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“Allie, if he comes near you, you need to stay away from him. Mark was pissed at him for not marrying you sooner. I know you don’t want to hear it, but Ted was only with you because Mark somehow forced it on him and it’s because of whatever happened here.”
I really don’t like thinking this and my skin crawls, knowing Ted has been here for reasons that have nothing to do with feelings.
“We just need to see the footage if we can find it and then they can deal with Mark and Ted, however necessary. But I needed you to know I wasn’t fucking around on you.”
He’s still holding my hand and I can’t take my eyes off it.
“You left her? As in, you really left her?”
“I sent her a text, left her a voicemail, wrote a note and put it in her bedroom, left her at her parents’ house, and then deleted our shared social media account.”
“You didn’t tell her to her face?”
“I’m sure I will say it to her face tomorrow when I go home to pack her things and set them outside.”
“Tomorrow?”
“You can come if you want. I’m doing it after work.”
I’ve been drinking, and I have work? Seriously? What a freaking dumb day. Also, I’d rather have to walk around in public in that short dress than face Katrina. Did she even know?
“I think I need to go to bed, Lucas. I’m a mess and I have to be up in a few hours.” On top of the fact I will probably have a headache tomorrow and anxiety pounding in my chest thinking about this. I was so much happier blissfully unaware.
“Okay, but can we talk about us, for a minute?”
Oh yeah. I sink back into the chair, and he squats down in front of me. I have to look down at him, and as usual, he’s stupid pretty from this angle.
“Allie, I know things are weird and we’ve been in this limbo lately, but I’m here and I know that we both want this. I know you’re going to want to take things slow since we kind of went fast the first time.”
He’s got that right.
“I’m just saying that I don’t care how long we take to hit each milestone, but I just want to do it together. You and Jadon and me. I want to be a family. If you want to move in with me, or I move in here—”
“Please don’t move in here. It would be weird with my dad.”
He chuckles. “Fine, move in with me.”
I point a finger at his face. “You’d have to replace your bed and whatever furniture you and Katrina did naked things on.”
Lucas snorts. “What about the walls?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what about the—” he fixes that stupid grin on his face when he gets a good look at my meanest possible scowl. “I’m joking. I’ll get whatever you want me to get. In fact, you can pick it out and send me what you like.”
“I won’t move in with you until I have a genuine commitment. I need to know it will go the distance and you won’t just leave for the next pretty thing you get into the backseat of your car.” I use my hand and arm waving off like that emphasizes my point. I probably just look stupid.
“Allie, I’m not 18 anymore. I’m serious about this. If you want to get married, we’ll go next week.”
After he just said we would take things slow. “We’ll talk about it, but you can’t just jump from one fiancée to the next. It’s just poor taste.” He opens his mouth, but I stop him. “And don’t you say I was engaged because I wasn’t. He never asked.”
He helps me stand and wraps me in his arms. The comfort in his hold calms my racing heart and is like a safety net. “I’m sorry it took so long.”
Yeah, well, it’s not like I was going anywhere. For some reason, I like Lucas-freaking-Kennedy, and he’s crazy enough to pull a stupid stunt like this just for us.
For family.
Lucas holds my face in his hands and looks overly serious again. “I’m staying tonight. My phone is off and you already invited me to stay, though I have a feeling you weren’t the one texting me.”
