Page 11 of Worth the Wait
And now I’m pissed at whoever sent the email and the person texting. “What?”
“Stephanie said she overheard Mrs. Green declare that she wanted me terminated because she saw us “making out” at the ice cream stand.”
“What does that have to do with how you do your job?”
“Apparently, because we aren’t married, it makes me a harlot.” Then she starts crying. Or so I thought. She’s laughing. “Who uses the word harlot nowadays?”
“Marry me. We can go get your job back after that.”
“You can’t ask me that because I got fired.”
“I’m not. I’m asking because I love you.”
“Oh. Then I’m accepting because I love you, too.”
Standing, loathe to put her down, I carry her with me to where I left my pants, loving how we match up when I bend down to get them and she wraps her legs around me. “That’s convenient,” I point out as my tip rubs against her.
“Focus,” she hisses.
“I am,” I assure her, making her giggle.
Finding what I was looking for, in more ways than one, I slide the ring on her finger that my dad put in my pocket last night when we left his house.
He’d hugged me, stating that he knew it was meant for Bellamy and that my mom would’ve adored her.
Seeing the same engagement ring on Bellamy that my dad proposed to with my mom has my eyes watering. I’ll choose a wedding band for her on my own, but having this piece of my parents’ history, their love, on my fiancée’s hand has me choking up.
I can’t believe this is real. That she’s real.
I couldn’t have dreamed up a better woman to spend my life with.
Chapter Five
Bellamy
April 13th…
“You’re engaged!” That shriek comes from the woman Peter informs me is Hazel, Carter’s wife. Yes, I’m finally meeting his teammates and their families. It took but a few minutes in their presence to see why Peter thinks so highly of them. They’re wonderful people.
Though, if I’m being honest, Tyler and Khary’s daughter, Taylor, is my favorite.
Peter informed me she’s everyone’s, and I can believe it.
On our way here, he’d told me a little about all of them. I laughed at Carter and Hazel’s meet-cute, cried when he shared how Tyler and Khary met, and vowed to join the other three women in helping Frederick and Teddy find their forevers.
We might have our work cut out for us on that. It seems as if Carter and Tyler’s unions came about as a marriage of convenience, which aren’t always pleasant situations. As Tyler and Khary can attest. Apparently, Marcus and Skye are the only couple who had a more traditional beginning.
“That’s not true,” Frederick defends me and Peter. “Theirs was, too.”
“I disagree,” Teddy steps in. “They’re also embarking on an MOC.” How the heck does he know the acronym for it? Is he a romance reader? Oh man, that would be so awesome. I wonder if we can swap books. I have a lot of mine in storage, preferring to have my library in digital format for traveling. But, since those days are over, I can change that. There’s nothing like the smell of a paperback. Of the feeling you get from flipping a page. Or the weight of holding it in your hands.
“How do you figure?” I ask him. Fellow bookworm or not, I want to see where he’s going with this. I point to my eyes then at him. I’m watching you.
“You’re getting married.” I nod. “It’s convenient because you love each other. Hence, a marriage of convenience.”
He is so proud that I can’t take this moment away from him. Also, “He’s not wrong,” Peter says to my left. “And, having you in our bed, in our house, will be awfully convenient when I want to make love to you.”
When my soon-to-be-husband puts it that way, I concede defeat while accepting the victory that is having Peter in my life. “Can’t argue with such sound logic.”