With Me From The Start (With Me - book 1)

Chapter 20

He let go of my hand and reached over to the cart and lifted a napkin off of a small box. Once he let go of the napkin, he picked up the box and opened it, his hands slightly shaking as he waited for my answer. I stared at him in shock. I couldn't believe that he was asking me to marry him!
"Joe..." I started.
"Mia, make me even happier and..." He butted in.
"Yes," I nodded.
"Yes?" He asked, making sure he heard me right.
I smiled, "Yes, I said yes!"
He smiled and took the ring out the box. He slipped the platinum diamond ring onto my ringer finger and gave it a kiss. He stood up and pulled me off the seat and into his arms. His hold was tight when he started laughing and kissing the side of neck.
I hugged him tightly, "I love you."
"I love you too," he replied.
I pulled away from him to look at the ring.
"Do you like it?" He asked.
"No," I looked up at him. "I love it."
"I knew you would say that," he said.
I smiled and gave him a kiss. He pulled me even closer to him and deepened the kiss, causing me to moan and hi to smile against the kiss.

“Bedroom?” He breathed, breaking the kiss but resting his forehead on mine.

I nod and we pull apart to go to the bedroom, spending the rest of the night in happiness and passion.

I woke up the morning with Joe kissing my neck. Smiling, I turned round and looked at him.
"Good morning Mrs Hart," he said to me with a smile on his face.
"We ain't married yet and who says I'm taking your name?" I stated.
"Why would you not want my name?" He asked, sort of offended at my outburst.
"I didn't say that I didn't want to take it. I may take it, I may not."
He leaned in to give me kiss when his phone started to ring. I laughed and pushed him away slightly.
"What a way to kill the mood," he said, moving away from me completely and reaching over to the side of the bed for his phone.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"My mum. I'll be back in a minute.” He put a bathrobe on and got out the bed to answer the phone.
I sat up in the bed and reached over for Joe's shirt and put it on. I heard my own phone start to vibrate loudly from the living room area and got up out the bed. I walked quickly to it and took it out my bag. Looking down at the screen, it read:

1 new message.

I sighed and opened the message up and began to read it:

'There is reports coming out that you and Joe are engaged. Text me back and we'll sort it all out,
Lisa x'

I walked back to the bedroom and sat back down on the bed. I looked up at Joe as he walked back into the room.
"Is your mum wanting the same thing my manager wants?" I asked him.
He sat on the bed next to me and sighed. "She read in the papers that we're engaged."
"Lisa text me saying that there's reports everywhere about our engagement."
He fell backwards onto the bed and grunted in frustration. "What now?"
"I'm going to get a meeting set up with Lisa and she's going to tell the papers, magazines and everyone else that we aren't engaged."
"Another secret? You want us to have another secret?" He asked. I looked down at him. “Mia, we already have a secret that can potentially hurt everyone we know. I'm not going to keep our engagement as one too.”
"That's different on every level. We have to do this this way. If we prove them wrong and say that we aren't engaged, they'll drop it quickly. We can tell our friends and family but they can't tell anyone. I'm sorry Joe but I don't want the whole world to know. Not the now anyway," I explained.
"My mum and dad aren't happy." He stated.
I got off the bed and started to get ready, "Why?"
"I 'didn't' tell them. But how can I tell them when we only got engaged last night?"
I look down at the engagement ring on my finger and slip it off, handing it back to Joe. "I can't wear it if we're saying we aren't engaged."
He sat up and took the ring. “Fair enough.”