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“I’ll make a deal with you,” he suggested.
Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of deal?”
“Marry me, and I’ll tell you how I know we’re going to have twins. A little boy with a blend of Brock and Mackay looks, and a little girl who’s going to be the very image of her mother. If I have to listen to Natches crow over how much she looks like him, then I’m at least going to have a ring on your finger so he can’t influence them too much.”
She blinked.
Her lips parted, then closed.
“Twins?” She sounded as though she couldn’t breathe.
“Twins,” he promised. “Marry me, Lyrica. Don’t make me sleep alone, without you, again. Don’t let me go another day without you in my life.”
Tears filled her eyes then. A smile filled her face.
“Tell me how you know it’s twins.”
He chuckled wickedly. “Not until you say ‘I do’ . . .”
To which she smiled back at him knowingly. “I’ll say ‘I do,’ but only if you tell me what your mother told you before you left for the Marines.”
For a second, surprise glittered in his gaze before it softened. He reached out to brush back the strands of hair that lay at the side of her face.
“How bad do you want to know?” he chuckled then.
“Just tell me,” she groaned. “It’s been driving me crazy.”
His expression gentled then, fond memories reflecting in his eyes as he thought of his mother.
“She told me to make sure I came home safe, with my soul intact,” he said softly. “Because without the soul, the heart can’t survive. And if I didn’t understand what that meant, then I would understand the first time I stared into the eyes of the woman who would hold my heart. And she was right. That first summer I met you, Lyrica. Standing on that dock at the marina, staring at me with equal parts innocence and a woman’s knowledge, I felt you sink inside me like sunlight. But I knew even then, sweetheart, it wasn’t time. Not for me. Not for you. When the time came, I was just too stubborn, and too damned terrified of how much you meant to me, to realize it.”
“I always loved you, Graham,” she whispered. “I always will.”
“You’re my life.” And she saw it in his eyes, in his expression. “Without you, I’d never be complete.”
He would be in a world without color, alone, staring into a void.
With her, he was all he was meant to be.
He was meant to be hers.
EPILOGUE
August – One month later
Zoey Mackay sat at the edge of the water as the small waves lapped at the bank, mere inches from her bare feet. With her legs bent, her arms wrapped around them, her chin resting atop her knees, she watched as the sun began to descend along the top of the mountains surrounding her brother Dawg’s home.
She could hear the voices behind her, many raised in laughter as the Mackay family, relations, and friends came together. The family reunion grew every year. And it seemed to last longer every year as well.
Dawg’s sprawling backyard was filled. Tables laid out with every food imaginable, the smell of hot dogs grilling, the sound of children playing in the pool rather than romping in the shallow water close to the bank, echoed around her.
The pool was safer for the kids, Dawg had remarked.
Not to mention a hell of a lot cleaner.
It was the usual sounds of the Mackay yearly get-together, and once again, Zoey found herself on the outside lookin
g in.
