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I gasp and swallow, and then start breathing heavily.
“No passing out on me this time.”
“Callan! What are you doing?”
He stares down at my hands in his, his thumbs brushing back and forth along my skin. He’s shaking, I realize. I can feel his trembling that matches mine.
“I’m thanking you,” he says, and I choke out a sound because that’s not what I thought he was going to say. He glances up. “Layla, I’m thanking you because if it weren’t for you, I might not have Katy. And I’m thanking you because if it weren’t for you, I’m not sure Katy and I would be doing as well as we are. I didn’t ask you to stay sooner because I didn’t want you to think anything I asked of you was based on Katy’s case. So I kept my mouth shut. But Katy is mine now. For good.” He looks at her with a smile of pure love and affection before turning back to me. “We love you. Wewantyou.Iwant you.” He clears his throat. “Layla, I love you. I just… Iloveyou. I want you to move in with us for good. I want you to stay with us forever. I want you to be my…” He hesitates and then laughs, shaking his head in a self-deprecating way. “I can’t say it because I know you’ll say no.”
“Say what?” I manage, because at one point I would have said no. But right now…
“You really want to know?” He checks with a tilt of his head.
I nod in earnest, my heart thrashing in my chest. “I really want to know.”
His entire disposition changes, and now he’s closer, his body between my spread thighs, his face inches from mine. “Layla.” His eyes lock on mine. “I want you to marry me. I love you.I love you,” he repeats, this time with so much emphasis and so much love, air quivers in and out of my lungs. “I know I can’t ask this. I know it’s too soon. I know you didn’t want any of this and I know I’m doing everything wrong. I mean, hell, I already got the song wrong. But the one thing I never got wrong was how I felt about you. It’s been you, Layla. Since the first moment we met, it’s been you.” He shakes his head, his gaze dropping to our joined hands. “Baby girl,” he looks up. “Stay with me?”
Stay with him? Those words—they never cease to shred my heart.
“Always,” I promise.
I get the barest hint of a smile. “Then will you marry me?”
Marry him?!
“I thought you were going to ask me to move in.”
He smirks. “I was. I am. I did. But then. I thought…” His voice dies off.
“You want to marry me?” I stare incredulously at him. Then over to Katy, who is now dancing about in the sparkling twilight of fairy lights. Then back down to him.
He smiles. That dimpled smile that hits every soft, squishy part of me he already owns. I’m so gone on him that it isn’t even funny.
“I do,” he says simply. “With no expectations. With nothing else on the line. With nothing left between us other than how I feel about you. What do you say?”
I slip one hand away from his and cup his jaw, running my fingers along his smooth skin since he shaved for court today. My heart thunders. But I feel no panic. No nerves. No uncertainty. “Okay.”
He laughs at my banal word choice and tone. “Okay?”
I grin. And shrug like it’s no big thing. “Okay. I guess I’ll marry you.”
He squints at me. “You guess?!”
I lean in and layer my lips with his. “Yes, Callan. I’ll marry you. I’ll marry you tomorrow if you want. I want you and I want Katy and I want us forever. I love you. But it’s like I told you the night we met. I’m a lot. You sure you can manage it?”
He nips my bottom lip and then sucks my tongue into his mouth. “I’m positive I can manage it.”
I lick the seam of his lips, smiling against his smile. “Then you got yourself a fiancée. A real one this time.”
“Holy shit!”
“Uncle Cal!” Katy bellows as she twirls around and around.
Callan falls forward into me, wrapping his arms around me with a laugh so light and airy and happy it chokes me up. “Sorry, Ladybug.” Another laugh, but then his lips take mine, kissing me with blinding passion. He kisses me, and he kisses me, and he kisses me.
And when he’s done with that, he slips something onto my hand. Onto my finger. I pull back and stare down at the large, heavy rock. It’s not a regular diamond. It’s not the blue sapphire he had once mentioned either.
“What is this?”
