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“Right.” She nodded, smiling. “Go ahead.”
“I want you to marry me, Chloe. Today. Tomorrow. I can wait a week, but not much longer.”
Stunned, she stared at him. “Marry you?”
He looked insulted. “Well, what the hell else am I here for?”
Chloe laughed again. This was so Liam. Irritated, impatient and completely perfect for her. “Well, if you came to propose, did you bring a ring?”
“Of course I brought a ring,” he said and dug into his jeans pocket. “I didn’t go shopping or anything yet, so I’ll take you to the best jewelry store in Houston and you can pick whatever you want.”
He held out a gold ring with three small diamonds set in a heart pattern. “This was my mom’s,” he said softly. “I brought it with me to seal the deal—if you said yes. But like I said, we can go shopping and you can pick out something you like.”
Chloe lifted her right hand to her mouth and looked from the simple, elegant ring to the man offering it to her. The man who couldn’t trust was offering her his mother’s ring. He had faith in her to be with him. Stay with him. And he was proving it by offering her something that was very important to him.
“You couldn’t have done anything more meaningful to me,” she said.
“Yeah?” Both eyebrows went up and one corner of his mouth quirked. “So is that a yes?”
She held out her left hand and he slid the ring onto her finger. “Of course it’s a yes, Liam. For you it’ll always be yes.”
“Thank God,” he whispered and pulled her in to kiss her.
She felt everything shattered inside her come together, and all those ragged edges smoothed over as if they’d never been there at all. When she pulled back, she looked up at him and said, “I don’t want another ring. I want this one.”
His eyes flashed, with heat and love, warming her through. “Deal. I’ll make sure the wedding band is splashy, though. How’s that?”
“Just not as splashy as Ellen’s,” she said, laughing.
His smile faded, he looked deeply into her eyes and said softly, “You’re nothing like Ellen. Nothing like anyone else I’ve ever met.”
Now her heart was melting right along with her body. He saw her. He saw who she was, who she’d made herself and who she wanted to be. And he loved her. There was no greater gift.
“I love you, Liam,” she whispered, and felt a sweet rush of warmth that settled around her heart and glowed so brightly she was almost surprised that light wasn’t spilling from her fingertips.
“I’m never going to get tired of hearing that,” he warned.
“Boy, I hope not.” Chloe went up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck.
She couldn’t believe how quickly life could turn around. How she could go from bereft to happy in a blink of time. Suddenly, she felt that anything was possible. Everything was possible.
He held her close, buried his face in the curve of her neck and whispered, “God, you smell good.” His arms tightened around her. “I missed you, Chloe. I couldn’t even be at the new ranch without you.” Lifting his head, he looked down at her. “Today was moving day. Couldn’t do it without you.”
“You’re not going to make me cry,” she said with a choked laugh.
“Wanna bet?” He kissed her, then looked into her eyes and said, “Here’s your wedding present. Shadow and his mother are yours.”
“What?” This she couldn’t believe. That he would do this for her. That he would know just how much it meant to her. She’d been there for Shadow’s birth, and leaving him had been harder than she’d wanted to admit. The tears she had refused to cry spilled over and rained down her cheeks. “Really?”
“Really. I didn’t tell you that first because I didn’t want you marrying me just to get that horse of yours.”
She laughed, delighted with him and with the life they would be building together.
“The horses should be at the ranch by now. Tim was going to load them up and bring them to their new home.” He kissed her again, then looked into her eyes. “I’m here to do the same with you.”
