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“Happiness looks good on you.”
“You look good on me.” Her smile fades. “I have one more question.”
“Yes is my answer. No matter what.”
“You don’t know what I was going to ask.” Her smile broadens.
“It doesn’t matter.” I have no idea what she wants. Does she want to move in with me? Want me to move here? Want me to buy a boat and sail the Caribbean? Don a set of pasties and climb on the pub’s bar top? “If it keeps a smile on your face, it’ll be worth it.”
“Can I…” She licks her lips, trying to be brave. She’s struggling. Vulnerability is new for her. She’s never been safe before. She had the illusion of safety, but money, for the amazing things it provides, never makes you truly safe. That comes from within.
“Can you…” I prompt.
She bites down on her plush bottom lip, losing her nerve. I lean in closer, my lips over the shell of her ear.
“Come home with me?” I guess. “Marry me? Take over Grand Marin, or hell, build your own Grand Marin?” I pull away to find her eyes wide with surprise but brimming with yearning. She wants some or all of those things. She’s only now allowed to herself to want them.
“Marry me?” Her voice is a croak of disbelief.
“All right.” I nod. “I’ll marry you. On one condition.”
Shock and joy burst onto her face like the sun emerging from behind the clouds. Who knew joy was lurking behind her sharp-as-a-knife sass? “What condition?”
“You choose where we live. Chicago. Clear Ridge. The moon. I don’t care anymore. I can live anywhere, but only if I’m making a life with you.”
Her mouth hits mine and she strangles my neck in her attempt to be closer. Someone yells for us to “Get a room.” Archer. I’d recognize his pessimistic grumble anywhere.
“That’s a good idea,” I call back to him. My hand around her waist, I turn to go. “Archer will cover for me.”
Arch gives me a “yeah, yeah” eye roll and waves me off. He has my back. He always has.
“Nate, we don’t have to leave,” Vivian whispers as I guide her to the exit.
“Oh, yes we do. We have a week to make up for. A lot of naked moments were missed.”
“Oh,” she purrs. She wraps my arms around her waist and leads us outside. “Your hotel or mine?”
“You choose,” I tell her. Once outside, she stops and digs in her purse. Slipping off her flats, she replaces them with a pair of shoes I recognize. The Louboutins I bought her. “You brought them.”
She stuffs the flats into her purse and takes my hand. “When Prince Charming gives you shoes, you keep them.”
“Is that the moral of the story?” I lower my face to hers.
“No,” she whispers against my lips. “The moral of the story is no matter where you go, there you are. So you’d damn well better make the best of it.”
“I like that.” I steal another kiss.
“I love you. I won’t ever deny myself again. Not now that I know what lies on the other side of it. Life is better with you. I don’t want anything but you for the rest of my life.”
My heart unfurls like a banner.
“You’re for me, Nathaniel Owen.”
“So are you, Vivian Vandemark.” And soon, I think with a wicked curve of my lips, she’ll be changing her last name yet again.
This time so she can take mine.
