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“I came in to get my fluffy blanket,” she whispered. She ducked her head as she stared down at the box. “I wanted to see how you were as you’ve been so caring and I wanted to know how today went and I…” She blew out a breath. “I took a seat and felt something…” She didn’t finish her sentence but she didn’t need to.
“So, you thought you’d have a nose and see what it was,” I teased as I took a step toward her. I placed my hands on her knees and kneeled down in front of her. “Have you opened it?” I asked.
“No.” She fiddled with the box, turning it over in her palms. I watched her as she stared down between us and just when I started to panic that I had ruined everything between us, she looked up at me. “This is too fast,” she whispered.
There it was. The words that I had been repeating in my head for the last week and the words I knew that everyone would think when we told them our happy news. If she gave me the answer I wanted, that was.
Too fast. It’s too sudden. You guys don’t even know each other yet.
I had only one thing to say to that.
“Isobel,” I whispered. I reached for her hands and placed mine over hers. “Does it feel too fast? Or do you think it should feel that it’s too fast?” I rubbed my thumbs over her knuckles, loving her softness pressed against my roughness. “Do you know what it feels to me?” I asked her.
She shook her head at me.
“It feels right. Being with you feels right.” A small smile graced her features in response. “When I first got medically discharged, I’d lost it all. When I came here with Luke…” I blew out a breath, hating how unromantic this was all sounding. “I never expected anything to change. I came to give Lauren and Thomas a break more than anything.” I tightened my grasp on her hands. “Then it all changed.” I grinned up at her. “I met this beautiful, blonde bombshell that took my world and shook it all up.” She giggled at that. “She made me want to take chances, to put myself out there, to take risks again.” I clasped our fingers together and brought her hand up to my lips.
“I love you, Isobel. I love everything about you.” Her eyes filled at that. “I love how excited you get when you’re talking about fashion. I love the way that you always think of others ahead of yourself. I love the way that you are with Luke and how you befriended him when he needed a friend.” I reached across and wiped a stray tear off her cheek. “I especially love how you took a lost soul and made him want to live again.” I reached for the box, relieved when she let me take it. I opened the box and gently took the ring out before I positioned the box on the floor and returned my attention back to Isobel.
I held my hand out for hers, happy when she placed her hand back in mine.
“You’re shaking,” she whispered.
“I know.” I chuckled at her surprised, wide-eyed expression as she gazed down at me. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous in my life.” We both grinned when I said that and I paused to stare at her for several moments in awe of her.
“Isobel Holland, will you be my partner, my best friend, the one I share everything with? Will you let me love you and be the man that you deserve? Please...” I bent down and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, trying to show her how much she—and this moment—meant to me. “Please, do me this honor of being my wife, my everything…” I beamed up at her. “My pretty girl.”
She beamed at me until a small giggle escaped her. As I stared up at her, I knew that all my stressing was for nothing. She was going to say yes. As she opened her mouth to speak, I watched as the smile slowly slipped from her face and in its place was replaced with a frown.
“Christopher, I…” She hesitated, unsure what to say.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?’
“I want to give you answer but first, I need to tell you something.” She shook her head at herself I think before she ducked her head. “What I’m going it say, it may change how you feel about wanting to marry me and I—”
I quickly reached up and grasped her chin in my hands. “That wouldneverhappen.” The force of my words shook her a little and I knew that I needed to tone it down a little with her but the idea that anything she thought she could say would change the way that I feel about her. “Talk to me. What is it?” I asked.
Her eyes filled again before she spoke, stunning the hell out of me. “I’m pregnant.”
I stared at her, willing the words to sink in but my heart and brain didn’t seem to be connecting the dots. Of all the things she could have said to me, that was the last thing I had expected her to say.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know that’s the last thing you expected to hear or wanted and I didn’t—”
I reached up and moved my lips to hers, cutting off her words. I rested my hand on the back of her head and as I sucked her bottom lip into my mouth I kissed her once, then twice more before I pulled back, resting my forehead against hers.
“You’re pregnant,” I whispered. I reached down and lay my hand over her stomach. I tried to imagine how she would be with a bump and I knew without a doubt that I couldn’t wait to meet this little life that she had growing inside of her. “You’re pregnant,” I said again, a laugh escaping me.
“I am.” She placed her hand over mine. “Are you okay with this?” She sounded concerned and I fucking hated that.
“I’m more than okay with this.” I reached up again and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “I want everything with you.” I gazed back down to the ring in my hand. “Isobel,” I whispered. “Will you marry me?”
She stared at me for a moment before she let that beautiful smile take over her expression. “Yes,” she choked out. “Yes, I will marry you.”
I slipped the ring on her finger, loving the sight of it on her slender finger. I tightened my grip on her hand and brought it up to my lips where I peppered kisses across her knuckles.
“I love you, Christopher.” She wrapped her arms around my shoulders as she kissed me, stealing my breath as her beautiful scent washed over me. “So much.” Tears trailed down her cheeks as she rested her forehead against mine and I knew that whatever the future held for me, it would be full of only good things. With her by my side, I knew that it couldn’t go wrong.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
