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Tears were streaming down her face, and she reached out to put her finger over his lips. “Yes! Yes, please. I want to marry you. I’m ready. I want to be Hannah Pierce. I want to be your wife, and Ava’s mom. I want to have babies with you and grow old with you.”
He got up on the bed and wrapped his arms around her, claiming her mouth in a kiss that told her this was right. He was right, he was the man for her. He was the reason nothing had worked out with any man before him.
When he finally lifted his head, his blue eyes shone with tears as they looked down into hers. “You really want to take my name?”
“I do. I want us all to have the same name. It’s important to me.”
He nodded. “It’s important to me that you should write up whatever kind of prenup you want. I’ll sign anything. I don’t want a damned thing from you other than your love. And if the day ever comes when you don’t want to give me that anymore …”
She put her finger to his lips again. “That day won’t ever come. I love you, Grady. I love you in the starry-eyed forever kind of way that’s blind to everything else right now. But I also know you well enough – and I know myself well enough that I believe that we’ll be able to work through the tough times together, too. I don’t want a prenup; that feels like setting ourselves up for failure.”
“Will you do it for me then? Get Jacob to draw it up. He’ll understand.”
She bit down on her bottom lip. “I … ” She sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I don’t know if he’ll be on board with this. He likes you. He’s been supportive of us, but he might think …”
Grady grinned and dropped a kiss on her lips. “He’s on board. So’s Xander. I asked them both for their blessing and they gave it to me.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Aww.” She sniffed. “Part of me wants to be mad at all three of you. I’m not some possession that you all get to negotiate ownership of, but at the same time, I love that you asked them, and I love that they said yes.”
“You know I don’t see it that way.”
“I do.”
He grinned. “I can’t wait for the day when we get to say those two words to each other.” His smile faded. “Well shit! I didn’t even give it to you.” He held up a little black box.
She laughed. “I was wondering if there might be a ring involved in this proposal.”
“There is. And I hope you’re going to love it. But if you don’t like it, we can pick one together, I just … There’s no way I could buy you the kind of ring that you deserve and …”
“I’m going to love it, Grady. I know I am.”
“I decided that if you didn’t want to marry me yet, we could just say the ring was a Christmas present.”
“I want to marry you.” She held his gaze and smiled. “Now would you please put the ring on my finger and make it official?”
He chuckled. “Well, since you put it that way …” He flipped the box open, and her hand came up to her cover her mouth. “It’s beautiful!”
“Really?”
She nodded vigorously. “Really, truly beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
She could see the tension leave his face as he took it out of the box and slipped it onto her finger. “That was my hope.”
She looked down at a beautiful heart-shaped diamond set between two smaller, heart-shaped, light-blue sapphires in a yellow gold band. “It’s beautiful.”
He touched the blue sapphires. “Do you know what they’re for?”
“They’re the same color as your and Ava’s eyes.”
“That’s right. You’re carrying our little family on your finger, just like you hold our hearts in your hand.”
“And you think you’re not a romantic? It couldn’t be more perfect. I love it.” She touched his cheek and kissed him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Hannah.”
“And I love you both! Merry Christmas!” Ava came bowling through the door and climbed up on the bed with them, closely followed by Scooter, who jumped up and started licking everyone.
Happy tears rolled down Hannah’s face. “You’re right, Ava. This is the best Christmas ever.”
