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Inside, Walker sat Danni down. She looked at him strangely. “I had a revelation at the police station in Severe,” he told her. He stepped around her and he knew that she watched him.
On the top shelf of her corner bookcase that only he could reach he removed a small black box. Walker turned and saw her frowning at him. He took a deep breath. He wasn’t nervous because he knew that Danni would say yes but he was terrified of what he was tying her to. His future felt uncertain until Jesse was found.
He got down on one knee at Danni’s feet and he thought she was going to cry. He gazed at her for the longest moment then he said, “I was going to do this at the Halloween party at Ike’s. I know you’re always dressed up as something. I thought that would be cute in the pictures.” He lowered his gaze to the floor. “I also had some notion that I wanted Sherwood to see you accepting me with all my faults.”
She caressed his cheek. “Yes,” she told him.
He chuckled. “Let me ask first,” he grumbled.
“Okay,” she replied with a sigh.
Walker cleared his throat. “I have a speech.” She smiled at him again waiting patiently for him to get on with it. “I’ve been working on it since I asked your dad if I could marry you.” He looked up at her again. “And Matt.”
She shook her head at him. “You didn’t need Matt’s permission.”
“I did, Danni. He’s been my best friend since we were kids.” Then he shifted to his other knee and she chuckled.
“Get on with it, Walker before you can’t stand,” she chided him.
He frowned at her then he began what he had rehearsed so many times in his head. “Danni, I don’t deserve you. You are perfect and I’m not.” She snorted, and he frowned at her.
“I’ll behave,” she said and cleared her throat.
“I have loved you since you were a baby. I had no little sister that I could take care of but you. Then you grew up and became something else that I didn’t understand,” he explained. “So many things that you don’t know. Like when you started dating and I struggled with wanting to kill those boys afraid they would put their dirty hands on you.” Danni threw back her head and laughed. She placed her hand on Walker’s shoulder and gave him a squeeze of reassurance.
“Your letters broke me Danni. I realized then that your feelings for me were like mine. Something different. Something that we shouldn’t be exploring but were there. We had a connection that we had been skirting around for a long time. I was too old for you and you had Jackson.”
She nodded.
“I love you Danni Rose. I love you so much. I can’t wait to make you my wife. Will you marry me?”
She sighed, such a happy sound. “It is about time, Walker Wild. You move at a turtle’s pace.”
“I told you I was doing it at the Halloween party,” he grumbled. He opened the box and lifted out a diamond that wasn’t large because that wouldn’t suit Danni, but it was nearly perfect. At least one carat, a square cut and sparkly in the waning light inside the cabin and Danni realized that it was his grandmother’s ring. A family heirloom and she loved it that much more.
“It is beautiful, Walker.” Tears welled in the corners of Danni’s eyes.
He held it out to her and she lifted her hand to him. “You haven’t said yes.”
Danni rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, you big lug. Yes, I will marry you.” She reached down and tugged him to his feet. He slipped the ring on her finger and pulled her into his embrace, needing to hold her close. Wanting to feel reassured that life wasn’t as fragile as Laura and Danielle’s had been.
“I’m okay,” she whispered knowing exactly what he was feeling.
“I want you to stay that way,” Walker replied.
She stood on tip toe and pressed her lips against Walker’s. “I will,” she promised.
Chapter 16
Instead of proposing at the Halloween party, Walker and Danni announced their engagement. She knew that Jackson was surprised by it. She saw his expression when her father quieted everyone in the bar and proudly proclaimed that Walker finally got off his ass and proposed to his little girl. The bar erupted with laughter. Walker’s face turned red which caused even more laughter.
She loved that about him. He appeared rough and dangerous, but he was sensitive and embarrassed easily. He was an anomaly and he was hers.
Danni didn’t want the traditional wedding. She didn’t want anything elaborate. Family and friends, here at the bar was what she was planning for her and Walker after a small church ceremony. She was hoping they could do it for New Year’s Eve. Only two months away.
She had enlisted her mother, Arte and her sister-in-law’s help in making a dress. She knew exactly what she wanted. Danni drew the dress. Arte and Rachel had made the pattern. She and Layla were looking for the right material then they were going to get busy, cutting material and sewing it together.
Walker, she had decided looked his best in jeans and a dress shirt. Maybe a vest too? She hadn’t decided about that part. She wanted him to be comfortable. Matt was his best man, so she asked Layla to be her matron of honor. Their son, Justin would be ring bearer. Her brothers needed to have kids because she also needed a flower girl. Lucky for her Danni had several cousins, so she called one who had a three-year-old daughter and she agreed that Lilly could be her flower girl.
