Page 67 of Saving His Heart

My body shudders with emotion. “I’m selfish, I know. I understand what I’m asking of you, sweetheart. But I’m asking anyway.”

Opening the box, I pull out the perfectly round diamond ring. The large center stone is encircled by smaller, intricately placed diamonds. I’d drawn it to symbolize the circle of life set on a platinum band, and the jeweler delivered something better than I had ever imagined.

“Please, Emory, say you’ll marry me,” I beg.

“I-I … Preston, your family will hate me. And your friends? Oh my God. Preston. This … I’m not what you want.”

Her pain-filled eyes never leave mine. She doesn’t even look at the ring. All she cares about is my family and me. That tells me more about her than any game of Never Have I Ever could.

“Goldie? This isn’t for them. This is for you and for me. When I have to leave you, I never want you to doubt how real my feelings for you are. Not only am I asking you to be my wife, but I’m also asking you to elope. I can’t even give you the wedding you deserve because it will raise too many questions, and I don’t have that kind of time.”

“Y-You want me to be your secret wife?”

“Yes, no. Damnit, Ems. This is not going the way I thought it would. I want to marry you because I love you. I want to marry you for me, not for my family, not for my friends. I want to marry you because it is something that will give me peace. When I die, I want to do it knowing you were truly and fully mine.”

“But you don’t want to tell anyone?”

I hang my head in shame. “No. But it has nothing to do with you, please believe that.”

“Your mother will never forgive us.”

“Me. She’ll never forgive me, no. But I’ll be leaving her with the most perfect stand-in. She will love you for all your life.”

“Broken-heart? Miss Fixem? It’s time for dinner. Come on out, ya hear? You best be dressed. I don’t need to see ya knocking nookies,” she says, opening the door uninvited.

“GG, it’s not a—”

“Oh, dear. I was wonderin’ when this was goin’ to happen Broken-heart.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, GG? This isn’t a good time. We’re in the middle of something here.”

“I see that, son. Take a seat.”

I look from her to Emory and back again. Emory seems as though I just put her heart through a meat grinder, and maybe I did, but I need GG to get the hell out of here so I can fix this. Not seeing any way to get her out of here without man-handling her, I take a seat next to Ems.

“It hurts, don’t it?”

I stare at GG in horror as Emory’s shoulders shake with tears beside me.

“Some love hurts, but only the truest of loves can shred you to pieces like this.”

“GG, I’m losing patience. Honestly, we need a minute.” I’ve never lost my temper with an eighty-year-old woman before, but this one is seconds away from pushing me too far.

“I’ve been readin’ yer cards Broken-heart—”

“Jesus Christ. Enough with these goddamn cards—”

“I’ll allow one outburst like that from ya, but the next time I’ll tan yer hide, no matter how bad your heart is, you hear me?”

How the fuck do I get rid of this woman?The insanity of it all has Emory in a state of shock.

“I’m going to tell you this, then I’ll be on my way, you asshat. Miss Fixem here is going to be your knight in shining armor. I won’t lie, it’s gonna be a damn close one, but when you see that white light, you run the other goddamn direction and hold on for dear life. Our girl here will be the one to get your heart to beat again. Just you wait and see. Now, you two finish up here and then come eat. Dinner’s gettin’ cold.”

I sit back on the bed and watch her shuffle away. When she closes the door behind her, I don’t even know where to begin.

“I almost knocked out a crazy fucking eighty-year-old woman,” I say in disbelief.

Emory stands in silence.