Page 32 of Suddenly Pregnant
“No. I asked Cressida to marry me, and I told myself it was more for her than for me. But deep down I must have known we weren’t a good match, and having asked her and gotten engaged and not worked out was a way for me to reiterate that commitment wasn’t for me.”
She registered his words, the weight of them stealing the air from her lungs. She sat on the arm of the sofa, needing some support to keep listening. “I… never thought of it that way.” Made sense, though.
“I know. Last night, I was thinking a lot. And this morning.”
“And?” she asked, apprehension searing her nerve endings. Shit. Was this the time when he’d tell her he had some random calling and would move to Nepal to climb the Everest?
“I love you, Billie. I want to marry you if you’ll have me… because I want to, not because that’s what expected of me.”
She slid down from the arm of the sofa to the actual seating part, but she barely felt the cushion under her ass. His words reverberated inside her, and her heart had multiplied in size—in a happy way, not a weird medical event. I love you, Billie. Did he? She touched her forehead, then rubbed her temples, trying to understand everything that was happening. Then her gaze fell on the kangaroos he still held. “Why did you get the kangaroos?”
He slowly sat each one of them on the coffee table in front of her. They were plushy, cute, and the beady eyes were all staring at her in a creepy way—but maybe she watched too many scary movies. “I remembered you asked me once why you couldn’t have all the kangaroos. I searched online for petting zoos nearby, but none of them had kangaroos, as I suspected. Besides, no one took calls at two a.m. anyway.”
“Two a.m.?” She took one stuffed animal from the coffee table, her hand trembling a bit.
“Yes. So I thought the next best thing would have to do. I found these stuffed animals online, ordered them, and drove to the store to pick them up as soon as they opened.”
She looked at the tag and recognized the department store name. That store every so often featured different animals from various countries as part of their branding. “You drove to Houston?” she said, more of a statement than a question.
“To and from, for the last few hours,” he said with a smile that devastated her. He’d driven for a few hours to buy those stuffed animals to prove a point. He’d give her all the kangaroos she wanted in life. He’d give her anything. He loved her.
Happiness, unfiltered and unrestrained, bubbled inside her, and she launched into his arms, wrapping her arms around him. He kissed her, his tongue stroking hers and he pulled her to him with such urgency, she nearly fainted.
“I love you,” he said, his forehead resting against hers. “I’ll buy you a proper ring later, whichever you want.”
Like she could care about the ring… “I love you too. So much.”
He stroked her cheek, and she leaned into the caress, her body humming. Her heart happy. “Really?”
She kissed the palm of his hand, then gave him a coy smile. “Really. I’m sorry about being so blunt and I didn’t mean to throw your mother into the mix when we had our last chat,” she said, her voice sobering for a moment.
“You were right though. I was too comfortable, but you showed me I could be more. I want to be more with you, Billie. I’ll live wherever you want me to live, even if I have to walk away from Downunder Adventures. I want you to be happy.”
Tears of happiness welled inside her and pricked hotly behind her eyes. She, too, would go to the ends of the earth for this man… her man. “You don’t have to quit it. I’ll live in Australia, I just want to be able to visit my cousins from time to time.”
“Of course.”
She pulled his collar and kissed him, and he cupped her ass, bringing them to that sinful and perfect mold. “I love you,” she said, before she nipped his lower lip.
“Me too. I’ll never get tired of hearing it,” he said, then lowered his hand to the knot around her robe. “Should we go to your room?”
She glanced around the living room, and now, the walls seemed brighter, even though they hadn’t changed a bit. The living room, less somber and dark. The same space that had witnessed her being treated with indifference in the past. “Actually, I want us to be right here first,” she said. It was high time she started to create happier memories…