“That’s not who I’m talking about, and you know it.” How could she convince him of her feelings?Ooh, she had an idea.“Wait.I want to show you something.”She darted off to her room and snagged her journals from her bedside table.She’d spent some time lately going through some of her old ones and had marked certain entries.
“Come sit here.”She led him to the couch and settled beside him.“These are my journals.I’ve been going through some of the older ones to see if I could find exactly when my crush on you started.Here, read this one.”
She opened the book and pointed to the part she’d marked.He looked down at the page, then grinned back up at her.“Nice handwriting.”
She poked her elbow into his side.“I was twelve and in my curlicue stage.Just read what I wrote.”
She read along as her twelve-year-old self told of her heart going pitter patter whenever Evan came to visit his grandparents and popped over to play with her and Carli.
“Now this one.”She showed him another section when she was about seventeen and talked about how cute he was, but that he also treated her great.He didn’t tease her about her ridiculous curls or her darker skin.He treated her like a friend and that meant everything to her.
“Let’s skip a few years.”She dropped her newest one in his lap and opened to where it was marked.
“Our first kiss?”He glanced up at her with a sly smile.“You liked it that much, huh?Even though it was kind of a mistake.”
“Read on.”He did and saw that she’d wanted the kiss to be real, to mean something, and she had pretended it was.She had him turn a few pages where they’d finally talked about the kiss and done more of it.She spoke of how she’d felt like she was floating on air.
“There’s tons more about you, but I only marked a few key ones.”
“You didn’t write about the first night we slept together?”
Her face flamed, and she tugged on the book.“I did, but you aren’t allowed to read that one.It’s not exactly G-rated.”
“Now I’m really interested.”He attempted to grab it, but she moved it out of the way.“I can’t believe you write about me in your diary.”
She caressed the cover of one of the journals.“I have for years as you can see.That’s how important you are to me.”
He sat back, and his face grew solemn.“You’d actually consider being with me on a permanent basis?”
Was that what she thought it was?She smirked to take away the gravity of what she was asking.“Are you proposing?”
He stiffened, and his face fell.
Her stomach sank.“Guess not.”
Grabbing her shoulders, he kissed her full on the lips.“It’s not that I wouldn’t want to marry you.I would.You’d be amazing as a wife.But I don’t have a ring for you or even flowers or something romantic.I haven’t even told you I love you yet, and I do love you, Mercedes.I love you so much.I never imagined you could love me back.”
“Well, I do, you big dope.”She cupped his face to make sure he saw what she felt inside.
He gave a small chuckle.“It’s kind of scary.”
She put on a fake pout, then laughed.“I’m kind of scary?”
“No, this whole thing where I can’t stop thinking about you every second of the day.It gets me in trouble at times when I’m supposed to be working.”
All her fears were slowly fading away.“I do that, too.So, I’ll let you off the hook for the proposal thing for now.” The last thing she wanted to do was make him even more anxious.
He shook his head wildly.“I don’t want to be off the hook.But I would love to maybe spend more time on this romantic relationship thing first, one where the end goal is something permanent.I want to make sure to do it right.This is one relationship I don’t want to mess up.”
Permanent.That word had never sounded so good.“We will do it right,” she said.“And we’ll do it together.”
Chapter Thirty
Evan waited in the doorway of the living room for Mercedes to be ready.Tonight was special for several reasons.He couldn’t wait to share his happiness with the woman he loved.
Six months ago, they’d declared their love for each other.Since then, they’d been sharing the same bedroom and had made the other room an office, though he still kept most of his clothes in there.The dirty ones in particular.Mercedes appreciated it.They’d done so much studying for his test in there, and he’d finally felt confident.
Brushing lint off his black dress slacks, he checked that his button-down shirt was tucked all the way in.He wasn’t wearing a suit and tie, but he still wanted to look nice for their dinner.
