A/N: I had another idea for a Dirty Thirty continuation story, and I wanted to get it out before the thirty-first book is released. I suspect we'll all be super disappointed come November 19th, so I hope you like this alternate idea.
Chapter One
"There's something I need to tell you," I said to Morelli.
"Me first," he said. "When I was in Miami, I realized that I hated being away from you. I don't want to live like this anymore. I gave the pool table to my brother. He's making a rec room in his basement. I want a dining table. I want kids of my own. I want to get married."
My heart stopped dead for several beats. I didn't see this one coming. "Excuse me?"
"I want to marry you."
Oh boy! Holy crap!
- Excerpt from Dirty Thirty, by Janet Evanovich
"Is that a proposal?" I said after my heart started beating normally again.
"It could be, depending on your answer."
I looked at him for what felt like forever, and Morelli took my hand, gazing at me with those soft, whiskey-brown eyes.
"How would that even work?" I asked. "And I'm not ready for kids. What if I never am?"
He sighed, a heavy sound in the silence of his kitchen. "Steph, we're not kids anymore, you know? We've been together going on four years. It's time to stop playing around, breaking up and making up. We have to grow up. I'm ready to do that. Are you?"
He ran his hand along the bottom of my shirt, touching my belly with feather-light fingers, igniting an ache deep inside me. "Okay," I said.
"Okay? Okay, you'll marry me?"
TBC (soon, I promise). Hehehe
