me to see her like that. I love that girl, you know?”

Lucas looked like he was going to shake Petey up. "You're an idiot. You're acting like it's hard, and it's not. She wants you. She asked for you the moment she woke up. Who cares that you didn’t get more security set up? She didn’t. She just wanted to see you again. You need to stop being such a twat with her. It’s not that hard."

Petey scoffed. "Have you figured out how not to be a twat with girls yet?"

"Oh, I have a system. But this is where you and me are built differently. I make sure I'm not a twat in bed. But you want more than a good fuck. You just need to romance her."

"Yeah, that's completely not helpful." Petey scolded himself for expecting more from Lucas. He knew that if he romanced Maddy, things would be fine. But although he’d already wooed her at this stage, he’d also failed her. How did you romance someone you’d failed?

"Oh, you have this. Just tell her how you feel. You don’t need to know everything now."

Petey wanted to strangle his brother for being so frustrating. But then he realized something. In his heart, he didn’t want to lose Maddy. He wanted to marry her and have a future with her. That meant getting engaged again, but for real this time.

"Okay," said Petey. “You might be right, but even that isn’t so simple. It’s romance city around here. I have to figure out a way to outdo all the freaking couples and make Maddy feel like she's special."

"What are you on about?" Lucas just looked over at him like he was crazy.

"Well, when Scotty proposed to Alice, he did this whole thing at the rink. It was a surprise party tailor made for Alice, since that’s where they met. They got married with the Cup that summer. And you know how Corey proposed to Jenna. Even Lager went all out when he wooed Leah back."

"Wait, you're thinking about properly proposing to her, aren't you?" Lucas said in shock. For someone threatening to keep nudging Petey into a deeper relationship with Maddy, he was acting clueless. You’d think he’d understand that Petey wanted Maddy forever.

"Of course, I was thinking about a proper proposal for a while now. Seeing her so badly beaten, I thought I was going to lose her, and I absolutely can't deal with the idea of not spending the rest of my life with her. So I want to do it just right for her and keep up with the guys' romance standards."

"There's your problem. You need to do what feels right to you. It doesn't need to be anything crazy or over the top. Neither of you are like that on any given day. I always thought you would do something small. Probably get down on one knee after you just did it."

That was actually comforting. He was right. It should be a low-key affair. He shouldn’t pressure her with a big fancy night. Although, even he was too much of a romantic to propose after sex.

Petey asked the one burning question he had. "Are you still cool if I use Grandma's ring to propose to her?"

It was an agreement the two of them had. Lucas was the one who technically inherited her jewelry and more of her estate. That was her way of trying to keep things fairly even between them, since Petey was slated to get a larger stake in their dad's estate and company. Petey had always wanted a family and kids. He also loved the ring because it was art deco but fairly understated because, when his grandfather purchased it, they didn’t have much money yet. So Lucas offered Petey her engagement ring if he found the right girl.

"I'll have Dad overnight it if you promise me you’ll tell her how you feel."

"Thanks. It’s a deal. I’ll tell Maddy how I feel soon. But if you could get the ring sent over, that would be amazing."

Maddy

Maddy