My chest aches with the weight of her truths, and I bow my head slightly.
I deserve it.
“I thought you didn’t find me attractive?—”
“Bullshit!” I shake my head in disbelief. “You’re fucking beautiful.”
“Especially when I saw you with a different girl every week. I had to move away. I hated you so much.”
I do, too, right now.
“None of them were you.”
“I’ve only slept with you and Issac.”
The confession knocks me back, and I feel like she’s punched me in the gut.
There’s no way she’s telling the truth?—
“No one would ever be as good as you. I knew that, even as a virgin.” Danielle smiles faintly, and I curse the day I ever left her.
“Danielle…” I groan, pulling her into my arms. “I thought you’d be married and settled if I ever saw you again. I couldn’t believe you were still single.”
“No one compares to you; you were the bane of my life.” Danielle tilts her head, and I know there and then that I’ll bewith her for the rest of my life. “I wanted your children. I wanted to marry you, see you every day. Kiss you before you went to work, to walk our children to school in the sunshine. Stupid, teenage dreams.”
My heart is fucking breaking.
The images are too much to bear.
“All the while, you were Blake James, the party god. The dream bachelor.” Danielle sighs, shaking her head. “Now, look at us. In a fake marriage. A sham.”
“It’s not fucking fake, Danni.” I drag her face to mine, gripping her chin. “Nothing about us is fake. It never was, was it? I love you, Danielle. I always have, and I always will. You scare me with how much you make me want forever.”
“You said…”
I cut her off, tugging her into my arms. “I know what I fucking said, and if I could erase everything I’ve ever said to you, I would, so that I could start again.”
Danielle stares at me, her brows furrowing as I stroke her face.
“You’re my wife, Danielle. I love you. I got you something.”
Fuck, I’m choking up.
Fuck these emotions.
“I told you not to!” Danielle protests through her tears.
“Yeah. I know what you said, but what kind of man would I be if I didn’t do this?”
Danielle watches me as I reach into my pocket, pulling out a velvet box.
“What is that?” Danielle whispers, watching as I fall to one knee. “Blake?—”
“Will you marry me, Danielle? Marry me because we’re in love with each other. Marry me because we’re meant to be together. Marry me because you’re it for me, and even though I’m scared of saying forever, I want it with you.”
Danielle stares down at me, tears spilling down her cheeks as I open the box.
“Let me spend the next five years and beyond making it up to you. Marry me for real.”
