Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69424 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69424 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
“Oh,” I gasped. “Jasper, you’re kneeling in the water!”
His grin spread wide over his face. “I’m not worried about the water right now, Cal.”
I could see that.
I swallowed hard and moved closer, abandoning my cookie on the seat of his bike before walking right up to him and holding out my left hand.
He plucked the ring from the box and tossed it to the ground before sliding the ring onto my finger.
It wasn’t a traditional ring.
It was a princess cut, bright pink stone that fit me and my personality perfectly.
Once it was in place, he picked the box back up and pulled out a chain, which he stood up and looped around my head.
“When you’re working, you can put the ring on your necklace,” he explained.
I trembled as I tried and failed to keep my tears at bay.
Only when the necklace was in place did he bend down and lift me into his arms.
“I was going to wait,” he said between kisses. “Was going to take you out to the lake and do it at one of our favorite spots. But it’ll be shit out there right now. And that ring was burning a hole in my pocket. Keeping things from you is damn near impossible, you little mail stealer.”
I cupped his face and kissed him long and hard before saying, “If you didn’t want me opening your mail, you should’ve told me so.”
“I couldn’t care less.” He sat me down onto the concrete ledge directly behind me and walked himself between my spread legs. Both of his hands went on either side of my hips and he leaned in to nuzzle my cleavage. “You can open my mail, eat my food, and decorate my house for the rest of your life and it’ll be not enough. I want you to marry me. I want you to drop by my work. I want you to spend every Christmas and holiday with me, even those weird ones that only exist on Apple Calendar. I want to wake up beside you. I want to pull your hair out of my ass crack. I want to walk into my closet and find none of my hoodies. I want to pull out the milk and find a thimbleful left. I want everything that comes with having you in my life, permanently etched into my heart, until I die of old age.”
She leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine. So softly that it was feather light.
Then she spoke. “You paint me out to be a pain in your ass, Jas.”
I grinned, bringing her lips with mine as I did. “You are. But you’re the prettiest pain in the ass I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.”
“You’re incorrigible,” she grumbled. “Are you sure you want to do this? I work some crazy hours. I have no clue when or if I want to have kids. And I’m fairly sure that I caused at least six of those gray hairs you have growing out of your head this week.”
I pulled her even tighter against me before saying, “Turn ’em all gray, baby. I’m yours to do with as you please.”
She wound her arms around my neck, then squeezed for all she was worth. Which, might I add, wasn’t all that much due to her small stature. “I love you, Jasper.”
I brushed my lips against the side of her neck as I said, “I am overly obsessed, never going to live without you ever again, so in love with you that I can barely think sometimes.”
“Sounds painful,” she teased.
“Sounds pretty magical to me.”
Epilogue
The best murder weapon would be a Tupperware lid. Because no one would ever be able to find it.
—Calli to Jasper
CALLIOPE
Six years later
I was very late.
As in, so late that there was no way that I could make a quiet entrance.
Yet, I tried to anyway as I hurried into the gym.
The metal door slammed, announcing my presence to literally everyone, and people started to turn.
The first one to spot me was, of course, the young girl on stage. A young girl who had her entire life ahead of her.
She waved at me despite the fact that she was giving a valedictorian speech, and continued to speak.
“…never thought I would be here. Years ago, when my family was in rough shape, I used to close my eyes and daydream about what a great life I would have one day. Then my sister met Posy Hicks. And the Truth Tellers MC.”
I smiled at the mention of the baddest ass motorcycle club in the south.
Of course, Anders would go there.
“A group of men, all rough around the edges and scary as can be, rallied around us. Helped us see that there was life beyond the hovel that I grew up in. Posy took me into his home, with my siblings, and helped give us a life that he felt like we deserved. I never once went to bed hungry after he took me in. I never once questioned whether my sisters would be there when I woke up, too busy working several jobs to make ends meet.”