Swipe for a Cosmo by Megan Wade
Kellen
Iopen my eyes to the sound of my front door clicking shut and sit bolt upright the moment I realize Jade isn’t lying naked next to me in my bed anymore.
“Shit,” I hiss, throwing off the covers and grabbing a pair of shorts as fast as I can. I hop into them as I make my way out the door and down the stairs into the bar, sprinting barefoot across the tacky floor and out the door into the parking lot before I can even consider the repercussions of doing this barefoot.
“Fuck!”
Gravel and Lego are equal on the scale of ‘Things You Don’t Wanna Tread On’ in my books, but my yelp of pain at least does one thing right—it makes Jade stop beside her car and turn to face me.
“Are you all right?” she calls out as I jump back on the front stoop and check the sole of my foot for injury.
“I will be when you get your ass back into bed,” I grunt, brushing the sharp piece of rock from my arch.
“Are you sure you really want that? I mean, last night was…amazing, Kellen, but I’m not so naïve that I’m really going to hold you to all that stuff you said to me in the heat of the moment.”
“Why?” I ask, squinting in the early morning sun. “I meant every word.”
Her mouth falls open and then closes before she presses her lips together and frowns. “I…I don’t understand what’s happening.”
We lock eyes, and the hopeless confusion my beautiful girl emits is enough to make my chest ache. And as much as I don’t want to walk across gravel barefoot to get to her, I’m also reminded of the comment her roommate made about the guy who stood her up last night—if he’s not willing to make any effort to come to you, he’s not worth your effort either. And since I’m keenly aware that my emphatic interest in Jade has pushed her very quickly out of her comfort zone, the least I can do is step out of my comfort zone for her. “What’s happening,” I start as I place one foot on the shard-like gravel below and fight my wince, “is exactly what I told you last night, sweetheart. I’ve fallen head over heels, crazy in love with you.”
“Oh my god, Kellen, what are you doing right now,” she says, her eyes widening as I hobble and hiss through the pain as I make my way toward her. “You’re going to injure yourself.”
“I’m proving to you how serious I am,” I say, making it to her and taking her hands in mine. “I’m showing you that no effort is too great when it comes to how I feel about you—about us. When I told you I wanted you to be mine and mine alone, I meant it. And I meant it forever, not just for last night. I want you, Jade. And I’ll tell you that until I’m blue in the face if that’s what it takes for you to believe it, because it’s true. I know we just met, and I know I must seem nuts, but I’m in love with you, and I want you with me always.”
“Always?”
I nod, placing my hands on either side of her head before I lean in and kiss her slow, long and deep, pouring every ounce of emotion into her and willing her from the depths of my soul to believe this magical thing we’ve found in each other is real. “Always,” I whisper when I finally let her back up for air. “And if you were to leave me now, darlin’, I’d be a broken man, lost without the woman I know within my heart is my one true love.”
“You kind of sound like a Disney movie, you know that?”
“Yeah,” I say with a smile as I brush her blonde hair, glowing in the brightness of the morning, behind her ear. “I guess I do. But that doesn’t make it any less the truth. I can’t have just one night with you, Jade. I need all the nights. From now until the end of fucking time. Do you think you could handle something like that with a big lug like me?”
“A big lug?” She laughs and shakes her head. “You are the epitome of raw male perfection, and I honestly don’t feel worthy of last night, let alone eternity. I mean, what exactly are you proposing here?”
A massive grin spreads across my face as her words spark the most perfect idea. “That’s exactly it, sweetheart. I’m proposing.”
She pulls her head back and shakes it in confusion. “What?”
Taking a deep inhale through my nostrils, I lower myself to one knee, wincing a little as I hit the gravel but regaining my composure quickly. “Marry me, Jade. Marry me today and never doubt me again.”
“Today?” Her hand flies up to her mouth as tears spring to her eyes. “You’re absolutely serious, aren’t you?”
I nod. “So fucking serious that I might need stitches in my knee right now.”
“Oh my god! Then get up, you crazy man.” She reaches for me, urging me to stand.
“Answer me first, sweetheart,” I say, wrapping my hands around both of hers. “I need to know if you’re in this ride with me.”
Rolling her lips together, emotion fills her eyes as she takes a deep breath, then sighs before she lowers herself to the gravel in front of me, hissing and swearing as her knees connect. “Yes,” she gasps as her tears fall. “Yes, I’ll be crazy with you and get married today.”
“Thank fuck,” I whisper, my voice hoarse and so emotional that tears actually fall from my eyes, surprising me because I’ve never been known to cry over anything. But finding the one woman on this earth my heart knowingly belongs to, moves me to tears, and I’m not going to hide it from anyone—especially not my love.
“Kellen,” she whispers back as I gather her in my arms and lift us both to standing.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I knew it too.”
“Knew what?”
“The first moment I saw you, I think I knew it too—well, my heart did, anyway. I couldn’t stop looking at you.”
Pulling her in close, I kiss her roughly before dropping my forehead to hers. “I kinda noticed that.”
She giggles as she looks up at me. “You know everyone is gonna think we’re insane, right?”
I bounce a shoulder. “Let them, because we won’t have time to care. Right now, we’ve got a wedding to pull together, and tomorrow, well, I think you can guess what we’ll be busy doing after that.”
Her entire body shudders with delight as she smiles. “Lucky there are still more positions to try, huh?”
“And a few we’ll need to test out again,” I say, taking her by the hand and walking us both back into the bar, the pain in my feet forgotten as my perfect future seems to unfold in a path right in front of me. I’ve got my girl, she’s agreed to be my wife, and now all I have to do is spend the rest of my life loving her. I’ve got it made.
