Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 22331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
‘What if’ is one hell of a question, and I’m liking every answer I can think of.
8
HANK
There’s a lot going through her mind, and that is something I completely understand. I’m not talking about just taking a leisurely stroll in the park, I’m talking about changing our lives entirely.
“Moving in together. It’s awful sudden. My family might think I’m crazy.” She pauses, and then shakes her head. “Or they might understand entirely, given everything that’s happened with my siblings. I have no idea.”
“If it’s what we want, Fig, it’s what we want. Nothing should stop us. Hell, we want to go all the way with this? How about we get married?”
She gives me with a thousand-yard stare. “What the hell, Hank? You can’t just joke about things like that so flippantly.”
In response, I kiss her. Deeper, harder than before. She instinctively reacts, her kisses feeding back into me, wanting me as much as I want her. Our embrace breaks, but my needful gaze into her eyes doesn’t. “There’s nothing flippant or joking about my suggestion, Fig. I’ve been in love with you since you were sixteen.”
“In high school? You can’t really mean that. No one knows what they want in high school.”
“That’s why I didn’t make a move then. It didn’t feel right, you were too young for me back then, and you were my friend’s little sister. It felt like a bad move in so many ways. But now we’re both back in Home, as if the universe brought us together again for a reason.”
“Sometimes coincidences happen.”
“Maybe, but I can’t avoid how I’m feeling now. I’m still as passionate about you as ever, maybe more.”
She takes a deep breath, pondering everything I’m telling her. “What does us getting married even look like? It’s just all too crazy.”
“It is. But maybe we can tone it down. We can make it all old-fashioned and stuff. We can wait until we’re married.”
Fig laughs. “Really? You’re going to tell me you’re a virgin, Hank?”
I shrug. “Never really clicked with any girl enough to go beyond a second date. I’ve had lots of second dates, but nothing happened on them. Guess my subconscious was still thinking of your cute little ass.”
“But you’re a firefighter. You’ve been on the calendar. You gotta be knee deep in women who want you for a casual fling.”
“Casual flings aren’t my thing, Fig. Besides, I could say the same about you. Had to be beating the guys off left and right out in LA.”
She shakes her head. “Kinda and kinda not? I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that a lot of guys studying fashion aren’t of the heterosexual variety. And outside that I’ve always been sort of conservative in my dress. Sure, I’ve been approached at parties, but nobody seemed worth the effort of going out with.”
“It’s that fate thing again, Fig. It’s rearing its head. Making us come back together after all this time, keeping us virgins for one another. It’s like, destiny.”
She parts from me, pacing back and forth with her arms crossed. “I don’t know. It’s going to be hard enough to tell my family I really don’t want to go back to Los Angeles for that apprenticeship. To let them down with that. Then to tell them I want to open a small business in Home instead… Those two things alone are gonna knock them on their asses. To tell them I’m also suddenly getting married? I think I’m going to cause a mass heart attack.”
“I know your family, Fig.”
“I am my family, Hank.”
“And sometimes you need an outside perspective to understand something. I think you’re overthinking it. Your family will be behind you no matter what you do, girl. They’re not the type to judge you unless you’re doing something twisted or cruel. And nothing about you is that.”
She chuckles. “You don’t know me well enough to know that, Hank.”
“I sure as hell know you’re not cruel. Twisted? Maybe. We can experiment and see if we’re both into that sort of thing.”
More redness in the face. It is absolutely adorable and I want to see it every day for the rest of my life.
“So, the way you’re talking,” I say, stroking my chin, and matching her pacing with my own. “I’m getting definite yes vibes that you’re on board with what I’m proposing.”
She swallows. “And what you’re proposing is marriage?”
“That’s what I’m getting at, yes. So, will you marry me, Fig?”
To drive the point home, I drop to one knee.
“Oh my God,” she’s shaking her head, struggling to deal with the sheer immensity of everything I’m throwing at her. “Yes. It’s a hasty and possibly crazy idea, but I’ll marry you, Hank.”
She keeps shaking her head, in sheer disbelief of the words she just said. For me? This has been inevitable ever since I saw her across from that dinner table yesterday.