Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“Okay. Allie,” I try again, looking into the expectant eyes of a grown man. “I love you. I love everything about you. I love your sense of humor. I love how melodramatic you are—”
“Veto,” Garrett interrupts. “You can’t insult her in the proposal.”
“But it’s a compliment,” I protest. “I love the drama.”
“Yeah, but women don’t want to hear they’re drama.”
“He’s right,” Logan chimes in. “I told Grace she was being dramatic when we got stranded on New Year’s and she lost it.” He pauses. “Well, technically she lost it because I wouldn’t eat her ass.”
“I’m sorry—what?” Garrett asks politely.
“Not what it sounds like.” He chuckles. “She wanted me to promise that if one of us died in the blizzard, we would eat the other one.”
G nods. “Oh. Like that movie.”
Logan’s face goes blank.
“You know the one. About a football team or something that crashed in the mountains and cannibalized each other to survive? It’s heartwarming.”
“Sounds like it,” I say dryly.
“Yeah, exactly like that, then,” Logan tells G. “But I wouldn’t make the promise, and she got pissed. Luckily that didn’t stop her from—” He stops abruptly.
“From what?” I prompt.
Logan runs a hand over his buzzed hair. For a second I get the sense he’s nervous. Dodging. But then a wolfish grin curves his lips. “From spending all of New Year’s Day in bed with me. Anyway. Trust me, girls don’t want to be called drama-llama.”
I mull over Grace’s hypothetical for a second. “Would you eat me if I died first?” I ask him.
“Oh, for sure. You too, G.”
Garrett sounds intrigued. “You’d eat us for sustenance, but you wouldn’t eat your girlfriend?”
“I couldn’t. It’d feel completely wrong. The idea of cutting into her perfect flesh…” He shudders. “Nope, can’t do it. I’d rather die. Also, if she’s dying, I’m dying right along with her. I can’t live without her.”
“There,” Garrett says, jabbing a finger in the air at me. “That’s what you say.”
“That I won’t be able to cut into her perfect flesh and eat it?”
“No, that you can’t live without her. Life isn’t worth living if she’s not with you, blah blah blah.”
Finally, some direction. “Got it,” I say. “Here. Let me try again.”
This time, I lead with the whole can’t-live-without-you pitch, while Garrett clasps his hands over his heart, nodding along. Encouraged by his response, I hurry on.
“There’s nobody else I want to be with. Nobody else I want to fuck. I love every inch of your body, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives seeing you naked—”
“No! You’ve gone off the rails,” Garrett chides. “That’s way too sexy. Sexiness plays no role in a proposal.”
“I disagree,” Logan pipes up. “I say go even sexier.”
“Don’t listen to him.”
“More sexy,” Logan argues.
“Less,” Garrett shoots back.
My gaze ping-pongs between the two of them, my temples beginning to throb. This is impossible. I don’t know how I’m ever going to get through this proposal. I’m not good with romantic words. I’m good with dirty, telling her I want to screw her brains out. I’m good at telling Allie I love her, because I do. I love her with all my heart. Why does a proposal need to involve a whole damn speech?
“You know what, try it on me,” Logan suggests. “G is clearly not a good proposal receiver.”
“Oh, fuck off, I’m a great proposal receiver. It’s just that the proposal sucks. I’m not going to say yes to something that doesn’t wow me.”
“Go wow yourself,” I grumble, flipping up my middle finger.
Garrett beams at me. “I do. Every day when I look in the mirror.”
Asshole. He’s incorrigible. Although, his massive ego isn’t entirely unwarranted. There’s a reason he was the big man on campus at Briar for four years. The Garrett Graham, constantly swarmed by thirsty girls. Granted, I scored way more often than him, mostly because Garrett was always too busy with hockey and made that clear to any chick who tried getting serious with him. He hooked up, but not nearly as much as me or Logan. But hey, it worked out for him. His dedication to hockey got him signed by the Bruins, and now he’s one of the highest paid hockey players in the league and has a girlfriend he adores.
What’s wild to me is the fact that G and Logan are teammates again. They played in college together for four years, then went their separate ways for two, only for Logan to wind up playing in Boston—on the same line as Garrett. Talk about serendipity. I think. I always use that word incorrectly.
“As the only one here who’s successfully written poetry for a woman, I think I’m best equipped to evaluate a proposal,” Logan is saying, jarring me from my thoughts.
Garrett rolls his eyes. “Okay there, Shakespeare.”
“He has a point,” I tell G.
“See?” Logan crooks a beckoning finger at me. “C’mere, big boy.”