AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do I get a say?” she asked.
“Yeah, of course.”
“Then you’ll be topless and wearing cotton boxer briefs. Not the hard cotton kind, the shape hugging ones.”
“Done.” I chuckled. “And if we get cold, we can snuggle under a blanket … get frisky under there too if the mood takes us … like anytime you want, darlin’,” I added with a soft laugh. The coy smile she rewarded me with melted my heart.
I’d never been with anyone so genuinely shy, and in Billie’s case I knew she was way out of her comfort zone, but I loved that she had continued to try to push her boundaries.
Taking my lead, that’s exactly what my girl did, and once we were semi-naked we snuggled up by the large modern ornate gas fire in the sitting room.
As we waited for our takeout food to arrive from my favorite Thai restaurant in town, I tried to pin Billie down to a date for our wedding. Once she’d agreed to marry me, I hadn’t wanted to let the date drift.
“How soon?” I asked.
“Soon?” she asked, because she had no idea what I was thinking.
“Are you going to marry me?”
“What about next new year?”
“No,” I said, stiffening and glancing down to look at her disappointed. “Too long. What about next month?” I suggested, meaning it.
“Sawyer, I haven’t even told Logan yet,” she protested in a tired tone.
“Are we going to manage our lives around that man? I don’t think so, Billie. He had his shot and he fucked it up. I’m not going to be controlled by someone who doesn’t really care about you.”
“Is that what you think, he doesn’t care?”
“No, I take that back, he cares because he wants you back, wants his old life back, because the new one he took isn’t what he thought it would be. Now that’s not a slur against you, Billie, it’s his old life he wants, not another chance with you and Colby in particular.”
I knew I sounded harsh, but I had promised her honesty and saw her consider my response. “You think he and Poppy aren’t going to last?” she asked, her voice alarmed and full of concern.
“They never were. A man like Logan needs someone who’ll put him first … always. From what’s been said, it sounds as if Poppy is the feminine version of him. I bet they clash all the time because neither knows how to compromise.”
“Is that what you think I did while I was with him?”
“Yes, because you loved him and are very giving. You wanted him to be happy.”
“Hmm, I didn’t analyze the dynamic of our relationship in that way,” she said, her mind lost in her thoughts for a few minutes.
“Next month?” I probed again.
“No, Sawyer, that’s too soon.”
“Why? We’re engaged, which means we already know we’re committed. Colby’s already found us in bed together. Hell, he’s already cockblocked me a few times, and I didn’t kill him and stuff him in a cupboard somewhere, so I’ve been tested as family.” Billie chuckled at my joke.
“I want a little time,” she replied, tilting her head on my chest to look up at me.
“Time for what? To talk yourself out of it?”
“Is that the reason you want to marry me quickly, because you think I’ll change my mind?”
I considered her question and searched my thoughts honestly before I answered.
“I’m not going to lie, perhaps there’s a little part in me that thinks you may get cold feet, but I hadn’t thought about it until you asked this just now. However, that isn’t the driving force for my feelings. I really want you and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“What you mean is you need what we have to be validated in a legal sense.”
