The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland

Teagan tried to hide her smile. “How about a party with your friends?”

“As a date?”

She nodded. “I don’t go to a lot of parties anymore. But I think you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. It’s also cheap—and will keep you in those oh-so-important brand-name Cheerios. So why not a party? It’ll help me figure out if our age difference is just a number or a maturity gap.”

Shit. Most of my friends were immature idiots. A party wasn’t a good idea.

Teagan noticed my less-than-excited face. She arched a brow. “Unless you don’t want me to meet your friends for some reason?”

It seemed like she was daring me to say yes. I was nineteen and played hockey, which meant I never met a challenge I didn’t like. So I smiled. “How about Saturday night?”





CHAPTER 9




* * *



Georgia



I spent the next morning making lists, deliberating over the decision I’d already told Max I made last night. Obsessive overanalyzing didn’t stop after I came to a conclusion; it only meant I shifted from deciding how to handle a situation to wondering if I’d made the wrong choice. It wasn’t something I could stop. The problem was… I was having a hard time seeing any outcome other than me getting hurt at the end of this summer.

However, one of the many benefits of hiring my best friend to work in my office was that I had a built-in therapist whenever the need occurred. Maggie strolled into my office at 11 AM, assuming we were going to go over the latest graphics she’d been working on for an upcoming ad campaign, but right now she wasn’t going to get to show me even page one of what she’d brought with her.

Ready for business, she pushed a four-inch-thick deck of papers across my desk and looked up at the frown lines cutting into my forehead. “Don’t worry. It won’t take that long. It’s only a couple of concepts, but I did a few different colorations of each, so that’s why it’s so many pages.”

“I told Max I would have sex with him.”

Maggie blinked a few times. “Can you repeat that?”

I rubbed my temples. “He has an adorable little furry dog, kneels down to play with his three young nieces, and he wipes his stupid, sweaty head with the hem of his shirt, and underneath are rock hard abs. It’s awful.”

Maggie’s brows furrowed. “Yeah, sounds it. I like my men to kick puppies, be mean to children, and have soft, mushy beer bellies.”

I dropped my face into my hands. “He also makes me laugh—like, all the time—and he brings me chicken soup when I’m sick. Chicken soup! And drugs!”

“You lost me with that one, honey. Did he bring you crack? Is that why you’re so upset?”

I shook my head. “What am I going to do when Gabriel comes home, Mags?”

“Oh…” She nodded as if everything made sense for the first time. “You’re afraid you might grow feelings for Max, and that will complicate things when Mr. I-Want-an-Open-Relationship floats back into your life.”

“I love Gabriel, Maggie. I know you’ve had your doubts about him since he pulled what he pulled, but I said yes when he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. You know I don’t rush into things until I’m sure where I want to go. Last year I was absolutely certain I wanted to wake up next to him every day and have a family together. I’d agonized over whether it was the right time for me, whether Gabriel was ready, and if he was truly the one. I didn’t have any doubt.”

Maggie studied me for a moment before leaning forward in her seat. “What is really freaking you out here? The fact that it will be tough to say goodbye to Max when the time comes, or that you might not want to end things with him, which would mean the decision you made to say yes to Gabriel a year ago might not have been the right one?”

I rubbed my temples. “I have a headache.”

“That’s because you’re wound up so tight.” She grinned. “I bet sex with Max would fix that. Something tells me you’ll be a bowl full of jelly when that man is done with you.”

I sighed. “I’ve never had sex with anyone I wasn’t in a relationship with.”

“I know, honey.” Maggie reached across the desk and patted my hand. “But don’t worry, I’ve done that enough for both of us. So this is a subject I can help with.”

I smiled sadly. “When I’m with Max, I’m so caught up in things that I don’t think about anything else. But the minute he leaves, all the guilt and questions set in. I feel like I’m cheating on Gabriel.”

“Okay, let’s start with the simple stuff here. You are not cheating on Gabriel. That fucker is in England boning Brits. He’s the one who forced this situation. You can’t cheat on someone when you aren’t in a relationship.”

“I know I wouldn’t be technically cheating, but my heart still feels like it is.”

Maggie shook her head. “God, I can feel the tension radiating from you. You’re making me feel stressed just sitting in the same room. I think you need to put the meditation you learned a while back to some use so you can relax, and maybe things will become clearer.”

“I did meditate! For an hour this morning. That’s why I was late getting in.”