“I have a condition.”

I sighed a breath of relief, waiting for whatever he was going to throw my way. “Okay. Name it.”

His mouth pulled to the side. “Marry me.”

My lips parted, and my breath caught.

Taylor leaned down, touching his thumb to my chin, tilting his head. “Say yes,” he whispered against my lips.

“I … this is not a good time to be making life-changing decisions. We just experienced a traumatic event. I thought you were dead.”

“I almost was,” he said. He sucked on my bottom lip.

My breath faltered. “When?” I asked, stumbling over the word.

“Why wait?” he said, his voice low and smooth.

He left a trail of kisses from the corner of my mouth to the skin just beneath my ear while reaching around to where my apron was tied in a knot. With two tugs, it came loose and fell to the floor. He backed me up to the door, placing his palms on the peeling white paint on each side of my head.

“Do you love me?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“See? It’s not hard. Just say yes. Say you’ll marry me.”

I swallowed hard. “I can’t.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

I reached behind me for the knob before twisting and ducking under his arm. I escaped to the living room, crossing my arms over my middle.

Taylor came out of the bathroom, stopping at the kitchen bar. “You can’t?”

I shook my head, pressing my lips together.

“You can’t right now or can’t at all?” he said. Waiting for my answer was torture for him.

“You’re throwing a lot at me all at once. I give you an inch, and you go balls out.”

Taylor relaxed a bit, and he breathed out a laugh. “Okay. That’s fair.”

“I might run away, but you don’t know when to quit.”

His happiness vanished. “I’m not quitting on you. As long as you love me, I’m going to keep fighting.”

“Well,” I said, “we’re definitely good at that.”

He took a step toward me. “I didn’t know I wanted it until I said it. But I said it, and now, I want it.”

“To get married?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?”

“Fuck it,” he said, shrugging. “Who cares what the logistics are or what your college psych books said or what happened last night? I fucking love you. I want you to be my wife. I want you to have my last name.”

A small smile touched my lips. “You do have a pretty great last name.”

“Falyn Maddox,” he said, each syllable full of admiration and love.

I frowned. “That doesn’t sound so great.”