“I’ll think about it.”
“Good.” His hand touched my arm, and I looked up at him just as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and hugged me to him. I hugged him back, trying to sort out all the emotions running through my head.
Gardner’s voice became soft.
“I love you, son.”
“I…I love you, too, Gardner.”
His words had touched me more deeply than I ever would have imagined.
I guess now I’ll become an art major.
“Will you marry me?”
Fourteenth time’s the charm, right?
“No.”
I sighed and pulled Rumple close to my chest. I guess post-coital proposals didn’t work, either.
The first time I had asked, she thought I was joking. I kind of played it off that way, too, not wanting her to know how serious I really was and how her saying no had torn at my heart. I knew we were too young, but I still wanted to…I don’t know, stake a claim? We were already living together off campus, so what the hell was the big deal about a piece of paper?
Her hand ran over my stomach, causing me to shiver a little and my cock to twitch. Little bastard never got enough of her, it seemed. She didn’t mind though. If anything, she was ready to have another go before I was. Not today though, because Greg and Gardner were coming to take us out to dinner and celebrate.
Nicole honestly thought it was weird, but I wanted to celebrate having saved her life exactly one year ago today. She saw it as the day I got hurt, but to me, the important part was all about her being okay. Besides, I was walking again, even if I did still have to use a cane to keep my balance.
I hated the fucking walker so much, I nearly hurt myself pushing the PT and ended up in the hospital for a weekend. Danielle tore me a new one and put me on a very strict regimen after that. No more pushing myself into exercises my body wasn’t ready to tackle.
Nicole made sure I only did what I was allowed to do.
“Why do you keep asking?”
It was the first time she had even attempted to speak about it after I asked. Usually she just told me to stop it or shut up or something.
“I want to marry you,” I said as I shrugged my shoulders. “I know there will never be anyone else who could ever compare to you. I don’t see any reason to wait.”
“What about school?”
“What about it?” I asked. “We’re both here, and we’ll both graduate. It’ll take me a little longer since I got behind, but I thought I’d take some summer courses or something to make up for it. If I can, I’ll still graduate with you.”
“But…to be in school and be married, too? How is that going to work?”
“How will it be different from now?”
“People will think it’s…weird,” Nicole insisted. “Married at nineteen?”
She snorted.
“So we wait a little longer,” I said. “I just…”
I stopped. After a minute, Nicole raised her head and looked up at me.
“Just what?” she asked.
I ran my hand through my hair and cringed a little. Seeing Gardner do it all the time made me self-conscious about it.
“Guys look at you all the time,” I finally said. “When you’re training and whatever—they’re watching you, and I can’t beat the shit out of them like I want to.”