AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I love you, Hazel Dawson. I want to be your husband because everything’s better with you. I’m greedy for you. Please give me another chance.
My heart flips. No. He can’t have...This can’t mean...
How does Luke even know I’m here?
Around me more and more people are pointing at the sign. A guy in a red jersey makes a sympathetic face. “Ooof. Poor bastard. Hope she takes him back.”
Maybe I’m dreaming. Maybe I fell asleep, and I’m dreaming.
That’s the only explanation. Luke wouldn’t...He doesn’t...He couldn’t even say...
But what if it’s real?Some glorious voice inside me whispers.
“There you are,” Luke says from behind me. His deep voice warms my back like a winter’s fire.
I turn to look at him. “Luke.”
For a second I just drink him in with my eyes. His dark hair is a mess, and there’s shadows under those bright blue eyes I love. His button up shirt is a wrinkled mess. He’s an absolute wreck—but there’s a fierce determination in his eyes.
To me, he’s never looked more gorgeous.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, stunned all over again by the way he can make my heart ache.
He smiles, crooked. “Besides making sure they got my sign right?”
I swallow.
His smile fades into something more serious. He takes a step toward me and cups my face. “Hazel. Love. You were right. I hid behind practical reasons, instead of saying what’s in my heart. I think I know why I do it now, but I don’t...” He closes his eye briefly. “I don’t want to teach our child to do the same thing.”
Hope flutters, painful and gorgeous, in my chest.
“Whether or not you take me back, I’m going to start practicing that skill now.”
“I...ok?” That wasnotwhat I was expecting.
“At Cooper’s wedding, a few years ago. I said I didn’t like weddings because it was a waste of money, they didn’t last, etc.” He looks me square in the eyes. “But it’s because secretly, I wanted that future for myself. And I didn’t think I’d ever get to have it.”
“Oh, Luke,” I say softly.
But he’s not done.
“When I lied to my dad that we were engaged. It wasn’t a thought out, or practical plan. It was pure instinct,” Luke confesses. “He insulted you, and I...I still don’t know why I said it. But I think I was trying to claim you. Mark you as off limits. Make sure he knew you were different from any other woman I’ve ever known.”
I blink.
“It wasn’t practical,” he admits. “It was primal.”
“But we...we barely knew each other back then,” I say.
He just looks at me, completely unflinching.
How the hell is he turning me on right now?
“You already got me to admit why I didn’t want us sleeping with other people while we were married,” he reminds me. His eyes darken.
I nod, mutely, the look in his eyes stealing my words.
“So now, we’re to the most important stuff.” He takes a breath and steps back, releasing me.
