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“Can I get you an appetizer or anything? Or do you need a few minutes to look—”
The growl in my chest must have escaped because the waiter suddenly took a step back. “I’ll come back.”
Kelsey smiled up at him. “That’d be great.” She leaned forward as soon as he disappeared. “What did you just ask me?”
“I think you heard me,” I said between gritted teeth.
“No, I couldn’t have. Because you didn’t just sit down and ask me to marry you.”
“I did.”
She blinked again. Her eyes were more like an owl’s now. Stupidly cute. “Why?”
I was so fucking this up. I hadn’t even meant to blurt that out. And maybe she didn’t want to marry me. Maybe I was good enough to be with and have a baby with, but not be bound to.
Because forever felt huge and impossibly right in my head. Maybe she didn’t feel the same way.
“I…” Words wouldn’t come. I wasn’t a word guy, but I knew I was fumbling this. “I don’t care if the kid is mine biologically. In my head, it’s mine. In my head, you’re already both mine. Let me take care of you, Kelsey. I know it’s fast, but it’s right.”
Tears filled her eyes. “You’d do that? For me? You don’t have to.”
I came around the table and knelt beside her. Suddenly, the conversations around us went quiet. Unnerved, I almost went back to my seat, but I had to get this out. “I know I don’t have to. I want to. If you’ll have me. I know I come as a package.”
She cupped my cheek. “So do I.”
“We can figure this out together.”
“Are you sure?”
I reached up and slid my fingers through her silky hair to the back of her neck and dragged her down to me. Obviously, I wan’t making myself clear. “Marry me,” I said against her lips. Her scent surrounded me and that calm came over me. The quiet sureness that I’d only experienced a few times in my life.
When Weston had been placed in my arms.
When I’d driven a perfect race.
And right now.
Tears fell down her cheeks in earnest now, but she nodded.
“Words, Kel.”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
I buried my face in her neck and breathed in that citrusy scent of hers I loved so much. That was probably very true. “I’ll risk it.”
“How am I supposed to eat a steak now? I’m blubbering all over you and the table.” Her voice went down to a whisper. “Everyone’s staring at us.”
I leaned back and stood up, twisting her fingers with mine. “She said yes.”
Kelsey squeaked behind me. I looked down at her. “No backing out now.”
The room clapped and the water came back with a huge smile on his face. “Champagne?”
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. “How about two steaks with the works, two baked potatoes with all the fixings?” I dug out my credit card and turned to her. “Sound good?”
