She sobbed quietly in my arms and I knew this wasn’t only about her worry for me – this was for all the time
we’d lost over the last couple of years. We’d lost each other for a while there, but we’d weathered the storm and come out stronger for it. She wiped her eyes and looked up at me. “I love you, too.”
I smiled.
Everything’s going to be all right.
She closed the fridge, grabbed the bag of rubbish she had, and said, “I’ll take this out for you and then I promise I’ll leave you guys alone.”
Yes.
If I were a praying man, I would have sent a fucking prayer of thanks up to heaven.
Harlow made a strange noise behind me, and when I turned to see what was wrong, she scrunched her face up at me and nodded her head towards Mum.
“What?” I mouthed.
“Ask her to stay for dinner?” she mouthed back.
Fuck.
I bent so I could say quietly, “That’s gonna cut into my time with your pussy. You sure you’re good with that?”
She smacked me lightly on my chest. “Just ask her, Scott! She obviously wants to spend time with you.”
I flattened my lips. “For fuck’s sake…the shit I do to keep my women happy,” I muttered. Turning back to Mum, I said, “Stay for dinner.”
Harlow had been right to insist Mum stayed for dinner. As soon as the words left my mouth, she hit me with the biggest smile I’d seen on her in a long time. “Sounds good,” she agreed and then left us to take the rubbish out.
I dragged Harlow to me, pressing her body tight to mine. “I was thinking we should get married on Saturday.”
Her jaw dropped open. “That’s only four days away!”
“My point exactly. I want to marry you as soon as possible and I figure a Saturday is the best option for everyone to be able to make it.”
“We need to lodge a marriage application form or something to get married, Scott. And I think that has to be lodged a month before the wedding.”
I grinned. “Good thing I already lodged one.”
“What? How? Did you forge my signature?”
“No. I was able to sign it and lodge it, and so long as you sign it before the wedding, we’re all good.”
Her palms landed on my chest and she attempted to push out of my hold, but I held her tighter so she couldn’t.
“Don’t fight me, baby. I’m done waiting. I want that ring on your finger,” I growled.
She gazed up at me with a smile in her eyes. “I’m not fighting you. I’m just starting to panic, that’s all. I need to call Cassie and Madison because I’m going to need help getting a dress, and hair, and shoes, and makeup and all the things a girl needs, to be at her best, on the day she finally marries the man she loves.”
I eased my hold on her, but only a little bit. “I’d marry you without all that shit. I want you clean or dirty, perfectly styled hair or with bedhead, a face full of makeup or straight out of bed in the morning, wedding dress or pyjamas, heels or barefoot, rich or poor.” I paused and placed my hand over her heart. “I want this with all of that or none of it. You are perfect to me however you come, Harlow.”
She stared at me for a long moment. I felt the connection we shared, I always had from the very first moment I laid eyes on her. It was deep, and honest and everything I’d never known I needed or wanted. She finally sorted through her thoughts, and then said, “Now that’s a proposal worth saying yes to.”
I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and carry her caveman-style to our bed.
I wanted to spend hours devouring her body.
I wanted to worship her like the softie she now knew me to be.