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Snatching up her car keys, she hurried to her front door, trying to work out how long the drive to LA would take so late in the afternoon, but as she pulled the door open she froze—because there he was, his hand raised and poised to knock.
‘Damon...’ she breathed, stunned by the beautiful sight of him.
‘You’re on your way out?’
‘Only to find you,’ she said, her eyes drinking him in, feeling in her bones how much she had missed him. ‘To apologise.’
He shook his head. ‘You have nothing to be sorry about Carrie. I’m the one who needs to apologise. Can I come in?’ he asked tentatively.
‘Of course.’ She moved back to let him enter and he followed her into the living space. ‘How are you? Both of you?’ His eyes had dropped to the bump beneath her loose tee.
‘We’re good. Healthy.’ She smoothed her hands over her stomach. ‘I’m starting to show now.’
‘I see that. It’s beautiful.’
As he raised his gaze to her face Carrie immediately fell headlong into the golden beam of his eyes...eyes that were no longer shadowed, but clear and serene. Her heart started to pound, trying to punch itself free from her chest and into his hands.
‘You’re beautiful,’ he added.
With those words, her emotions started to unravel, and tears built behind her eyes.
Damon stepped closer, taking her hands in his and holding them against his chest. ‘I’m so sorry, Carrie. There are so many things that I want to say to you, but that’s the most important. That you know how deeply I regret everything. I’ve made some big mistakes and I’ve hurt you badly and that was never what I wanted to do.’
Exhaling a shaky breath, he continued. ‘You’re everything to me, Carrie. When I think about the future, I think only about you and the life we could have together. A house here, overlooking the ocean, weekends in Ojai, our baby being born and growing up... I want that future with you. I want a beautiful life with you. I want to try every day to be a man deserving of your love, a man that you and our child can believe in and rely on, no matter what.’
Carrie couldn’t stay quiet a second longer—not when the harsh words she’d levelled at him on that horrible day echoed between them.
‘Damon, I should never have said that you weren’t deserving of my heart,’ she said, shame burning through her. She moved in closer, clutching at him. ‘I was wrong to say that. I was wrong not to give you the chance to speak, to explain what you were going through, and I’ve regretted it ever since. But I got scared and I reacted. All I could see was that another man I loved had lied to me and put his ambition ahead of our relationship. All the fears I had about trusting you roared back to the surface. But you deserved better than that from me...because you’ve proved time and time again that I can trust you.’
He wiped at the tears on her cheeks. ‘You had every right to be furious with me. I hurt you. I let you down. But I really hope that beautiful, understanding heart of yours has the capacity to forgive me one more time, because I am in love with you, Carrie. I have loved you since those very first moments in Paris. I was just too scared of risking my heart to truly let myself see it and feel it. But losing you in Paris woke me up, and I know now that the real risk lies in not loving you as hard as I can for as long as I can, and in not telling you how much I love you every single day.’
It was everything she’d wanted to hear, and all the sweeter for everything they’d been through.
‘I love you, too, Damon. And I’ve missed you so much.’
With a sigh of relief he released her hands to curl his arms around her and, burying his face in her river of dark hair, he held her tightly against him. ‘I’m sorry it took me so long to figure it out,’ he whispered.
‘No more apologies. The past is done. From now on we just look forward.’
His answering smile was breathtaking. ‘I like the sound of that. And in that spirit...’
He caught her completely by surprise as he dropped to his knee, producing a small velvet box.
‘I love you, Carrie. I love you more than I thought it was possible to love. And, having known the pain of waking up without you beside me, I never want to be without you again. All I want now and every day, for the rest of my life, is you and our child. To spend every day with you and to spend all those days making you as happy as its possible to be. So, Caroline Miller-Randolph, will you marry me?’
Carrie had so many loving things she wanted to say to him, so many feelings burning in her heart that she wanted him to know, but there was only one word she was actually able to say, and she knew it was the only word that mattered.
‘Yes.’
Damon slid the ring onto her finger and sealed the move with a kiss, then another kiss to her stomach, and a final one to her lips.
‘I love you,’ he said again, and it was a promise.
Excitement exploded inside her like a constellation of fireworks. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing that.’
‘Good. Because I plan on saying it a lot. And showing you a lot too,’ he added, boosting her up in his arms.
Before she drifted into the paradise of his lips melting against hers, Carrie stole another look at the ring sparkling on her finger.
Maybe it hadn’t always unfolded like the classic fairy-tale she’d wanted, but it had been their story—hers and Damon’s—and she couldn’t wait for the life of love and laughter and togetherness that would come next.
