Page 125 of Wrecked

Turning around, I give my ass to the crowd. Emma is sitting on a couch in front of me. She gives me a thumbs-up, which I find oddly encouraging. I can’t even look at Mr. Paige right now.

I pump my right arm up in the air, and Luke manages to shine a spotlight on me. I didn’t plan on that. When he does, the room applauds. I make a come-hither motion with my hand, and they get louder.

I tap my right foot and feel the rhythm of the song. I close my eyes and pretend like I’m in my room, practicing. I lift my other arm and start rolling my hips.

There’s no one here, there’s no one here…

I open an eye, and Leah’s grandmother gives me a wink and an air-cheers with her glass. I can’t help but smile.

I continue to roll my hips as I lower my arms down and back up, just like McConaughey does in the movie. Makes me wonder why she couldn’t have been a Matt Damon fan. I could have made a badass Jason Bourne.

Here goes nothing.

I turn around and face the roomful of people. I raise my hand behind my neck, and I move my hips back and forth. The girls go crazy, and it’s exhilarating. I’m not gonna lie and say it isn’t a bit of an ego boost. I throw in a few extra roll of the hips, and the room lights on fire with applause.

This is about the time McConaughey puts his hand down his pants, but I go for an ab rub. Some girl throws a five-dollar bill on the floor, and I shake my head with a smile. Dollar bills, a couple of fives—hell, I even see a fifty—it’s all being thrown my way.

Luke comes to my side and hands me a microphone. He eyes the bills on the ground and rubs his hands together. “Motorcycle fund!”

I shake my head. “Put it in the Homes for All Souls fund.”

My future brother-in-law’s shoulders slump down. I let out a loud laugh and carry on with the debauchery. I strut over toward the bar.

Leah is standing there, her perfect Cupid’s bow mouth wide open, those angelic eyes popping out of their sockets, and her hand lurches to her chest in surprise.

The music lowers, so I lift the microphone to my mouth. “There’s only one girl I would ever do this for.” I take off my vest and throw it into the crowd. “And that’s you.”

I climb up onto a barstool and onto the oak bar. The room goes silent.

I walk toward her. “Baby, you are the first person I think of when I wake up, and your name is my last breath before I go to sleep. You bring me laughter with your wit and smile with your beauty, and I fall deeper in love with your touch.”

She walks over to me with her hand out.

I step back and wave a finger in the air at her. “‘No, no, no,’” I say, mimicking the movie. “‘The law says that you cannot touch.’”

She gasps with a laugh. “I can’t believe you’re actually doing this.”

“But I see a little lawbreaker in this house tonight.”

The room erupts with laughter and applause, and I swear, my mortification level has just reached an all-time high level. It doesn’t matter. I fall to one knee and look up at the most stunning woman in the world. The one whom I want to spend the rest of my life with.

“I promised you a proposal. A big, huge proposal. If you say no, I don’t know how I’ll ever top this one, so I hope I do this right. I fell in love with you as a teenage kid who didn’t understand what love was. You made me a man who not only knows, but also lives, breathes, and will die with the world’s worth of love in his heart. I don’t want to live a moment without you.” I dip my hand into my leather pocket and pull out the platinum ring with a sapphire stone in the middle. “Leah Marie Paige, will you marry me?”

Her eyes are glistening, wet with tears that are falling down her face. I want to catch them all but not until she utters that one magical word that will make my life complete.

“Yes!” she screams, her feet jumping up and down on the bar. “Yes.”

I slide the ring on her finger, rise up, and kiss my bride.

The bar erupts, and the music blares. Luke’s picked Bruno Mars’s “Marry You.”

I kiss my girl again and whisper into her ear, “Was that a good enough proposal for you?”

She gives a halfhearted shrug. “It was all right.”

I lean back. “All right?”

She pulls me back and kisses me. “It was all right, all right, all right.”