Lucy watched his nervous movements and mentally braced herself. If she was about to be dumped, it had certainly come out of nowhere. But she could handle it; she was no stranger to unpleasant surprises.
And then whoa, he knelt down. She'd stories heard of whirlwind romances when the island was good - people meeting, dating and ending up married in the blink of an eye. But surely, she hadn't given out that kind of signal, had she? Commitment could never come this quickly to her. She didn't want to hurt him and her mind searched unsuccessfully for the right words to turn him down.
When he finally spoke, there was a split second where she was certain she was about to have to give a very awkward, painful no, followed by an immense relief when the great honour he was talking about turned out to be another date. She let out the breath she had been holding as he continued to speak, though she didn't return his smile.
His words now concerned her in another way. She was nothing like him. She had wanted to hurt the man and the monsters he'd thrown at her and her loved ones over the years. She even had vivid fantasies of how she would have taken the man's life, had her mother not beaten her to it. Was Rohan's secret that he was an extreme pacifist and couldn't be with someone who hurt more than flies? What if he wanted the details of the violence in her past to judge if her very soul was tarnished by it all?
Was the chuckle a good sign? It had to be. People didn't laugh as they were about to ask if the person they were dating was a bloodthirsty maniac.
"It's probably alright." She said slowly. "To be honest, I need to know what we're talking about, before I know if we can go anywhere from here."