Page 148 of The Truth of Us

"You'd leave Northwell?" I blurted out, “I could never ask you to do that.”

"You didn't ask me to." He replies without hesitation.

I feel tears prick the back of my eyes as my heart swells. Because I believe him, but… “Elliot.”

He kisses my forehead, then nose, before pulling back, his hands still cupping my face when he says, "Maybe I am tired of being another billionaire in a boardroom coming up with ways to make more money. I hate what that does to people, to families. At what point do we not have enough…” He sighs, before saying, “Maybe I want to do something good."

I turn my face into his hands and kiss one of his palms before looking back at him. "You guys worked so hard to build something for yourselves. I would never ask you to give that up."

Elliot gifts me with one of his dazzling smiles before saying, "You didn't, and I agree something should be done. Someone should do something, and I think that should be us."

The moment feels so immense between us, so pivotal. But all my brain can latch onto is how Elliot constantly refers to us as a pair, as a fixed formula.

"Us?" I ask, blinking back tears.

He grins. "Yes. Us."

It is in that moment, with the sun highlighting his beautiful features, his blue eyes so bright and earnest. Watching him volunteer without hesitation to walk away from prestige and title to build something that matters to me. I realize he cares so deeply, because if it affects me, it affects him. Because he loves me, and he has been proving it in so many ways over the last several months… and I… "I love you."

The words tumbled out of me, and Elliot froze, his eyes searching mine.

He opens his mouth, and then closes it, smiles at me then says, “You… You what? I think I need to hear that again.”

My heart is racing, but I laugh because this is so Elliot, instead of repeating myself I say, "Don't ruin this."

Elliot gifts me with a full-belly laugh before kissing me and pulling his lips back just enough to whisper, “Please?”

We are so close, our breaths tangled together like our sheets, nose to nose, eyes locked on each other. I whisper back, “I love you, Elliot.”

Elliot woops, before pulling me down onto the bed. We tumble over as he kisses my face, and then finally finds my lips. He pulls back, a megawatt smile on his face as he says, "I love you too."

He adjusts his weight so he is holding most of it on one arm, before he looks at me and says, "You know… if I knew that all it took was quitting my job… I'd have done it months ago."

I slap his chest, “Elliot.”

He kisses me again, then his eyes dart to the nightstand on his side of the bed, before coming back to me, his face more serious now. "I've been thinking about something."

“Elliot?”

"Remember the one-year plan… the contract I had drawn up before I even realized why. I thought it could be fake, just another arrangement, but it wasn’t. Somewhere deep down I knew I wanted to be engaged to you, to marry you."

I move to sit up, because this conversation is getting serious in a whole new way now, but Elliot swings up and straddles me, pinning me to the bed.

He kisses me, then says, "I don't want you to become Harper Vale."

I cock my head in question, because what is going on right now? “O.K…”

"I actually really like Harper Montgomery," he says, as if that statement answers everything, but then he continues to blow me away when he adds, "What do you think about making me Elliot Montgomery instead?"

The tears that had been pricking at the back of my eyes burst free without permission. I laugh through my tears because if this is a proposal, it is the most Elliot proposal ever… "You'd take my name?" I ask through ‌tears.

"I'd be proud to." He says, and I can see that he absolutely means it. That he knows how hard I fought to reclaim my name, everything my family has been through.

Elliot gives me a wink, saying, “Plus, I think the world could use some more little Montgomery's.”

My mouth dropped open because we moved from him leaving Northwell and starting a foundation with me, to proposing, I think… and now… did he just ask me to have his babies?

Elliot chuckles at my reaction, then leans over, still keeping me pinned to the bed. He reaches into the bedside drawer and pulls out a small square box.