Mr. Black's Proposal Read Free Page A

turning back to the man holding the bouquet of red roses. I crossed my arms. “Mr. Black.”

Chapter Four
    Lucas
    Steph crossed her arms with iron-clad determination written all over her face. There was something else on her face, too.
    “Uh, you have a… a smudge of something on your forehead,” I said. It was a huge smear that looked like dirt.
    Steph raised her eyebrows in surprise, and then raised her hands to her face.
    “Oh, crap!” she exclaimed. “The cocoa!”
    “Cocoa?”
    I couldn’t tell she was blushing through the cocoa, but her eyes widened and she squeaked. She turned away, disappearing into the small bathroom. I heard her splashing water on her face. When she came out, the smear was gone and wet tendrils of her blond hair were sticking to her cheeks. I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone looking so adorably disheveled. She assumed her cross-armed position of determination again.
    “Why are you here?” she asked.
    “Firstly, to pay for the last invoice,” I said. I pulled a check from my pocket and handed it to her. She looked at it and her lips puckered. I almost thought she was going to tear it up, but then she set it on the couch arm instead. Her eyes were cast down to the floor.
    “Thank you,” she said. “I—I’m sorry about Otis.”
    “Oh, Otis? He’s fine.” I waved it off. “You have no idea the kinds of things he’s eaten that he’s not supposed to. One time, I brought home a plastic bag full of donuts-”
    “Stop right there,” Steph said, wincing as though she could see the aftermath already in her mind. “Don’t make me feel even sicker than I already feel.”
    “Are you sick?”
    She looked up at me and laughed once, as if I was joking.
    “I had a little too much to drink last night.”
    “Not at the party?”
    “No! I don’t drink at parties I’m catering! That would be—”
    “Unprofessional. Right, right.”
    Her cheeks pinkened.
    “Afterwards,” she said. “When I got back to the bakery.”
    “You went back to work after that?”
    “What else could I do? I needed to get my mind off things.”
    “And that’s how you get your mind off of things.”
    “By whipping up a batch of carrot cake cupcakes and drinking myself tipsy, sure. Yeah. It’s a start. I wouldn’t have had to get my mind off of anything if you hadn’t gone and asked me such a stupid question!”
    I frowned.
    “Stupid?”
    “Why did you ask me to marry you? In front of your mom? You were drunk, right? Is that your excuse?”
    I shook my head.
    “No, I wasn’t. And I didn’t think I needed an excuse to ask someone to marry me.”
    “I’m not someone. I’m a complete stranger.”
    “We slept together.”
    “That was a one-time thing.”
    “It happened twice.”
    “Then it was a two-time thing,” she said, not missing a beat. “And I thought I made it clear it wasn’t going to happen again.”
    “You made that clear after the first time, too.”
    Her flush turned to a fire-red blush on her cheeks. She swiped away the strands of hair.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “Look, I don’t even know why you would ask me so soon.”
    “I like you.”
    “Lots of guys have liked me. None of them have handed me a chunk of diamond and asked me to spend the rest of my life with them after knowing me a week.”
    I breathed deeply. Leaning against the couch, I tried to explain.
    “My mom’s been asking me to find a suitable girl.”
    “Then find one! You know tons of girls.”
    “It’s not that easy.”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s complicated.”
    “That’s just another way of saying the exact same thing,” she said.
    I thought about my dad, and all of the women he’d been with. I thought of my mom, stringing along younger boyfriends as trophies to flaunt in front of her friends. I thought of all of the brothers and sisters I might have out there right now. I would never know about them. I didn’t want to be that man. But I’d never learned any other way to