“Really?”
I shrugged my shoulders and looked down at the message from Sheridan.
SHERIDAN
Girl.
You and Alex.
Me and Cooper.
Tomorrow.
Married.
You in?
I looked up at Bear, his brow knitted together. “What is it?”
“Sheridan’s being weird.”
“How so?”
He got up from his seat and moved over to take the phone from my hand. My chest was fluttery as I thought about it. Marrying Bear had been something I’d wanted to do all those years ago so it kinda turned me on but I didn’t want to scare him away.
We’d only just found peace together where people didn’t want to tear us apart.
“Jesus, how the hell did he ask her so quickly?”
“Wait,” I stepped back. “You knew?”
“Coop mentioned it earlier as we were leaving.”
“And you said no?”
He looked down at me, confusion on his face. “Not exactly.”
“But you didn’t say yes to it.”
“Orla, I would fucking marry you right now if you wanted me to. I don’t want to take away from Sheridan and Cooper, that’s what I said.”
He had a point, but the way he said it made me feel like maybe he didn’t want to marry at all. I’d never thought about marriage as being something I wanted but when it came to Bear…I wanted to marry him.
A cold, hard pain shot across my chest at the realisation he may not want me the same way. No matter what we’d gone through, he didn’t want to call me his wife.
I made a move to walk away, needing to go and cry or do something because I wanted to scratch his eyes out for making me feel so vulnerable.
“Or-”
I ignored his call to me and continued down the hall to the bathroom. He caught my arm and pulled me back. I pushed him away, needing to be away, but he didn’t let go.
“Orla, you’re overreacting.”
“Fuck you.”
I watched him pause at the familiar words he had tattooed on his skin. The words I’d sent to him because I’d been hurting, the words he tattooed to remind him never to return to me.
I’d hurt him, too.
