“We did that,” I say.
“I did most of it.” She gives me a cheeky smile. “And, against my will since someone tampered with my birth control.”
“That’s fair.”
Stefano stirs, so I lift him and hand him over to his mama. Elizabeth settles him in her arms with a competence that feels both new and ancient, as if she was always meant to hold him like this. Our son blinks sleepily, makes one annoyed sound, and then calms the second she touches him. Every time I look at them, something inside me goes silent.
I always thought love would feel louder. With them, it feels like coming home.
When she’s done feeding him and Stefano drifts back to sleep against Elizabeth’s chest, I know it is time.
I’ve been carrying the ring for weeks.
Not because I lacked certainty. Because I wanted the right moment. Elizabeth notices the look on my face immediately.
“No.”
I stop with my hand halfway inside my jacket. “No?”
She narrows her eyes. “If you are about to do what I think you are about to do, I just had a baby three days ago. I look terrible.”
“You look perfect.”
“Liar.” She snorts. “But this would explain why Rosa and the rest of the staff have been grinning at me like they know something I don’t know.”
I smile, because they do know.
I kneel beside the bed and her breath catches. Good. Mine has been caught since the second I walked into that hospital room in Kansas City over a year ago.
I take the box out, open it, and for a moment all I do is look at her. At the woman who survived me. At the woman who chose me anyway. At the mother of my son.
“Elizabeth,” I say, and my voice comes out rougher than I intended, “I should have asked you a long time ago.”
She goes very still.
“But I’m glad I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because before,” I tell her, “I would have asked you to belong to me. Now I’m asking if you’ll let me belong to you too.”
Her mouth opens, and for one brutal second I actually think I may have managed to silence Elizabeth Miller.
I keep going before she can recover.
“I can’t promise it will be easy. You know me too well for that. I’ll still get angry. I’ll still want to solve problems with force first and patience second. I’ll still terrify our son before he learns I’m softer than I look.” A faint smile touches her mouth through the tears at that. “But I will never cage you again. I’ll never use love as an excuse to own you. And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving that I learned the difference.”
I glance at Stefano sleeping in her arms and feel something impossible and fierce and clean move through me. This is my family and I want the world to know.
“Marry me, Elizabeth.”
She laughs through tears, and it nearly destroys me.
“You already know I’m stupid enough to love you.”
“Yes,” I say softly. “But I would still like to hear you say yes.”
She looks at me for a long moment.
