THE DARE (G!P Freenbecky)

Chapter 41

Once outside in the garden, Freen noticed Becky didn't go anywhere near the Japanese gazebo or the Jacuzzi. They walked in silence for a while, stopping to let Fluffy sniff and explore. Then Freen heard the words she'd been dreading.

"I just don't know if this is fair to you," Becky said.

Freen could have just run right over her, denied her any of her feelings, told her to let her be the judge of that, but Freen decided to listen. Freen had to understand exactly what it was she was going through, or they didn't have a chance.

"Tell me what you mean," Freen said.

"Freen, I look at you and I see a woman who could have anyone she wanted."

Freen resisted the urge to tell her that was so untrue. Freen had dated a lot, met so many women both at work and on the few vacations Heng had managed to drag her on. She'd seen so much of the world that she was sure all she ever wanted for the rest of her life was the woman who stood right infront of her.

But Becky couldn't see her own value.

It was no fault of her grandfather's. Freen suspected it had more to do with what had happened when she was small.

Some wounds took a long time, if not a lifetime, to heal.

"Go on," Freen wasn't going to tell her she was wrong.

Freen wanted to know what she was feeling.

"I just keep thinking about what would happen if we did—"

"Get married," Freen said for her. This was bad; Becky couldn't even say the words.

"Yes."

"Well," Freen said, "just for a record, I think we'd have a great time."

Becky didn't even smile. This was worse than she'd thought.

"Becky, there isn't another woman in the city who would put up with Baco. Or that smart-mouthed bird, Lafitte. I feel like a divorced woman with children. I'm a package deal, and you know the whole package."

"But I would let you down."

Now they were getting to the heart of it.

"How would that be possible?"

"On those days when I might not be at my best—"

"Real life," Freen supplied gently.

"You might not like what you saw."

"I'm sure your worst is a lot less frightening than a lot of women's best. And I'm not always at my best. Heng's accused me of being a total workaholic, though you wouldn't know if from the past month."

"How can you be so optimistic?"

"Because you've got to be, when you're considering marriage. The divorce rate is over fifty percent, and those are crappy odds, no matter how you slice them. But all I know is that those odds don't know you and they don't know me, and they certainly don't know how much I love you."

Becky looked up Freen, and Freen studied every feature on her face by the light of the moon. Freen couldn't lose her now, not when she'd traveled so far, both physically and emotionally, to find her.

"This will work, Becky." Freen decided to amend that statement. "We'll make it work."

"I'm not your normal woman."

"Thank God for that."

"I can't even cook."

"We can eat out a lot or I would cook for you."