Page 75 of The Emma Special

She was trapped in a weird fantasy nightmare. She was still sleeping. She’d taken too many pain meds and fallen asleep.

This wasn’t real.

Maybe she’d watched too many Marvel movies with Katie and her mind was losing its touch on reality. The stress of the week was taxing her brain. This was a freaky trauma response. That’s all that was happening.

“James, what crazy dimension are you living in that you’d ask me to marry you? Make it make sense.”

“I see you’re panicking. That’s not what we’d planned for.”

“We? Who’s we? Because if you mean me and you, this is the first I’ve heard of it. Don’t go putting my name in places where I didn’t sign up. Peaches, James, get off the floor. Holy moly, I can’t breathe.”

“Here.” James raised her water glass. “Have some water.”

She chugged half the glass and clunked it back on the table.

“Better?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Talk to me. Start over. Something. And for Pete’s sake, don’t get back on the floor.”

“I can help you. I want to help you. Every fiber of my being wants to see you healed. It’s not right for you to be trapped in a body that can’t do all the things I know you want to do. I hate seeing you in pain. You could have had amazing insurance that would have covered all of this with a small deductible, and now your path is split between crippled for life or jump so far into debt your life will never be the same. Neither of those are going to be your future because there’s a third option—to let me pay for it. You won’t let me pay for it for reasons unknown to me⁠—”

“And the next logical step in your mind is to bind yourself to me in marriage? Surely the woman who won’t take your money will take your name?”

“Well… yes.”

“You’re serious.”

He picked up the ring she was refusing to look at and held it toward her. “I’ve never been more serious about anything.”

Emma rested her head in her hands. “Make it make sense! I’m… I’m nothing and nobody.” She lifted her chin and stared at him, looking for any sign of deceit. “You’d shackle yourself to me just to fix my leg? Why do you care so much?”

James didn’t back away from her outburst. He’d been yelled at, and he gently held a ring toward her, a soft smile pulling his lips. “You are of infinite worth, Emma.”

Oh no. A swelling in her chest said tears were knocking at the door. “I need some air. I need to go. I have to—” Emma used her hands to move her injured leg off the chair and stood as quickly as she could. While fumbling to get the crutches under her arms she dropped one. Reaching to grab it, she tipped sideways. Unbalanced, she fell away from the table after the crutch.

James was there. Her head rested in the crook of his arm and his other secured her waist. This would be the pose when the hero dipped the princess, kissed her for the first time, and butterflies launched into the air. Emma was weightless and free—all tension gone, yet keenly aware that James had rescued her again.

She could look into his brown eyes all day. A couple days ago she’d contemplated something more with James. She’d almost warmed up to the idea of being his girlfriend, going on dates, opening her life to a “we” with a man. Her Kiss and Tell girls were never going to believe what was happening right now.

If she let him go through with this marriage, he’d regret it. Maybe not right away, but within a few months or years he’d realize their dynamic was off-centered. She couldn’t be in a relationship with someone who was continually saving her.

There’s no way a guy with his act this far together would have given her a second glance if she hadn’t been bringing him coffee for a month.

“You can put me down now,” Emma whispered.

James slowly straightened and set her on her feet. “Are you going to try to run away again? You look pale enough to pass out.”

“I don’t think you’ve thought everything through.”

“I have. Daniel and I made a list.”

“Oh, well in that case…” Emma rolled her forehead on James’s shoulder. “I really do appreciate the gesture. You’re very sweet to care about me, and you’re an amazing friend.”

“Don’t do that. You’re trying to let me down easy. Trust me, I’ve thought it through. I’ve been praying, thinking, and planning for two days. Please marry me.”

“You’d be giving up your future with the wife God set aside for you. What about the spiritual bonding of a husband and wife? Have you thought about next year? Ten years? Fifty years from now?”

“What about you in fifty years if you refuse to let me care for you?”