His Proposal

His Proposal - 35

Jai holds my hand, takes me down the hall, opens the room door, and I step inside. The room is full of trophies, and the places that are free from the trophies are filled with posters of Jai.

This is the room he wanted to show me.

There's a picture of him half-naked holding a football. "This is the picture you were telling me about?"

He smiles. "Yeah, it is."

There's a knock on the door, and it opens.

Nate looks at me. "How is Aleysa?"

"She's asleep. Can you get a water bottle and put it in the room for her?"

Nate looks around the room. "I love this room. I used to have a room like this at my parents' place." He looks away. Now, all my stuff is left in storage. We couldn't bring a lot of things to the apartment that Chloe got." He walks over to the door. I'm going to get Aleysa's water." He walks out of the room.

I wish I had an extra room for his stuff. But I bought what I could afford with the money from Mom and Dad's place.

Jai wraps his arms around me. "At my place, he can have a room for his trophies and a bedroom."

"Are you sure you want us to move in with you?"

He nods. "My place has better security than yours. Besides, the paparazzi have easy access to you. There will be harder access at mine as I have a security team, and no one is allowed in without my instructions."

"We'd better get back to the party. I don't want your mother to think we're trying for a baby."

Jai laughs. "That doesn't sound so bad. I would be happy to be a father with our child."

Smiling, I say. "I don't want to be a mother just yet. Besides, you haven't taken me on a date yet or given me a proper kiss." I nudge him.

He takes my hand and we walk to the dining room. Veronica looks up when we enter the kitchen. She walks over to me. "How is she?"

Looking at the ground, tears began to fall my face. "There's something I must tell you about her, Veronica."

Jai squeezes my hand.

Looking into her eyes, I say. "Aleysa has cancer."

She pulls me into her arms and she begins to cry. When she recovers, she looks at me. "Where are your parents?"

Nate walks into the room. He looks at Veronica and me. "They were murdered a couple of months ago. Chloe is our Guardian." He takes a step forward. "She's done the best she can for us. But meeting Jai was the best thing that she did for us."

Veronica smiles. "I tried to raise my kids to respect everyone. It's a shame that one of my sons doesn't respect anything. I should never have helped out all the times I did. I thought people were lying about him. When he tried to strike Chloe, I knew it was the truth. She was lucky that Jai saw the whole thing."

Indeed, I was lucky that he saw it and got to me in time.

Veronica looks at me. "I'm sorry about your parents. I'm sure they were great people. They raised three great kids." She looks at Jai. "Can your father and I visit you sometime?"

Jai smiles. "I would love that. Chloe, Nate, and Aleysa will live with me during your visit. So, you won't have to see them in a different place."

Dad walks into the room. "That's my boy." He puts his arm around his son's shoulder. "I suppose you didn't expect the woman you were going to ask to move in with you to have two siblings to look after."

Jai hits his dad's stomach. "I wasn't expecting anything when it came to a woman I was going to ask to live with me." He looks at me. "Everything I want in a woman is standing next to Mom. I could never ask for a better woman than the one who walked into my bar asking for a job. I knew that if I turned her away, it might have been the biggest regret of my life. Every moment I spend with Chloe and her siblings, I know I made the right choice when I..."

Gave me the proposal?

"What son?"

He shakes his head. "It's nothing." He changes the conversation. "When's dinner?"

"We're about to put it on the table," Veronica says. "Do you think Aleysa would want anything when she wakes?"

Nate stands next to her. "We should make her a plate and put it in the fridge. She might want something to eat when she wakes up." Nate and Veronica walk out the door.

Mr Marshall follows his wife and my brother.

Jai wraps his arm around my waist, and we exit the house. He kisses the top of my head. "Why don't you take a seat? I will get us something to eat." He picks up two plates and walks over to the BBQ, where his uncle is serving the food.

I make my way to the table. I find two vacant seats next to each other, and I sit. I take my jumper off and place it on the chair beside me.

The woman across from me laughs. "Are we still in high school, where we hold seats for our friends?"

"I suppose so. I don't want Jai sitting at the opposite end of the table while I sit here with strangers."

She smiles. "I'm Fiona. One of Jai's cousins." She points to the guy next to her. "This is my husband Harry, and my children are beside him. Gisele, Jake, Thomas and Harris."

The kids look a lot like their parents. They have their Mom's dark hair and their dad's nose. Two have brown eyes, and the other two have blue eyes like their father.

Nate and Jai sit next to me.

"I'm Chloe. Next to me is my brother Nate, and my sister Aleysa is asleep."

Fiona looks at me. "The girl who collapsed inside the house is your sister?"

I nod.

She leans forward. "Is she alright?"

"Yes, she's fine. She needs to rest. She will be down later."

"She's got cancer," Nate says. I kick his leg and he frowns. "What?"

I whisper. "You didn't need to tell them the truth. Some things are better left a secret. This is something I don't want to broadcast around the world. Why do you think I have been keeping things to myself?"

"You told Veronica. It was none of her business."

"That was different. Veronica's Jai's Mom, and she cares for Aleysa."

"What makes you think the rest of the family doesn't feel the same about our little sister?"