He turns around on the couch, ending his call. “Smart-mouthed nosey thing, you.” He smiles at me. “She says she loves you and to have fun and if I act like a buttmunch for you to call her and she’ll be there.”
“Did you call her?”
“I did.”
“Why would you put yourself through that?”
“Believe it or not, you’re worth dealing with your sister. I didn’t want her to worry while we’re gone. You might not come back the same person.” He winks at me. “You might come back engaged.”
“Stop it.” I look away and he laughs, loving how he’s torturing me. “The last time you got engaged it didn’t work out so well,” I remind him haughtily.
“I’m a different man.” He raises his eyebrows. “You’re a different girl. I proposed after sex. That’s probably where I went wrong.”
“Was the sex good?” I grip the edge of the couch.
“Now what kind of man would I be if I answered that?” He pushes to his feet. “Wait, don’t answer that.”
I roll my eyes as he approaches me. “I don’t want anything you guys did. I want different.”
His playfulness goes out the window. He stops right in front of me and moves the damp strands of hair away from my face. The entire time his eyes are on me, pulling me in like a magnet. “You deserve different, Mrs. Nicholson.”
I groan and push him away, stomping into kitchen. I have no intention of doing anything in it, I just need to get away from his teasing. His warm laughter chases me. “Why is that funny to you?”
He’s behind me suddenly, pulling me against his chest. His hands are splayed against my stomach, urging me against his unexpected hardness. “I like to know things are mine. I’ve lost one girl and I don’t want to lose you too. In fact I’m pretty sure you’d be the death of me if you left.”
I try to see his face and his expression, but he smothers himself in my neck. “Maybe you have to work on your trust too.”
“Maybe,” he agrees, kissing my throat. “Maybe you have to be understanding. I’m a jealous man and I want a way to make sure no man can take you from me.”
I don’t understand. He cheated on Willow. That’s why she left. Right? “No man can.”
“I thought that about Willow too. But if it was going to be any man it was going to be him. He’s like a better version of me.”
“Who?”
“Marry me, Rain.” He whispers it so softly I can barely hear it.
My entire body freezes. “Kent.”
“Say yes.” He kisses me right over my pulse, softly placing kisses until he gets to my jaw. “Please?”
“Someday.”
“Soon?”
“No.”
He sighs against me, blowing his breath all over me and drying his kisses. “I’m not going to give up.”
“Why is marriage an end-all be-all? People get divorced every day.”
“My parents have been together since they were sixteen. They got married when they were eighteen. I don’t think anything can separate them. To me marriage is the end-all be-all.”
The emotion in his voice makes me shiver. “My parents were married too,” I point out. “My father had a different girl every time he got drunk. I remember this one time he came home smelling like the honeysuckles out in front of our house. I thought he fell in them again, and then I saw the red mark on his neck and the look in Mom’s eyes, and I knew he’d cheated on her. Again. To me that’s marriage.”
“Where are they?” He holds me tight for a different reason.
I shrug. “I don’t know. They haven’t tried to contact us. We’ve been living in Jacksonville our entire lives, so I assume they don’t want anything to do with us. We’re not that hard to find.”
“Does that make you sad?”
“It breaks my heart.” My voice cracks. “But at least I have Becca. She’s all I need.”
“And me.”
I smile sadly. “And you.”
“Marry me.”
“No.”
He clears his throat and kisses my cheek, getting closer to my mouth. “It’s their loss, you know? Your parents. You’re an amazing person and anything you do now they don’t deserve to be a part of. Remember that.”
His words make my chest burn. “Thank you.”
“Promise me something?”
“Anything.”
“When you see him, remember I loved you first.”
“Who?”
“You want to hang out tonight? Maybe we can go on a date?” He releases me finally and smiles hugely at the impossibility of his words.
What is he talking about? “My first one? Sorry. I think Max blew