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“I would’ve believed you,” I swore to her. “If you had told me, I would’ve believed you.”
“I know.” Her tongue dragged over her lips. “But you believing me wouldn’t have been enough to make Jake safe… and I had to make sure my son was safe.”
I brought her hand to my lips and kissed the backs of her knuckles. “He will never hurt either of you again. I promise.”
I watched color lift into her cheeks, and her eyes well with tears as she nodded. After a few seconds, her focus zeroed in on the ring that was still on her finger.
“About our marriage,” she started, but her voice broke at the end.
I tried to swallow, but my throat was too tight. “I love you, Kenzie. Nothing you could ever do could change that,” I confessed. “I want you. And Jake. I want a life with the both of you.”
Her lip quivered. “I have issues, Zeke. Eight years is a lot of trauma-induced habits to break…”
“Then give me the honor of breaking them with you,” I said hoarsely. “Marriage isn’t about finding the perfect person to be with, it’s about finding the right person to grow with. You’re my right person, Kenzie.”
“I love you,” she murmured thickly. “And not just because you always know the right things to say.”
I chuckled and tipped toward her.
“I love you, too, Kenzie Barrett,” I said and framed her face with my hands. “Will you stay my wife?”
Her breath caught, and then she started to sob and nod at the same time. “Yes,” she blubbered as I pressed my mouth to hers. “Yes, I will.”
* * *
Four weeks later…
“Where are we going?”Jake asked for the fifth time in the last four minutes.
“Home,” I replied with a smile and flicked a glance at Kenzie as I drove slowly up the dirt drive to the clearing at the top of my property.
“Home?” His nose crinkled as I slowed the car to a stop. “This looks like a field.”
I didn’t say anything as we got out of the car, watching Jake as he eagerly took in his surroundings. In the last month, I’d realized how damn observant he was—even more than I’d initially thought. Observant enough to be able to tell the police all the times he saw his dad putting ‘vitamins’ in his mom’s smoothies and how his dad was always specific about who ate from what plate or drank from which bottle.
“This is a field,” Jake wandered back and repeated.
“But it will be a home,” I said and crouched down. “Our home.” I took his small shoulders and smiled. “We’re going to build a house here for you and your mom and me to live. What do you think?”
He rocked his head side to side. “Do I get my own room?”
Kenzie let out a little groan.
“Yes,” I answered. “And there will be a pool.”
“A pool?”
His eyeballs got so comically big, I had to laugh. I thought for sure he was going to scream with excitement, but with more willpower than any child I’d ever met, he instead turned to Kenzie first and said, “Only if it’s what my mom wants.”
My chest swelled. I hated the life and the shitty role model he’d had that made him that way, but damn, there was nothing that made me prouder of the kid than the way he protected his mom and her happiness.
I tipped my head up to my wife and asked, “What do you think, Kenzie? Do you want to build a home here with me?”
The brightest smile burst over her face, pure joy glittering in her lavender gaze. “I do.”
Only then did Jake let out a loud squeal of excitement, taking off across the property determined to find the perfect spot for a pool. Meanwhile, I stood and pulled Kenzie into my arms, claiming her mouth in a kiss.
“You’re going to spoil him.”
