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Her cheeks are flushed. She’s breathing faster now. Her lips are pressed together.
And she’s not looking at me.
She’s watching Crew. As if she doesn’t want to see my expression. Does she know that I’m not going to like this?
She should.
I finally pull my gaze to Crew. He’s staring at her as if he’s confused.
I, however, am not confused in the slightest.
I push myself up from the cushion—and get pissed all over again about how huge and soft the fucking thing is because pushing up is a lot less assertive than I’d like it to be—and face them.
“You did what?” I ask Michael.
Not because I didn’t hear him. Not because I didn’t understand exactly what he meant. But because I’m accusing him of a crime. A serious one. And I want to hear his confession again. And I want to give him this one chance to add on some kind of caveat or explanation if there is one.
He faces me, his hand still on Danielle. My girlfriend.
“I proposed to Danielle tonight.” He pauses, meeting my gaze directly. “I asked her to be my wife.”
I hold his gaze steadily, waiting for something more. There has to be more to it than him just jumping the fuck ahead like this and doing this on his own.
I feel a very strange sense of loss. And fear. And rage.
Michael just came in and pulled the damned rug out from underneath everything I thought we were doing.
Crew scrambles up from the couch now. “You fucking proposed? What the hell, Doc?”
“I did,” Michael says.
“And what did you say?” Crew asks Dani.
Her cheeks are pink now. “I said yes,” she replies. It’s clear. She doesn’t stutter or even hesitate, but she does say it quietly. “But we, obviously, need to talk to you both about it.”
I see Michael’s jaw tense and I watch Crew try to wrap his head around this. He looks from Michael to Danielle, then back.
“But…why?” Crew finally asks. He directs it at Michael. “We fucking talked about this.”
I see Danielle’s shoulders straighten and Michael sighs.
“You…what?” she asks.
But Michael answers Crew first. “Because I love her, Crew. Because I want to spend the rest of my life with her. Because I want the world to know that I’m fully committed to her, and vice versa. Because I want to have a family with her. And tonight, I wanted her to know that. The timing was right.”
“The timing was right? How’s that work when the two of us were sitting here at home thinking we were all going to fucking wait?” Crew asks, waving a thumb between him and me. “You know how we both feel and you just went ahead without us?”
“Tonight was a moment between Dani and me,” Michael says, a stubborn set to his jaw. “I’m not leaving you two out, but I wanted to tell Dani how I feel and let her know what I want. I want everyone to know what she means to me, who she is to me. I want a family. I want a future.”
I’m watching Danielle. She’s looking back and forth between Crew and Michael, worry and confusion in her eyes. “I want those things too,” she says. “But…you’ve talked about this?” Her eyes land on me. “The three of you?”
“We have,” Crew says, barreling ahead. “We talked about proposing and we tabled this whole thing because we’re not ready.”
Danielle actually pulls back slightly at that.
“That is not true,” Michael says, angrily. “Some of us are very ready.”
Crew shoves a hand through his hair. “We’re not ready as a group. We couldn’t figure out how it would work,” he says. “It all seemed too complicated, so we decided to wait.” He scowls at Michael. “Or so I thought.”
