“Me either. But that’s what I believe as well. So… It’s not going to be long until I ask you to be my wife. But it seems a little soon right now.”
“Okay,” she said, seeming to be processing what he was saying and keeping up, although she still looked a little dazed, and her lips were definitely swollen. She looked beautiful to him, and he resisted the urge to kiss her again.
“So, I have some thoughts. Do you want to hear them?”
“Sure. I guess I don’t have any thoughts right now.” She rolledher eyes and laughed a little, and he wanted to reach out to put his hand on her shoulder, to tell her that he understood. But he did think it was better to not touch her.
“All right, I guess I just might as well be up front and say it’s better if I don’t touch you.”
“I agree. I think that’s probably where we went wrong. If you have that guard in place, you’re certainly not going to do anything else that you shouldn’t be doing.”
“Exactly. So, no touching, then I don’t have to say no kissing or anything else.”
“Right. I’ll try to control myself, and you seem to have plenty of self-control?—”
“No. I’ll have to work on controlling myself as well. I think making sure that the children are around as long as they’re home is probably a good idea.”
“Yes. That’s a good idea.”
“And learning as much as we can about each other, so that we’re sure this is the right way to go, is probably another good idea.”
“I always thought the best way to learn about someone was to work with them. When you do that, you know how they respond to situations that don’t go their way.”
“I agree. Just living life. Like if you could see me this morning when I burned the pancakes and broke the measuring cup, you would see how I act when I’m under pressure.”
“Yeah. I guess you see me when I’m working with my clients, but you didn’t see me crying in my house when I knew I was going to have to sell my horses.”
“I’d rather you sit and cry than stomp around and break stuff.”
“I didn’t do that, but I guess maybe I was a little tempted to.”
“I can imagine.”
“Well, I think we all have those sides of our personality that we hope don’t come out or see the light of day.”
“For some reason, that reminds me that my family was hoping that we could have Thanksgiving here at our house.”
“Of course. Do you need me to leave for the day?” she asked, and while she looked like she was willing to do it, he thought there might have been a little bit of hurt in her undertone.
“No!” He shook his head. “No. I was thinking that maybe… Maybe I could tell them that you and I are…” He shrugged and laughed. What was he going to say? How would he describe them? “I don’t know what to call us.”
“That we’re together?”
“That I’m hoping we’ll be married before Christmas?” he countered.
“Before Christmas?” She blinked.
“I told you I wasn’t missing round. I don’t want to push you. If you think that’s too soon. I don’t trust my self-control, and I also don’t know how wise it is for us to be living together if we’re together. People are going to talk. And the shorter that amount of time is, the better.”
Already she was nodding in agreement. “I see, and I agree. Definitely we can tell your family that we’re together and hope to be married before Christmas.”
“That’s not too soon?”
“It might take a little getting used to, but we can tell your family, and maybe we can ask them to just keep it under their hats for a bit?”
“My family will do that. My mom is the one who really talks to people, but she doesn’t spread gossip about her children, and I know she definitely won’t if I ask her specifically not to.”
“All right then. Let’s do it.”
