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He leans forward and shoves the heavy microphone in my face. “Sorry. I didn’t hear that.”
I repeat myself so the whole stadium can hear.Yeah Bobby, I love you, and the whole world can know.
He takes a deep breath to fortify himself, and with a nervous throat clearing, he pushes on. “Baby, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to protect you, I want to support you… I want to be your everything, because you’re mine. I want to sleep in the same bed with you every night, I want to wake up with you every day, and I want to make blue-eyed babies with you. I want you to take my name, because that’s what we’re about. Making our name mean something. You meaneverything. I promise to never stop courting you, even when we’ve been together forever and our skin sags. I’ll never forget how wonderful and beautiful you are, and I won’t let time and comfort let me become complacent. I won’t ever take you for granted, and I promise, with everything I am, I’ll make you happy.” He pauses and shudders with nerves. “I want to be the man your dad would approve of. I’m sorry I couldn’t ask him myself, but I hope I can be what he would want for you. I promise to try every day to earn his approval.”
I never in all my wildest thoughts imagined that the day my future husband proposed to me, that I’d think of my dad. That I’d mourn him all over again. I never realized or expected that this moment full of happiness and promise would send a lance of pain through my heart and send me back to the day of the funeral.
He’ll never know Bobby. He’ll never know my children. He’ll never even know twenty-five-year-old me. That chapter is closed, and there’s nothing I can do to open it again.
This little girl misses her daddy so much it makes me sick.
But then I swipe away the tears and focus onthisman in front of me. This new man. This new protector who promises his lifetime to me.
The two most important men in my life will never meet, but as though my daddy sent Bobby to me when I needed it, as though they tag teamed, I know that he’d approve. Because Bobby loves me unconditionally, and that’s all that he’d want.
Bobby clears his throat and readjusts his knee. “So, in an effort to do the right thing by you, baby, and by your dad, I asked Jack for his approval. I asked for his blessing… Twice.”
I turn to Jack’s glowing face, and with a smile bigger than the day he won his fight, he swaggers forward and takes me in a side hug. Placing a soft kiss on my cheek, he lifts my microphone to his mouth and says “I authorized this,” in a deep, serious voice.
I giggle and cry like a fool, and when he steps back, my gaze swings back to Bobby’s as he looks up at me seriously. “So, Catherine Maree Reilly.” He holds the ring up. “I love you with my whole heart, baby. For the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
I have no words. I can’t force them past the emotion clogging my throat, so I just nod. I nod like a bobble headed idiot, then I jump and pray he catches me.
Dropping his microphone, thrusting to two feet, and stepping back from the force of my jump, he catches me so my legs wrap around his hips. He holds my ass with strong hands and his watery eyes lock onto mine. “I need the words, baby. Don’t leave me hanging. Say yes.”
“Yes.” I press a kiss to his lips. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Bobby. I’d marry you right now if you said we could.”
“I love you so much.” His hand comes up to cup my cheek. “I promise to make you happy, baby. For the rest of our lives, you’ll never be unhappy.” Leaning back so our chests part and I put a whole lot of faith in his left arm, he uses his right hand to slide a stunning diamond ring onto my finger. He studies it for a long minute before he can peel his eyes away. “That might be the prettiest thing I ever saw in my life.”
“My ring?”
His chocolate eyes twinkle with fun. “My ring on your finger.”
