“I’m not proposing. I’m just saying... I know how this ends. It ends with you. With us.” I tuck hair behind her ear. “However long it takes to get there.”
“You really think about that? Marrying me?”
“I saw it today. When you were walking down the aisle. My brain just... went there.” I shrug like it’s no big deal, even though my heart is pounding. “Your hair would be down, you looked beautiful, like always.”
She’s quiet for so long I start counting my heartbeats. I’ve gone too far. Obviously it’s insane. I’m mentally calculating how much a last minute ticket back to Seattle will cost.
She hooks her leg over mine. “You’re insane.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you are.” She picks up my hand, threading our fingers together. “But I kind of love that about you.”
My heart stops. Everything stops. “What did you just say?”
“I said you’re insane and I—” She stops. Realizes what she almost said.
“JuJu.”
“I’m not ready to say it yet.”
“But you almost did.”
“I know.”
I wrap both arms around her. Hold her tight. “Take all the time you need.”
“What if I’m never brave enough?”
“You will be. I know you will.” I press my face into her hair. “And when you are, I’ll be right here. Thinking about our wedding like a complete psycho.”
She laughs against my chest. “You really saw all that?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s—” She stops. “That’s actually really sweet.”
“Or terrifying.”
“Maybe both.”
Her breathing slowly starts to even out as we lie quietly together.
“Rodriguez?” Her voice is barely a whisper.
“Yeah?”
“Tomorrow when I have to walk with Garrett I’m going to be thinking about what you just said.” She pauses. “Is that okay?”
Something in me feels like it might explode. “Yeah, JuJu. That’s okay.”
She falls asleep within minutes, her hand fisted in my shirt.
Tomorrow I’m going to stand in that church and watch her walk down an aisle with her ex-boyfriend. And it’s going to kill me.
But she’ll be thinking about us.
And that’s enough.
