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“It’s pretty ironic, a few days from now I very well could have posted a picture on the Mediterranean in a thong bikini with a glass of champagne.”
He pulls his brows together in telltale annoyance, and I laugh.
“Getting to be quite the jealous guy, aren’t ya?”
“Recent development. And I’m aware jealousy disguises insecurity. I’m not proud of it. I’m working on it.”
“I love that you aren’t so perfect. I love it that you can tell me that. We can’t ever change this, okay? Promise.”
“I promise.”
“You know, lately you’ve been making me look like a saint.”
He rolls his eyes before he presses a kiss to my temple. “Speaking of promises,” he says, warmth lighting up his eyes. “You ready?”
He leads me down the sidewalk, and my nerves fire off, but I would follow this man anywhere. Still, I can’t hide the excited tremor in my voice. “For?”
He grins. “This isn’t what you think,” he says, leading me past one long barricading branch after another.
“I don’t care what it is, I have my answer.”
He grins apologetically. “Well, I’m happy about that, but I’m not proposing. This really is a promise from me to you.”
“A promise?”
“Yes,” he murmurs, turning to face me once we’re underneath the dark green canopy of the Era Tree. “I love how independent you are. I love it, Laney. I love that you can fill every role in your own life. But I don’t want anyone to ever take mine. So, I want to make you a promise. A promise that no matter what happens between us, good or bad, I’ll be the one man in your life who won’t leave you, no matter what. I don’t want to live a day of this life where I don’t know you. I swear to you, Laney, no matter what happens personally between us, I don’t ever want to know that you aren’t safe in this world. This is my promise for a sense of forever with you, a promise that I will always be there for you. Always. No matter what.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Say okay.”
“Okay,” I nod tearfully. “But you will marry me one day, right?”
He lifts one side of his lip in an Elvis curl. “Meh, maybe.”
“You’re an ass,” I huff, taking a step ahead of him and dodging his outstretched hand. “You totally ruined that.”
“If I was proposing, it damn sure won’t be under a tree that a hundred other guys have used for lack of a better imagination.”
“You just pissed all over that tradition harder than a cow on a flat rock.”
He throws his head back and laughs as I narrow my eyes.
“I’m serious. This is sacred.”
“As was my promise,” he says, snatching my hand and threading our fingers.
I see the honesty in his eyes and melt. “You got out of that one fast.”
He grins. “So, what do you want to do tonight?”
“Rock of Love?”
He looks away, and I gawk at him.
“You watched all of the last season without me?!”
“I missed you, it was a coping mechanism.”
