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“I’m sure she’ll soften when we have kids.” Ashanti realized what she’d said and pulled her hand away from Luke. She didn’t want him thinking that she was moving too fast. “I mean, if we eventually decide to go that route. Or if we’re even together—”
He reached for her hand and pulled it back to him. “Even after we get married and have children, she might not want to be a part of our or their lives.”
Ashanti’s joy at Luke talking about marriage and a future with her was dampened by the prospect of her potential children never knowing their grandparents.
What if they had questions? Would she be forced to look into their innocent eyes and tell them their own blood didn’t want to see them because they were mixed with black?
“Hey.” Luke kissed her palm. “Let’s not worry about something that hasn’t happened yet.”
“You’re right.” She forced a smile.
He noticed and stared deeply into her eyes. “No matter what my parents say, I choose you. I will always choose you.”
Ashanti softened. “I know.”
He squeezed her hand and asked, “Then why do you still look worried?”
“The night she came to my house to beg me to break up with you, your mother told me the proverb of the fish and the bird. She said we were like that, two creatures who fell in love but couldn’t be together. That we came from different worlds.”
Luke winced. “I’m sorry.”
“No. Don’t apologize.”
“She had no right to say that,” Luke insisted.
“It makes me wonder if someone hurt her, you know? Like she was so adamant about that. She doesn’t hate me for no reason. She genuinely believes we can’t be happy together.”
“Then it’s our job to prove her wrong,” Luke said firmly.
Ashanti’s heart warmed and she decided to tease him. “So who’s idea was all this?” She gestured to the projector.
“What? You don’t think I’m capable of a big romantic gesture?”
“No.”
“Ouch.” Luke rubbed his chest. “That hurt.”
“Was it Weng? James? Harold? All three?”
“It was alcohol,” Luke admitted with a laugh. “And James and Harold. But mostly the alcohol.”
Ashanti blinked. “Wow. That just ruined the effect for me.”
“Can’t you give me credit for going through with it?” Luke asked.
“Nope.” She tried to hold a stern face but her lips trembled and she ended up smiling hard.
Luke rested his hand on the counter and leaned his head against his fist. He said nothing for a long while, just watched her with disbelief on his face.
“What?” Ashanti asked, squirming beneath his intense stare.
“I just… can’t believe I waited this long to kiss you.”
Ashanti laughed. “Then I guess we have a lot to make up for.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Make this quick,” Yong Chung said as he fell into the seat across from Luke a few days later. “Your mom thinks I went out to buy gas.”
