“You’re staring at it again,” I teased, drawing her attention to me.
She started, her gaze flickering to mine. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were awake.”
I slid my hand from her back to her thigh, savoring the feel of her. Christ, I wanted to touch her everywhere at once.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I don’t know.” She laughed lightly, then sounding like she was speaking to herself, she added, “I’m just not used to caring so much about what someone else thinks.”
I inched my head back and stared at her profile, thinking on her words.
She must’ve felt my attention, because she closed her eyes, cleared her throat self-consciously and joked, “I think I’m going to be a very clingy fiancée. You’ll be tactile, and I’ll be clingy, and we’ll be very happy just as long as we sleep in a twin bed and call each other seventeen hundred times a day.”
I chuckled. She was joking, but her words held a kernel of truth. It didn’t take a mind reader to see she was afraid.
“It’s good to care, Sienna. It’s good to care about what others think, but only when those other people matter.”
She lifted her chin and gazed at me, her long lashes brushing against her cheeks as she blinked. “But how do you balance it? I mean, I care what my parents think because I love them and know they love me, and I trust their judgment. But, in the end, I always just do what I think is best.”
“Then that’s what you keep doing. I trust your heart and so should you.”
She hesitated, searching my eyes, then blurted, “But I don’t want to let you down.”
I caught my bottom lip before I grinned. “You won’t.”
“My parents have to love me, so does my family. They have no choice. We’re stuck with each other. I do stupid things and I know they’ll forgive me. But you, you could just leave me and—”
I cut her off with a kiss, because she was talking nonsense.
Once I had her restless and out of breath, I broke the kiss and smoothed her hair from her face. “I don’t do things by halves, Sienna. I tell you I love you, I mean it. I ask you to marry me—”
“Technically you never asked.”
I ignored her, though the truth she spoke made me smile. “I’m not going to change my mind. After your sister called, after she pointed out some hard truths, I needed time. And I took it. And I couldn’t let you go, though part of me thought it would be for the best.”
“It wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be for the best. You should never think that.”
“I won’t. I’ve made my decision—selfish as it is—and so have you. We’re in this together. We have a good deal to learn about each other. You can’t ever be certain of another person, and that’s where faith comes in. I’ve asked a lot of people to have faith in me when I didn’t deserve it, and I’m asking the same of you now.”
Her fingers gripped my bicep, squeezing. “You do deserve it.”
I nodded. “Fine then. I deserve it. You should give it to me, and move on from your worry.”
“But don’t you see? It’s not you, Jethro. It’s me. Do I deserve your faith?”
“Do you want my faith?”
“Yes.” She shook me a little for emphasis, her single-word answer loud in the small trailer. “Yes, I want it. But I’m not used to considering someone else in my decisions. I’ll need your patience.”
“Then you have it.”
“Thank you.” She sighed.
But I wasn’t finished. “I’ll give you my patience, but don’t expect me to be a statue or a doormat. If you make me angry, I’m going to let you know.”
Her eyes widened and lost focus, clearly thinking back on a memory. “You’re a little scary when you’re angry.”
I lifted an eyebrow at this and frowned, concerned. “I would never, ever hurt you, or touch you in anger.”
“Oh, I know.” She lowered her eyes to my neck. “It’s still scary, though.”
I studied her, the way she was biting her lip. “Sienna, I might leave to cool off, but I’ll always come back. That’s part of the promise I made when I gave you this ring.”
She nodded, still not looking at me, but then she said, “I guess I just have to trust you.”
“Yeah. Just like I have to trust you.”
Her mouth tugged to the side. “Trust me to not drive you crazy?”
“Oh no,” I laughed, “you’ll definitely drive me crazy. I have no illusions about that. Your name is Insane after all.”
She scrunched her face and pinched my shoulder. I flinched away, still laughing, and grabbed her hand to halt her assault.