Chance shrugs.
“Here I thought you’d changed. Grown. Evolved.” My eyes look him up and down with disgust. “But you haven’t changed a bit, you’re still a selfish prick.”
I turn on my heel and storm back into the party, completely seething. Charlie rushes over to me and pulls me into a hug, and I try to hold my tears back.
“Stay strong. You can crack when we get home. I’ve got you.” I look up into Charlie’s kind eyes, and I realize there is no place I would rather be.
“I fucking love you.”
“I know.”
“I want to marry you, someday,” I confess to him.
Which makes him smile. “I do too.” He presses a kiss to my lips. “But, D, just to be clear, I’ll be the one proposing.”
I raise a brow. “Oh, really now?”
He nods. “Yep. So don’t fucking spoil it for me.”
“Okay.” I chuckle, my stress starting to subside.
“I want babies, though.”
“I know.” He grins.
“Lots of babies.”
“Define lots?” he questions me.
“Five.”
“That seems like a lot. Maybe we should start with two and see how we go,” he says gently.
“Two. I can handle that. Twins?”
Charlie sighs. “Looking at Vanessa and Christian and them dealing with twins, I don’t know …”
“Do you want biological kids or will we adopt?” I’ve had a couple of sessions with the agency to work out my options for having babies, but we haven’t really discussed it like we are now.
“I would like at least one biological, and then I’m okay adopting.”
“Me too.”
“Glad we got that settled. I love you, D. I am going to ask you to try to forget what happened tonight for your own sanity,” Charlie says.
“I need to talk to Arran.”
“Really?”
“You don’t think I should?”
“Not if he is in the closet. I don’t want you to lose this relationship,” Charlie cautions me. Maybe he’s right. “Just not yet. Next time.” I nod. He’s right, I don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize my relationship with my brothers.
80
DERRICK
Life has been going great.
