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“Anytime, brother.”
“Hoyt! Oh my God, your face!” Ibbie came rushing up, Frank right behind.
Hoyt managed to catch his mom before she crushed him in a hug. The way he was moving told me he probably had some bruised or cracked ribs and was starting to feel them. Just one more thing that could be laid at my feet.
“I’m fine, Mom. Really. Clean bill of health.” He quailed under her fierce Mom-look. “No lasting damage,” he qualified.
She switched her attention to me. “Oh, honey, your head.” She closed the distance between us, her hand fluttering around my temple, which was likely sporting some shades of ugly purple and black by now. At length, she cupped my other cheek. “You’re okay?”
Touched that she cared, I swallowed hard. “I will be. I’m alive, thanks to Hoyt. Again.”
“How bad is the house?” Frank asked.
Hoyt gave him the update.
“Well, of course y’all can’t stay here while all this is going on. You’ll all stay with us. Gabi! Rios! Go pack yourselves and your sister a bag. Frank, go put some things together for Hoyt.” When none of them leapt immediately to do her bidding, Ibbie clapped her hands and chased after them, issuing orders like a five-star general.
Finally, Hoyt and I were relatively alone. Emergency personnel were still doing their jobs all around us, but no one was focused on us for a few moments, so I could say what I needed to say.
“We can make other arrangements.”
His brows drew together. “What?”
“My family and I. I know that after all this, you might not want us so close to your parents.”
He stared at me. “Did you hit your head even harder than I thought? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m just… I’m sorry. For everything. Your truck. You were in two fires. You got into a huge fight and could’ve died. And your house?—”
“Don’t be absurd. None of this is your fault.”
“If you’d never gotten involved with me, none of this would have happened.”
He gripped my hands. “Caroline, it’s just stuff. The important thing is that you’re okay, and nobody else got hurt.” He paused, clearly thinking of Hector, and winced. “I know you hated him, but I’m sorry about your father. I wasn’t trying to kill him.”
“If you hadn’t acted, he certainly would’ve killed you, and then finished the job with me. I’m not going to shed a tear over any of that. I just… I wanted to give you an out from this relationship, if you wanted one. I’d understand.” I owed him this. Because my father wasn’t right about much, but maybe Hoyt would decide that I was more trouble than I was worth.
“I don’t want out. I want everything.” His gaze searched my face, suddenly full of intensity. “I know this is shit timing, and maybe too fast, and you deserve the flowers and romance, but I love you. I want to make a life with you. Wherever, whenever, however you want.”
Heart pounding, it was my turn to stare. “What are you saying?”
“You’re it for me, Caroline. Marry me.”
From somewhere beyond us, I heard twin watery “Oh!”s. One of those was definitely my sister. I was pretty sure the other was Ibbie. But I couldn’t take my eyes off Hoyt. “You haven’t actually let them examine you yet. You have a concussion. You have to.”
He grinned, and the swelling in his face made him look positively piratical. “No concussion.”
“Then I’m hallucinating from mine.” Was that a thing? Hell if I knew. But he couldn’t be asking me to marry him after everything we’d just been through.
Hoyt lifted my hands to his lips, brushing a soft kiss to my knuckles. “If the prospect freaks you out, I’ll table it for a while. But I’ll ask you again. And I’ll keep asking until you say yes.”
A hand settled on his shoulder. “Maybe give her a chance to recover before giving her another shock, son.”
Hoyt just winked at me. “Sure, Dad. Where’d you park?”
Epilogue
Hoyt
