He hated Markus with a passion in his soul, but he’d be okay.

Closing her eyes, she didn’t realize how tired she really was, and within seconds, she fell asleep. When she woke, it wasn’t because the cat was loud, it was because someone was staring at her. As she expected, it was her gorgeous boyfriend grinning at her, moving his fingers along her jaw.

“Good evening, beautiful.”

She smiled, rubbing her eyes as she rolled onto her back. “Evening? Crap, I won’t sleep tonight.”

Chuckling, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her nose. “I’ll stay up with you until I can’t.”

She laughed. “Which won’t be long. We all know how you are with sleep.”

“True,” he said, cuddling her and kissing her once more. “Jesus, woman, kiss me. I haven’t seen you in five days.”

Grinning, she pressed her lips to his in a fevered kiss as his hands tangled in her hair. Pulling away, he nibbled on her bottom lip as she smiled, her eyes locking with his. “Did you miss me?”

He scoffed. “I miss you when you’re beside me. Of course, I missed you.”

She grinned happily. “I missed you too. We ate at this crab place one day, and I knew you’d love it.”

“I would have. It’s crab, and I love food.”

“See? I knew I was on to something.”

He kissed her hard once more before pulling back and staring into her eyes. “Did you have fun with Avery?”

She nodded softly, her smile falling a bit. “It was really nice. I missed having girl time.”

“Boo, you don’t like boy time?”

She laughed. “I love boy time, especially the sex part.”

“Freak,” he said, rolling his eyes playfully, and she giggled loudly. “I’m glad. Did it clear your head?”

“It did. It was really nice,” she said on an exhale. “I didn’t cry the whole time.”

“That’s awesome, sweetheart,” he said softly, kissing her jaw. “I knew you needed some Avery time.”

“I did. She wants to go to Fiji in the off-season.”

“That sounds like a plan, for sure.”

“I thought so too.”

Gazing into his eyes, she felt so beautiful. He did that to her, always making her feel like the most stunning person on this earth. She never had to question his love; she just knew he loved her, wholly, and she loved that about him. What she loved the most was that she never questioned their future anymore. She knew that no matter what they’d be together, and they’d stand tall through the storms or whatever else came their way.

It was such a powerful feeling.

Especially when she’d lived for that time unsure of who she was or even what her purpose was. She blamed a lot of that on Libby for taking her in and letting her be a hermit. But all that changed the moment she came home and went to a wedding, where she faced off against the guy who held her heart completely. She tried to resist him, tried to ignore him and hate him, but her heart just couldn’t do it. It was like she always knew he truly didn’t hurt her. That he only loved her, and in fact, he was the victim.

But all of it was in the past.

Their future together was so bright.

Reaching out, she cupped his face as she smiled. He leaned into her hand as his face broke into a grin. “I love you.”

“I love you,” she said, rubbing her thumb along his lip. “Where were you, by the way? Out chasing tail with your boys?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but I didn’t find any tail that equaled this tail,” he said, taking ahold of her ass. “So I left.”

“Oh, how lucky for me.”

He grinned, bringing her in closer, her center pressing into him. “Shut up, you.”

“Never,” she vowed, shaking her head. “Tell me where you were.”

“I took your dad out to lunch that turned into dinner with Jayden and Vaughn.”

Her brow quirked at the mention of her dad. “My dad? Why were you with my dad?”

He smiled. “For reasons you don’t need to know.”

“Rude.”

“Hey, I’m trying to surprise you.”

“Why?” she said, her face scrunching up. “I hate surprises.”

“You do not.”

“I do,” she said, shaking her head. “What if I don’t like it and then I have to act like I do? We both know you can see right through me.”

He thought that over. “I can.”

“So, see? Surprises are dumb. Just tell me what y’all were up to.”

He bit into his lip and shook his head slowly. “No.”

Laughing, she rolled her eyes. “I hate you.”

“You don’t.”

“I know,” she said truthfully, leaning her head into his chin. “I missed you a lot.”

“Good, I missed you,” he said, kissing her forehand. “Don’t leave me anymore.”

“I will. I love girl trips.”

He chuckled. “Rude.”

“You love it.”

“I do.”

Moving his fingers up into her hair, he kissed her nose, his eyes full of love as they stared into each other’s eyes. “I asked your dad if I could marry you today.”

She could only blink because, surely, she’d heard him wrong. He said it so calmly, like what he’d just said wasn’t life altering. “You what?”

He smiled, moving his lips along her nose, his eyes burning into hers. “I asked your dad if I could marry you.”

“You did?!”

“I did,” he said, still so calm, while she was sure her eyes were going to pop out of her head, they were so wide.

“What in the world? What did he say?”

“He said yes.”

Her mouth dropped. “He did?”

“Yup.”

She just looked at him, unsure how to take what he was saying. Was he asking her to marry him? Or was he just making a statement? Blinking some more, she murmured, “Okay?”

“Okay,” he said with a smile, and her brows pulled together.

“Okay.”

Kissing her, this time, on her lips, he rolled on top of her. “Okay,” he said before rolling off the bed and onto the floor. Still unsure what the hell was going on, she found herself beyond frustrated as she slapped the bed.