The Plan (Off-Limits Romance, #4)(68)

She’s so freaked out, she sounds like she’s panting.

“Ah, fuck. Are you going to faint?”

“No.” She laughs. She reaches for the counter, clutching the glass. “Gabe,” she gasps. “I might have lied.”

I come behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist…around her belly. I can’t help myself.

“Do you see anything you like?” I ask her, peering down at all the jewels.

Marley cackles madly.

“Gabe…you must be kidding me.”





4





Marley





It’s mostly rings. Oh my God, it’s mostly rings! All I see inside that shiny, lit-up case is super-blingy rings. I’m losing it, so much so that I can’t even find the words to ask him, Am I supposed to pick a ring?

“What do I pick?” I breathe.

I feel Gabe’s chest rumble behind me as he chuckles. “Anything. I had this all brought in for you.”

“Are you trying to impress me?” I manage in a shaky voice.

“I thought that was obvious.” He gives me a light squeeze. Then he turns me to face him. “Marley, I’m so fucking nervous, I can’t figure out what to say.”

“That’s how I feel,” I giggle.

“Spur-of-the-moment seems to be my way with you. How fast my feelings change. I see you and I want to commit. Even when I was young and dumb as fuck, I talked to you for a few hours, and I wanted you to be mine. But I booked this the day after your mom passed. And I’m gonna be honest, baby. Two of these pieces…they were made for you.”

“They were?” My eyes start leaking. “Oh my God, Gabe…”

“It’s just money. Once you have a lot, you see you can’t do that much with it. You can’t take it with you, either. This jewelry isn’t my heart, Marley,” he says softly. “But it’s something I thought I could show you. Sort of…proof, if you will.”

I wipe my eyes with a shaking hand.

“What I want, Marley…” He inhales deeply, and I watch his eyes as he exhales. “What I want is for you to marry me. Again.” He laughs, and I really look at his face; this is the most relaxed and open that I think I’ve ever seen him. Right here, when he’s opening his heart to me.

“I want you to be my wife, Marley. Not because I feel like I have to, because you’re pregnant, or because of anything like that. Just because I like to feed you pie and bring you cider, and okay, I like you with me in bed. And it’s not logical, okay, it’s probably a shitty fucking idea. Your friends might tell you, you should drop me like a hot potato. And if you want to, you should. If you say ‘no,’ we’ll still leave here and go to a hotel and you can have a restful night. I’ll give you anything you want. I’ll give you a necklace I had made for you because I wanted you to have it. You can go and never see my face again except to swap our little bean—and I won’t be upset with you, Marley. I won’t be hurt or mad.”

A tear rolls down my cheek as he says those words. “You won’t?”

“Not if that’s what makes you happy. No—I won’t.”

“What if that’s not what makes me happy?” I whisper.

He holds me closer, smiling softly down at me. “Then I’ll give you a necklace and a ring. Fuck it, it can be a no-strings ring, Marley. You don’t have to marry me at all. Just let me be with you.”

I’m laughing. “This is crazy.”

“Things are different now, Marley. We’re different. We can be unmarried for eternity, and you’ll still be the one I love.”

I wipe my leaking eyes. “I want to see them,” I rasp. “I want to see the ones that you picked out.”

Gabe turns around behind him, and my stomach takes a nose-dive as I blink into the glass case at a massive ruby necklace.

“It’s a poppy,” he says softly. “Do you know what poppies signify?”

I shake my head, wiping my eyes.

He says, “That war is over.”

I’m crying…and I hate crying. I wipe my face. “Gabe…I don’t know what to say!”

“Then let me put it on for you.”

He takes the necklace from the case—a ruby necklace, a huge poppy—and fastens it around my neck.

I hiccup. “Gosh…it’s heavy.”

And then I actually have hiccups. I’m in a little room inside a jewelry store with hiccups, knocked up by my ex-husband and wearing a necklace that probably costs millions of dollars.

“Life is so weird.”

“I’d say weird suits you.” He touches the necklace, and I wrap my hand around his.

“What about the other one?” I whisper, looking into his eyes.

“The ring.” He smile-smirks. “What about it, Marley?”

“I want it.”

“You do?” He’s still trying to smile, but his face has gone very still, his blue eyes wide and frozen.

“I want to be your wife again. I know it’s crazy, Gabe—but I want a taste of crazy. I want you at my house at night when I get home from work. I want to be where you are. New York, Fate…wherever. We have fun together…and you make me feel cherished.”