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Her hand went to his cheek again as Liam smiled at her, shaking off any sadness.
‘You would do that?’ She could hardly believe what he was suggesting. ‘But your career? You’re a rising star here at Duke’s.’
‘All the more reason for Nate not to waste this opportunity of securing me for The Island Clinic team, then.’ He laughed, but his voice was thick with emotion and Talia found she liked this honest, exposed side of him all the more.
Because it was only for her to see.
‘I know Nate would snap you up,’ she managed. ‘He said as much last week when he asked me if I thought you might take on another case.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘I didn’t believe you would.’ Talia shook her head incredulously. It had been a mere few days ago yet it felt like a
lifetime. ‘I didn’t think you’d ever set foot on the island again.’
‘I wouldn’t have,’ he agreed, ‘without you. Nothing is worth it if I don’t have you.’
‘Is that really how you feel?’
It was odd, the way that even though she knew he’d told her already, and even though she knew he’d never say it if he didn’t truly believe it, she found she needed to hear it again. And again. Almost as if it was too perfect to be true and she hadn’t yet taken it all in.
And so she certainly wasn’t prepared when he sank to his knees, right there in the hotel room, and took her hands in his.
‘It’s not nearly how I feel,’ he bit out suddenly. ‘I’m a surgeon, Talia. I’m good with my brain and my hands, but words...well, they were never my thing. All I can tell you is that I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love. And I want to share the rest of my life with you. Every single, glorious moment of it. Because as long as I have you, I know that’s what it will be.’
‘For someone who isn’t very good at words,’ she choked out with a wobbly smile, ‘you just did a pretty good job.’
‘Good,’ he managed gruffly, ‘because there’s more. You’ve saved me, and you’ve started to make me whole again, when I never thought that was possible. You make me want to be the kind of man who deserves you, Talia. A better version of myself.’
‘You were already a good man, Liam. I just want you to also be a happy one.’
‘And I will be—with you. So marry me, Talia, and I vow to you that I’ll spend the rest of time doing everything in my power to make you happy. The way you make me happy.’
‘I know you will,’ she whispered, her hands still gripping his tightly.
And then, before either of them could say any more, he stood up, lowered his head to hers and claimed her lips with his own. As if that, somehow, could articulate all the other emotions that were careening joyously around the room.
Emotions that they would work though in time. They just weren’t needed right at this instant.
EPILOGUE
THEY WERE MARRIED twelve months later.
A quiet but perfect ceremony back with Talia’s family and what felt like half the island’s population in attendance. The sound of the waves lapping on the shore, the birds overhead, and the steel band at the far end providing a backdrop better than anything they could have planned.
It had all fallen into place so flawlessly that Talia might have been forgiven for thinking it was all Fate’s design. The moment they’d called Nate he’d confirmed that not only was Talia’s job hers to take back if she wanted it, but that there was also a Liam-shaped gap at both The Island Clinic and St Vic should he choose to fill them.
And then, a month later, as they’d been packing up the last of Liam’s items and preparing to fly home, he’d gone down on one knee again and produced a ring box.
‘It was my grandmother’s,’ he’d told her quietly, as Talia had stared at the diamond ring inside.
A vintage pear-cut with split shoulders, it was exquisite. And she’d told him so.
‘However did you get it?’ she’d asked in awe.
‘It was in that box I once showed you.’
‘The one you never opened?’ Talia had asked incredulously. ‘The one with all the photos of your mother?’
