Chapter 111

“What?”

“Marry me!” Justin groaned. Not sure if he said it loudly.

“What did you say?” Allena stepped back and pulled her hand free, staring at him, thinking she had just misheard... or that he had suddenly lost his mind.

“Marry me,” he said again.

It was official. He was insane.

Jesus! What the hell is he doing? She thought to herself.

“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever—”

“It’s not crazy,” he said quickly, cutting off her protest. “Think about it. It makes perfect sense. The kids—”

“It’s not about the kids,” she said, mortified by the mixture of feelings surging through her blood, like disbelief and shock and something else—something she wasn’t prepared to admit.

“They love you,” he said flatly. “And they need you.”

“They love me,” she shot back. “Exactly. But you don’t,” she said and couldn’t bear how much saying the words hurt her. “And I don’t—”

“I know that we don’t care about one another in that way, Allena,” he said and sighed heavily. “But sometimes, marriages start out for