Page 24 of The Growly Outcast’s Promise

“Bella, that is not what is happening. I am not this altruistic, honorable man you seem to think I am. I didn’t sacrifice anything marrying you.”

I start to say something, but he puts a finger to my lips.

He picks me up and puts me on his lap, straddling him so we’re face-to-face. “It’s my turn to talk, your turn to listen.”

“You are right that I bought that ring intending to propose. But it didn’t work out.”

And now I’m his consolation prize. Today just gets better and better.

“How could it have not worked out? That ring is perfect; you are perfect.” I shake my head. “I don’t get it.”

“I am not perfect. I am evidently a complete fuck up, and I can’t believe Brook was right.” He rubs a hand down his face.

“What was she right about?”

“About you. Not knowing what I thought was so blatantly obvious.”

I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”

“Darlin’, I bought that ring for you when you were sixteen. I never got a chance to show it to you, never really got a chance to give you a proper proposal. Because your grandmother took y’all away before the school year even ended.”

If I thought I was crying before, now my eyes are swimming in tears.

“You kept it all this time?”

“Yeah. Always intended to give it to you. Then when you told me you were getting married, I figured I’d lost my chance. I even had it with me the day we said our vows. I’d put it in my pocket as a reminder that it was time for me to let go of what I couldn’t have. What wasn’t rightfully mine.”

“But then I asked you to be my groom.”

“You did.”

“Then why didn’t you give it to me then?”

“Because it’s a fraction of the size of the one you handed me to give you.”

“But you picked it out for me,” I say.

“I did. Do you know why?”

“To save me from having to move away when you knew I wanted to stay.”

He nods. “That was part of it. The thought of you moving away, of not getting to see you every day, felt like I was losing a limb. I don’t think I even fully realized what I was doing buying that ring until later.”

He cups my face. “Bella, my sweet, beautiful Bella. I am in love with you. I always have been. I don’t want to stay married to you because of some weird sense of obligation or honor. I want to be your husband because you’re the only wife I’ve ever wanted.”

He leans forward and kisses my forehead, then thumbs away my tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I truly thought you knew how I felt. Literally everyone else knows.”

“So, you want to be my husband for real?”

“In every sense of the word.”

I close my eyes, and then a laugh bubbles out of me. “Oh my God, I’m such an idiot. Why didn’t you ever smack me upside the head?”

“Uh, because I don’t hit women.”

“No, I mean, I just had no idea how you felt. I’ve spent the entirety of my adult life being annoyed that I could never fall in love with any man I went on a date with. No matter how charming or sweet or whatever. None of them stirred anything inside me. And it was all your fault.”

“My fault?”