Chapter 101

“Oh. Oh, no.”

“Patrick…”

“I spoiled your surprise.”

My heart skipped a beat. He was all smiles. “Patrick…”

“I can go and come back,” he said, “so you can finish.” He didn’t get far. “Why, though?” He rushed back and grabbed me, grabbed me and twirled around in a circle, his big arms hugging me at my ribcage, me a foot off the ground. “Yes. Yes, Goose, I’ll marry you.”

No, no, no, no, no, I thought, still in the air. “Patrick…” He was reading it all wrong, and I was freaking out.

“I know. I was afraid it was too soon to ask, way too fast. But if you’re asking…”

I wasn’t.

“If you’re asking, I must have been wrong. I’m glad the whole thing with my divorce didn’t freak you out.”

This was freaking me out. I loved him. With all my heart, I did. My brain, my heart, and my body. But marriage? Already?

“Your face…”

What about my face?

Patrick touched me there. “I see in it…”

Sheer terror? Extreme anxiety?