AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tonight’s about celebrating, and I hope in some small way Petal feels my gratitude. I got the team owner’s admin, who knows everybody, to get us a reservation at a snazzy French joint here in town that usually takes months to get into.
I don’t even know if I like French food. Guess I’m going to find out.
The funny thing is, Petal would be just as happy with something from a taco stand as from a French restaurant, but either way, no amount of celebration will ever fully capture the magnitude of my appreciation for her.
We entwine our fingers as I leisurely drive, in no hurry to get anywhere, probably irritating the city buses and cabs stuck behind us in traffic. None of that matters. We’ve got it going on, Petal and I. Sure, I’m happy as hell that I’m getting back on the ice, but it’s having her by my side that’s the real victory.
The game will call me back for as long as I can play it, but it’s Petal who’s my real champion. I hope to spend every day we’re together showing her that.
We get to my apartment and race each other to the kitchen to see what Betty left us for dinner.
“No way,” Petal gasps, checking out the meatloaf and homemade mac and cheese warming in the oven. “Oh my God, this is my favorite meal.”
How many San Francisco heiresses have meatloaf and mac and cheese as their favorite meal?
“Hey, baby, I have a question for you.”
She pulls out plates and silverware. “You cannot have any of my meatloaf. This is all mine. Betty told me so.”
“What can I eat for dinner?” I laugh.
“I think there may be some bologna in the fridge. Sorry, buddy.”
While I watch her loading our plates with Betty’s fine cooking, I slink up behind her and slide my hands under her T-shirt to cup her breasts.
“Dinner’s going to get cold.”
“I don’t care,” I say, brushing my lips in the crook of her neck, the little spot I know drives her crazy.
She sighs, all thoughts about cold meatloaf gone. “Hey, I thought you had a question for me,” she murmurs quietly, looking over her shoulder at me.
“Yeah. I do.”
“What is it?”
“Will you marry me?”
She spins around with a huge smile on her face. “Last time I checked, we were already married. Remember that yellow plastic smiley face ring you sprang for in Vegas? The one with the googly eyes?”
“Yes, yes, I do. Do you still have it? I consider that one of my finest purchases.”
“I do have it, and consider it one of my most precious possessions.”
I push everything on the counter aside—the meatloaf, mac and cheese, plates, forks, everything—to clear a spot to ravish her as soon as I get her clothes off.
“Aren’t you hungry?” she asks, assisting me in getting her naked as fast as possible.
“I am, but not for meatloaf,” I say, kissing her luscious lips, moving my way down her sexy body.
To think this all started with a charity auction neither of us wanted to go to, followed by a date neither of us wanted to go on, and a fake marriage that turned out to be one of the realest things I’ve ever known.
EPILOGUE
“Jesus. What happened here?”Rake asks
I look up from my spot in the middle of the living room floor, where I’m surrounded by a mess of paper, tape, scissors, and markers that look like a first-grade art class. I scramble to collect as much of it as I can before he sees what I am up to.
He raises an eyebrow. “Ah. I get it. My wife has a little project going on, and it seems I was not supposed to see it.” He turns and heads to the bedroom with his backpack, chuckling and looking back over his shoulder.
