Chapter 19 Beau #2
I’d already popped the last bite of chicken in my mouth, but when she said those words, it was an effort to finish it. I didn’t want to think the worst, so I tried not to jump to any conclusions. Setting the plate aside, I asked, “Do you think your family is going to be angry?”
Jules pushed the last few bites of her chicken and salad around the plate before putting it on the table beside her glass of water that she hadn’t yet taken a sip from.
Leaning her back against the armrest, she swung her feet up onto the cushion between us and sighed.
“It’s not that they’ll be angry. I can’t see that being the case.
But I just… I think they’re going to be disappointed with me. ”
Jules dropped her gaze to her lap, where she was fidgeting with her hands.
Having that answer, I learned I wasn’t wrong not to want to finish that last bite of my food.
Jules was comparing her situation to her siblings’ relationships, and she felt like she was the odd one out.
Like there was something wrong with her for having given in to what she’d been feeling with me weeks ago when things were still so fresh and new between us.
When I’d looked at us as nothing more than just two people scratching an itch.
Seeing her so downtrodden now, I would do anything to wipe that sadness off her face. Maybe that was the reason why I didn’t think twice about what came out of my mouth next. “So, let’s get married.”
Her body went rigid, and her head snapped up. “What?”
I smiled at her. “We can get married, Jules.”
She blinked in surprise, her gorgeous mouth parted in shock. No words came out.
Wanting to be closer, to make this moment more of what it should have been, I stood and moved to sit on the edge of the cushion beside her. Then I took her hand in mine. “If they were still open, I’d take you to the courthouse right now and marry you.”
Her eyes frantically searched my face, looking for a sign that I was serious or, perhaps, if I was joking. “Beau, I… You don’t want that.”
“What? Why would you ever say that?”
A small smile formed on her face, but it was tinged with sadness.
“You’ve been amazing from the moment I told you that we were having a baby.
Everything you’ve done for me since then has been nothing short of incredible.
But wanting to be a decent man and a good father is very different than wanting to be a husband. ”
“I suspect it is.”
“Exactly. I don’t want you to do something because you feel bad and feel you have to. I want the man who asks me to marry him to be someone who feels something for me, who finds me irresistible and funny and charming and—”
“I think you’re all of those things. And more.”
Jules parted her lips to speak but quickly closed them as the breath rushed from her in a deep sigh. “I know you’re a good guy, Beau. You don’t have to say things you don’t mean to convince me.”
“But I do mean them. Every word.”
She arched a brow. “But you haven’t… You haven’t…” She shook her head as her voice trailed off.
“I haven’t what?”
“You’ve made no attempt to be intimate with me, to indicate that everything you said to me on that trampoline before I dropped this pregnancy bombshell is still what you want.”
I jerked back in surprise. Had she wanted intimacy this whole time? “You’ve been… Jules, you’ve been so exhausted. But I… I think you’re… God, Jules, I’m crazy about you. I have to fight every urge inside me whenever I’m around you not to scoop you up in my arms so I can kiss and touch you.”
“What?”
Keeping one hand firmly wrapped around hers, the other went to the side of her face and cupped her cheek.
My thumb brushed lightly across her skin.
“After the last time I kissed you and we experienced any intimacy, the same day we made this baby, things didn’t go well.
That was all my fault. But I meant every word of what I said to you that day I came back from that demo tour.
I just didn’t want to make assumptions about how ready you would be to allow me back into that part of your life. ”
Tears filled her dull eyes. “So, you… You do still want me?”
“Angel, I never stopped. I don’t know how I’ve contained it for nearly two weeks now.” My thumb moved along her cheek. “You’re so beautiful, and every time I look at you, I want to kiss you. There isn’t anything you could do that’d make me find you more irresistible than I already do.”
Some of the light returned to her eyes. “Okay. That’s good. Great. But you’re talking now about just marrying me. That’s insane, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think so.” My hand squeezed hers.
“You’re the only woman who’s ever made me want something more in my life.
And you’re all I can think about. Maybe it’s fast, but I do specifically recall you telling me once that you were a bit of a rebel.
And shouldn’t a husband accept his wife as she is? ”
She stared at me, unable to find the words.
“Marry me, Jules. Let me prove to you just how committed I am to this, to you, and how happy I am about the way you’ve turned my life upside down.”
A tear spilled down her cheek, but my thumb caught it and wiped it away. And with a slight incline of her head, Jules said, “Okay. Yes. Let’s get married.”
Heat spread through my body, and I could no longer hold back. “Would it be alright if I kissed you now?”
She nodded, a smile playing on her lips. “I’ve been waiting for weeks.”
Unwilling to let another second pass, I closed the distance between our mouths and touched my lips to hers. Both of us moaned, the overwhelming sense of relief settling inside me.
My hand drove back into her hair as I deepened the kiss, my tongue slipping past her lips to taste her.
Jules placed her palm against my chest, and even with the fabric of my shirt separating us, that touch was everything I could’ve wanted and more.
Keeping my mouth on hers, taking everything I could get while giving her all I had in return, I released her hand and slid my arm around her back to haul her body closer.
She moaned again, and the sound did things to me that made it harder and harder to stop myself from crossing the next line.
I kissed her a bit longer, savoring every last bit of her, but eventually, I had to tear my mouth from hers to regain some control.
“Oh, I’ve missed you so much, Jules.”
She was just as breathless. “Me, too. Should we… should we go to the bedroom?”
That quickly. If I wanted her naked, all I had to do was scoop her into my arms and carry her to her bedroom.
The offer was tempting.
Beyond tempting.
But I’d already waited this long. I thought it might be fun to play a bit with her.
So, I pulled my head back to look at her. “Are you suggesting that I not wait until my wedding night?”
Her eyes rounded. “What?”
“I think it might be fun to delay gratification until you’re officially my wife. Between now and then, I can do everything in my power to convince you not to change your mind.”
“I’m not going to change my mind.”
I cocked a brow. “Are you sure about that?”
She nodded.
“How much time do you have?”
“To change my mind?”
“Yes.”
Jules shrugged. “I don’t know. When are we going to do this?”
“I already said I’d do it today if the courthouse was open.”
She licked her lips, her eyes dancing. “Birdie and Serena are closing tomorrow night, so I’ll leave a little earlier. We can do it then.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
I grinned at her. “You’ve got yourself a fiancé for a whole day.”
Jules bit her lip. “We should celebrate.”
“How?”
“I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?”
She nodded. “Not as big as the one you just dropped on me, but still a surprise I think you might appreciate. Unfortunately, I have to muster up the strength to get off the couch to give it to you.”
A chuckle escaped. “Where is it?”
“In the Westwood’s bag I brought home.”
At that answer, I got a clue about what the surprise might be. “Oh, you’re the best.”
I got up from the couch and went in search of the bag she’d brought home. Jules took it from me when I returned and dug inside it. A moment later, she pulled out two chocolate cupcakes. “I remembered the last time I had a cupcake and licked the frosting off my finger without you there.”
I groaned at the image that was still on my phone, an image I often looked at when I went home alone every night.
Holding the cupcake out to me, she said, “Happy engagement, Beau.”
I took it from her and gave her a kiss. “Happy engagement, Jules.”
A moment later, I sunk my teeth in and hummed with delight.
Everything about the moment was perfection, even if it was just another thing in a long list of things I hadn’t envisioned for my life.
But I didn’t regret it for one second.
Tomorrow, I’d have a wife.
Tomorrow, I’d be a husband.