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"I want to hear it.”
“We get married. It stops all this chatter from my dad, Tobias, and Xander. They see we’re serious. That you didn’t take advantage of me and that I want to be with you because I love you. Then, I sell the tickets and stuff I have for the Europe trip. That’ll give us enough money to make a start. We can pay for whatever tuition you need to pay for with that money. I looked up the tuition cost and even if you have no scholarship after this—it’ll work. My plane ticket when it’s cashed out will cover almost all of it. It would be a big gift if I just gave it to you, but if we’re married—it’s just joint money. And when you’re drafted in the pros next year, it’ll be pennies in comparison.”
She takes a breath, searching my face before she continues.
“We’ll move back to your university town and you’ll play football. I’ll either get a job or start attending classes. Maybe both. But if we’re married we could live in the family student housing. It’d be a lot cheaper and mean we don’t have to pay for separate dorms or an apartment. I might even be able to get a discount on tuition with you being an athlete. And between football and me, you’ll be too busy to get into any sort of trouble. I can help you with homework and managing your schedule so you don’t have to feel like you’re pulled in so many directions. You can focus on getting off the bench and back into your coach’s good graces. Plus it’ll give me a chance to explore what I want to do with my future without worrying about what my dad thinks or wants for me. The pressure of living up to my family legacy and my brothers. I’d be Madison Undergrove not Madison Westfield… It’s perfect, really.”
She finishes her speech and then looks to me for my reaction, and I’m mildly stunned. She’s thought it through. Researched it. Run numbers. I’d taken a break or two from her brainstorming session and apparently she’d used that time to formulate a plan. A complete one where our lives are on track. I wasn’t sure the living bit would work since I normally lived in athlete housing. But it might.
“I mean… After you’re drafted, you could divorce me if you wanted. I wouldn’t contest it. We could sign paperwork or whatever. Then we could start over… try the couple thing like normal. Just date.”
“Madness… I’m not going to have you make all those sacrifices for me and then divorce you.”
“So you agree that it’s a good idea?”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but you definitely thought it through.”
“Why isn’t it a good idea?”
“Because it’s… practical to a fault. It’s not passion or love driving you to want to marry me. It’s trying to get us out of this situation and I don’t know that that’s a great start to a marriage or even a relationship. It’s not that I hate the idea of being married to you. I don’t. I like the idea, honestly.”
“Well good,” she interrupts. “I’m glad I pass the likability test.”
I laugh a little then and it breaks some of the tension.
“I’m just saying I think that marriage is the kind of thing you go into because you can’t imagine being without that person. Not the kind of thing you do because it’s a way to solve a problem in the moment. Besides, I think some of that stuff we could get around without being married.”
“We could. But it would be harder. Also… Right now, I can’t imagine being without you. Leaving you here or you going back to wherever it is you’re going to hitch a ride to.”
“Well I hate the idea of you going off on a gap year. Especially if there are other more talented guys involved,” I try to tease her but she gives me a look that tells me she’s not amused.
“Like I said Madness…”
“We’ve solved every other problem so far together by being practical. Your advice was practical. Your teaching me was practical. So far practical’s turned out really well for us. Or at least really well for me…” She grins.
“I mean, me too…” I can’t argue with that.
“So… Marry me.” She repeats.
I shake my head and stare back out over the river. Contemplating the idea she’s proposed. All the sacrifices she’d be making. But if it worked out, if I could hold it together this last year and get back on track to being drafted, I’d be able to pay her back tenfold. A year from now we could be moving into a house in a new city. She could be going to any school she wants. We could spend next summer traveling and letting her explore to decide what she wants to do. I could give her anything she wants and get her out of the shadow of her father and her family name.
I should think she’s crazy for even mentioning the idea, let alone asking. I should feel awkward that this girl who’s younger than me is proposing to save my life right now—and quite literally proposing to marry me. But it feels right. She feels right in a way I can’t imagine happening twice in one lifetime. The alternative of giving her up sounds bleak and I can’t imagine walking away from her. Not when the alternative is that I get to be with her for as long as she’ll have me. So it might just be time to fall in with fate.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” She gives me a hopeful look, one that’s surprised but excited.
“You have some good points. We can talk about it.”
“We can go apply for the license in town today. This is a county seat. Then we can just sign the paperwork and it’s done.”
“What?” I blink at her. “Don’t we need like a preacher or a judge or something?”
“No. We can marry ourselves. We just need some witnesses but I bet we can find some. Back at the bar if nowhere else.”
“That easy?”
“That easy.” She nods.
