As he sat there, staring at her, his full plate of food in front of him, Sharon seemed to realize something was up. Cocking her head, she gave him a questioning look.

“We should talk,” he said immediately, although he wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to say.

Sharon’s stomach sank.

The worst words in the English language. Well, maybe not the worst but they were up there. They were not words she wanted to hear after a night when she was feeling all glowy and happy.

Not only had Jake been amazing during the wedding and reception, but they’d had a hell of a fun night when they’d made it back to their room. At least, she’d thought they had. They’d played with food. They’d played in the shower. Jake had cuddled her in front of the TV before she’d fallen asleep in his arms. Sharon couldn’t really think of a way the evening could have gone better – well, other than if they hadn’t had to deal with her parents at all.

Now it was Sunday morning and he wanted to talk? She has a bad feeling she knew what that meant. After all, she’d gone into this weekend fairly prepared for him to want to ditch her after meeting her family. Saturday morning, before she’d knocked on his door, she’d thought that was probably even more likely.

This morning though?

She felt blindsided.

Carefully, she put down her fork, drawing in her defenses and really wishing he wasn’t going to do this at brunch. What was wrong with the trip back home? Or a simple text message after they’d parted?

Yeah, she’d still be mad – especially if he’d gone the text message route after behaving like everything was normal – but at least she’d be able to express her feelings. Here, she was trapped unless she wanted to make a scene. She wondered if he was counting on that… If he was, he might be disappointed considering what he had to say.

Piss her off enough and Sharon wouldn’t care at all about making a scene in front of her family and everyone else who was currently having breakfast.

“Okay,” she said, drawing out the words. “What’s up?”

“I want us to be in a relationship.”

Sharon blinked.

Pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth.

Waited for the punch line.

Considered checking her ears to see if her hearing was working – a definite concern because it seemed like all the conversations around them had suddenly turned to white noise.

“I’m sorry, what?” she asked finally as Jake just sat there, staring back at her, that same blank expression on his face. She couldn’t even tell what he was thinking by looking in his eyes.

It didn’t look like he was kidding.

Okay, actually, if anything he looked nervous.

Which… holy fuck…