Page 81 of The One Timer
She rolls her eyes. “Didn’t you get the message I don’t want to talk when I didn’t answer your six hundred phone calls and texts?”
I laugh again because I’m a glutton.
“This is important. We have unfinished business.”
“Are you here to deliver my final pay check? Because it appears I’ve been dismissed. Kathleen hired a nurse—one who’s officially a nurse, with experience, as opposed to a student.”
“It’s not about that.”
“Good. Because I was offered a nursing job at the rehab center as soon as I graduate.”
My whole face smiles and I take her into a hug. “Congratulations, Em. I know it’s what you’ve been working for and you’ve achieved it.”
“Almost.” Her voice is breathy and warmer, less sassy with defiance as I let her go. Under protest from my dick because we need to talk, I back up a step.
“Well?” she prompts, rolling her hand. “Me and Merry have a movie to watch. What did you have to say?”
I tell myself to just do it, ask her to marry you, but the words don’t come out that way.
“I know you’re looking to move out from your Aunt’s house…”
“And?”
“Move in with me. Live with me. Be mine.”
Her face goes pale with shock, but not the panicked kind, the I can’t believe he’s saying this kind.
After a few beats of silence, Merry yells from behind the door, loud and clear, “Say yes! For fuck’s sake, say yes to the man!”
I shake my head, ducking my head and try not to laugh.
Emery swats my arm. “Don’t you dare laugh at a time like this.”
I raise my eyes to meet hers, a blanket of calm seriousness coming over me. “A time like what, Em? What are you afraid of?”
“A time like… an existential crisis… or an identity crisis.” She squeezes her eyes shut for a blink. “Oh hell, I’m so confused, Chase.” She steps forward and leans against me, laying her cheek against my chest as it beats wildly yet again, like it does more often than not in her presence.
“I want to say yes. But…”
“But you want to be independent and you’re afraid living with me will rob you of that?”
She nods with an embarrassed smile. “Sounds stupid when you say it like that. People live together all the time. It doesn’t make them dependent, does it?”
“Maybe,” I say, not sure why I feel compelled to be stupidly honest. “But depending on another person isn’t a bad thing, Em. It’s how we’re built. Us humans rely on each other, our families, our friends. We can’t help ourselves.”
She chuckles. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you? But what about the fact that I can’t possibly keep up with you—could never afford my share of the kind of place where you live?”
“I don’t have an answer for that except to say it’s part of being in a committed relationship, where we rely on each other’s strengths. Mine happens to be money—and that I’m great in the sack.”
She laughs and then points a finger at me, her voice wobbly. “You’re not implying that I’m any less great in the sack, are you? Because I think we’re pretty evenly matched—”
Merry shouts from the bathroom, “Hey, I’m still here, listening in. Don’t forget.”
Em claps a hand over her mouth, but doesn’t hold in the burst of laughter and I feel the tension ease from her, feel the tightness in my chest ease and my heart beat slow to a non-alarming level.
“What’s my strength? How can I make up for your oodles of money?” I can see the hesitation and the seriousness behind her smile, the need to know and not wanting to hear it at the same time.
“You are the most caring and nurturing person I’ve ever met. I’ll never be able to make up for that.” I hold her close now. “Don’t worry, Em. We can take our time. We can find a place that we both like, that’s half way between Portsmouth and Boston, something not too pricey, not too big. I don’t need a luxury home to be happy with you.”
