AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Baby, look at where I’ve come from… what I’ve been through… what I survived. If this is all that’s holding you back from being my wife, forget it. No fucking prenup. What’s mine is already yours. The moment you became pregnant my will was rewritten, ask Derek and Dorian, they were witnesses. You’ve never asked for anything, never wanted anything.”
Blood and heat rushed through my veins in frustration that thoughts like this had been put in Harper’s head. To think those thoughts were put there by someone who knew us, but had no idea how deep our feelings ran, pissed me off.
There wasn’t even a discussion about a prenuptial agreement when I married Grace, and I certainly would never have entertained such a suggestion from someone who put money and business before my wife.
“Why haven’t we had these discussions before?” Harper asked.
“I don’t know, but I want you to be my wife, and not for the kids, for all of us, you included.”
“Well, when you say it so romantically,” Harper replied, lightening my mood.
“Will you marry me?”
“What an amazing romantic proposal, you sitting half-naked in bed with a face like thunder, and me standing here in my huge maternity shorts and tank,” she chuckled.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to be like this. I acted on impulse. I should have thought it through before I asked.”
I know I should never have compared them, but my proposal to Grace was also spontaneous and without thought. It was as sudden and passionate, yet I realized Harper saying yes meant more than when Grace had.
“Tell me what you want, Harper? I’m yours with or without the romantic gestures. It isn’t that you don’t deserve the hearts and flowers and the serenades, but I think I know you, and doing any of those things would be seen by you as empty gestures.”
A smile spread on her face and she knelt on the bed, leaning toward me. “Kind of having an issue with being called Harper Harkin right now,” she giggled. “It’s kind of freaking me out.”
I chuckled. “Well, as I’m the famous one, it’s going to have to be you that concedes on that one, but I think you can keep your name and use it as normal. How often would anyone refer to it anyway? You’d be Harper, Cole Harkin’s gorgeous wife,” I told her tongue in cheek.
“If we get married—”
“When,” I countered.
“I haven’t said yes yet,” she scolded.
“You will,” I teased, pulling back the covers to reveal my junk. “Where else would you find a package like this at your disposal with a kid in tow?”
Giggling, she shook her head. “You’re ridiculous.” Her smile told me I was winning her over.
“I know, right? That’s what men say when they check me out at the urinals in public restrooms. I give them inferiority complexes I’m told.” I winked and grinned wickedly at her gaping mouth when her jaw dropped.
“Wow, you made that up on the spot?”
“You’d be amazed at what I can do on the spot.” I winked again.
“You need to get that eyelid pinned back, it keeps falling over your eyeball.”
“Now you’re ridiculous,” I countered.
She waved her hands over her huge bump. “Yeah, that’s what all the women say…” she chuckled, “at the birthing center prenatal classes.” She giggled and tried to continue, “they have inferiority…” giggle, “complexes as well when they check this lump out.”
Opening my arms, she climbed back into bed then quickly turned around and climbed back out. “Hold on, I need to pee,” she advised me as she waddled into the bathroom.
“I’ll hold yours, if you hold mine,” I called out after her.
“Pfft,” she replied, “You’re an opportunist, you know that?” My heart stopped for a second, and I felt as if I had been punched in my chest. Grace used to say this to me all the time. A lump formed in my throat and I felt weird for a moment, like it was a sign of some kind.
A minute later I heard the flush and the faucet being turned on and I pulled the comforter back to clear Harper’s space for her to get back into bed. She bumped around getting comfortable with the pillows and shit, then her breathing slowed as she settled.
“I’ll marry you, but here, at the house. No cameras, just the band guys, our families, and the household. If the press gets wind of it, I’m not doing it. I’ll take your surname and be the ridiculous Harper Harkin because I love you.”
An emotional swell rolled through me and my throat constricted. “Don’t you ever knock my unromantic proposal; that acceptance was ten times worse,” I choked out, then I pulled her as close as I could get her to me and kissed her softly on her neck.
