Page 92 of Dirty Like Jude
“I just want it to be… you know… romantic andeverything.”
I held her out at arm’s length. She gripped my arms and her nervous, excited energy seemed to buzz right throughme.
“Everything’s about Nicky right now, obviously,” she gushed, “and Dirty, and we’re both so tired. That’s why I’m doing it now. Because I want to surprise him, and this is the last thing he’ll expect. He thinks we’re just going for a little drive tomorrow, you know, get out of the house together and grab a fro-yo or something.” She grinned. “I booked us a hotelroom.”
“For like anhour?”
“Yup.”
“Girl.”
I looked her over. My friend the lingerie model, who’d just had a baby, dressed in a gorgeous black silk-and-lace teddy, with her quadruple-E’s or whatever and her curves all over the place… “Jessa. No straight man on Earth would say no to this proposal. I’m pretty sure if you proposed to your brother wearing this, he’d considerit.”
“Jesus, Roni.” She made a barfy face. “Really.”
“Just trying to dispel some of this tension…” I shook her a bit by the shoulders, gently, and she released her death grip on myarms.
“I know Brody’s not gonna say no,” she said, biting her lip a bit. “I just want it to beperfect.”
“It willbe.”
“You can’t tell anyone. No one knows. I asked you to babysit because I was too nervous to tell Maggie or Katie… Just in case they accidentally let it slip or something? Or Brody suspected something? I don’t know.Paranoia?”
“Jessa. You know he’ll get nothing out ofme.”
“I know,” shesaid.
I felt kinda flattered, actually, that she’d picked me. I would’ve thought for sure Maggie or Katie would be her first choice for anything likethis.
“You’re gonna knock it out of the park,” I told her, settling back on the bed as she checked herself out in the wall mirror. “But if you really want to get married… why don’t we make him propose toyou?”
“It’s not about making him ask or waiting for him to do it. I don’t need him to ask. It’s not about me feeling wanted.” She looked at me with her big brown eyes. “He’s been waiting for this his whole life. He’s been waiting forme. So I’m going to give it tohim.”
Wow.I actually felt tears prick in my eyes, and it took alotto move me to tears. “Jessa. Fuck. I’ll marry you, if you keep talking likethat.”
She grinned and dashed back into the walk-in, peeling off the teddy. “We’ll tell everyone soon, as soon as it’s official,” she said. “We’ll have a littleparty.”
“And your secret is safe with me untilthen.”
It was. I’d never told anyone—even Jessa—about how I’d seen Zane, naked, in Maggie’s cabin in the middle of the night, the night of Jesse and Katie’s wedding. Why? Not because of my undying loyalty to Maggie. She and I weren’t really thatclose.
Because Maggie and Zane fucking was none of mybusiness.
Jessa planning a surprise proposal for Brody? Also none of mybusiness.
I’d take all that shit to my grave ifnecessary.
Talking about other people’s love lives was bullshit. I definitely didn’t appreciate it when other people gossiped about mine. As the subject of gossip from a young age, I knew how itfelt.
“I just don’t know if I should go super-sexy with this, or more… romantic,” Jessa said, and when I looked up again, she was sliding into a royal-blue lace bustier. The matching panties were already on, anddamn.
“Well, what reaction are you going for?” I askedher.
“Reaction?”
“Do you want him to treat you like the mother of his newborn baby, or like some dirty whore he just picked up in analley?”
“Ew. Roni, gross.” She stepped out of the walk-in to peruse herself in the mirror again. She was definitely blushing a little when she turned to me and said, “Okay. The whore thing. We haven’t had sex since Nick was born and I don’t even know if Icanyet.”
