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“Good.” He scrubbed a hand over his face.
Was he suddenly having regrets? “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”
His face broke into a huge smile. “Quite the opposite. Marry me.”
I pulled away, thinking I must’ve misheard him. “What?”
“Marry me, Addy.”
“But you said you didn’t want marriage. It was just a piece of paper.”
“I know what I said, but now that you’re expecting, and we’re actually doing this, I want more. I want you to be my wife.”
I was in complete shock. He wanted more?
“Addy, I’m not great at this part.” He clearly struggled for words before saying, “I want our kids to know we’re committed to each other. I want to be the Chambers family, assuming you agree to take my last name. I want this arrangement to be as close to real as it can be. It might not be love, but it’s still something.”
In other words, nothing had changed except he wanted the piece of paper to make things official.
Why was I more hesitant about accepting his pragmatic marriage proposal than I was about having his child? It made no sense. Until it did.
Because there was no faking it when it came to having a child. We both wanted to be parents. We’d love, care for, and give everything to our son or daughter. But getting married felt like a pretense.
“I’d like to think about it.”
“What is there to think about? We’re going to be a family, which is the biggest commitment there is. Marriage is a logical choice, committing to each other first.”
Logical. Just what every woman wanted to hear in a proposal. “It feels like a lie.”
He sighed. “We’re committed and on the same page about family. We care about each other, we’re friends, and we’re physically attracted to each other. We’re about to have a baby we are both thrilled about. I’d say we have a better foundation than most marriages.”
Standing in front of friends and family and hearing a man who didn’t mean it pledge his love to me would feel fake. But maybe my hang-up was that I was thinking about it traditionally.
“I wouldn’t want a wedding.”
His brow furrowed. “I hate to state the obvious, but don’t we need one?”
“What I mean is we could do something here in Vegas. Something simple.” If I treated this as pragmatically as Leo, then perhaps I could get over the loss of something more. I was having a baby with this man, so getting married to him shouldn’t be my hang-up. Frankly, I liked the idea of telling my kids we’d had a wedding. Guess I was more traditional than I’d thought.
“Great. Let’s do it tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Why wait?”
“For one, I have to confirm the pregnancy, and it’s only the first trimester.” I’d worked in a women’s OB clinic long enough to appreciate the risk of miscarriage during the first trimester.
He cupped my face. “I’m in this thing no matter what.”
Damn. When Leo looked at me which such intensity, it made hope burn bright in my chest. Maybe someday he’d say he loved me too. Because there was no doubt I’d fallen for this man. Which meant there was no way I could say no. “Okay.”
His brows lifted. “Is that a yes?”
My lips turned up. “Yes. It’s a yes.”
The smile which broke over his handsome face caused my breath to catch. Damn, Leo Chambers happy was my new favorite look. His clear joy also reminded me, although this change in our status might not be a love declaration, it was something.
ChapterThirty-Nine
