“Kate, this is the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received,” he says, letting his gaze drift over her. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad you like it.” A delicious flush crawls up her neck, and he can’t wait to follow it with his lips. But the way she’s staring at him is so unguarded. Appreciative and affectionate. Admiring even, like he’d be her choice regardless of her options. It makes him feel—
“I love you!” he blurts, and his eyes dart between hers for a perilous moment. He accidentally let it slip yesterday, and she was so angry she didn’t seem to notice. He prays he hasn’t misjudged. She has to feel the same. She has to.
He isn’t sure he can take another breath without dying. Are the windows broken? The air is getting in.
“James,” she says, and her voice is like a breath. It soothes him. Coaxes his heart into a steady, confident rhythm. Finally—finally he’s getting used to the overwhelming new emotions the future is causing him to have. He thinks maybe he can live this way, especially because Kate makes it so easy. Even if she never says it back.
His hands hook around her thighs and glide up her smooth skin until they slide beneath the fabric of the panties, so he’s cupping her ass. He leans his head into her chest, holding her to him. Kissing her soft skin.
“I didn’t know women like you were real, Kate. That it could be like this.” He sucks in a breath. “I thought I was in hell, in purgatory in this new time. But now I know better.”
His words are coming out incredibly cliché. He refuses to give her anything less than what she deserves. He prays to God he doesn’t scare her with what he says next. But he’s confident she feels the same. This time he knows it’s not an impulse or a slip. Perhaps this is the first time he’s ever been real. “What I mean to say is, I believe I’ve been brought back to this time to love you, Kate. I love you.”
Then he tilts his head back, and he braves a look at her. Her chest heaves as she sucks in a breath. “Really?” she asks. “You mean it?”
James barks out a laugh. “Of course I mean it. I’d move mountains to prove it to you.”
She giggles, grinning down at him. “No need. You’ve already made the impossible happen.”
“What’s that?” he asks.
Kate looks away, grinning. When her sparkling eyes finally flick back to meet his, there is such vulnerability within them; it cleaves into him, finding a permanent home in his heart.Say it back, he mentally demands. But instead of speaking, he gives her time to build up the nerve.
She stares at him as if he’s brand new, shaking her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe this is real.” Her fingertips reverently brush across hisforehead, then his crooked nose and cheek, then his lips. Finally, she says, “I love you too, James.”
As he stands, he scoops her up, and her legs wrap around his waist. “You deserve everything, sweetheart. A lover, a friend, a confidant, a co-parent.” He squeezes her ass at the last one and she jumps, eyes going wide. “Let me give it to you, Kate. All of it.Real, like me, and all for you.”
44 – A New Man
James
January 14, 2391, a few weeks later.
James reviews the notes in his device for a final time. He’s counting on tonight going perfectly.
Lessa helped him rent out a smaller room in the space in B Quadrant where their conception party was held. They, Oro1, Jett, Sable, and a few other new faces are already gathered by the time he arrives with Kate. Their friends stand around bar-height tables sipping on drinks as they enter the intimate space.
Instead of baby-themed particle panes, James has arranged for three of the four walls to display varying images; falling rose petals, a beachfront gazebo, an ocean with swaying palm trees, and somethingthe party planner called sparkle effect. Even the floor itself is a particle pane that is programmed to resemble sand.
Kate gasps as she takes in the atmosphere before turning in question to James. Right as their eyes meet, James drops to a knee. Behind him, on the fourth particle pane, a message is displayed.
James stares up at the woman who’s stolen his heart. Who’s given him a reason to be something more. Who he’d move mountains to please. Who he’s worked every single day for to prove that he is worth her time, attention, and affection. Who accepts him for exactly who he is, imperfections and all. He doesn’t have a flowery speech planned. Words aren’t his thing. He’ll show her every day what she means to him. Now there is only one thing left to say.
“Kate, will you marry me?”
Kate’s hand flies to her mouth as her gaze flicks between James, on his knees, extending the ring Oro1 helped him procure, and the image behind him. Then her brow wrinkles and, for a moment, terror hits him. He knows legal marriages aren’t a thing anymore, but he thought she would appreciate the symbolic gesture. He thought they would have a ceremony and everything. People of this time love to find every excuse to celebrate, after all. And even if it isn’t a governmental transaction, it means something to him. Maybe he’s misjudged.
Kate clears her throat. “James, you know I spell my name K-8, right?”
“What?” he asks, a little dumbfounded. At the table in his periphery, Jett and Lessa are sharing a snicker, as if they knew this is how Kate would react and that the joke is on him. He shoots them a glare. Oro1, for his part, is only smirking as if he finds the whole thing amusing.
“K-8,” she repeats. “How can I possibly fake marry you if you can’t spell my name right?!” The corner of her lip quirks up, and it’s enough to send a flood of relief through him. Then it occurs to him that one of their friends couldn’t keep a secret. Lessa, most likely.
James chuckles, rolling his eyes at the strange but perfect life he’s built. “This whole time I’ve had it wrong. Well, in that case, marry me, K. 8.?”
K. 8. shakes her head.
