AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You were a godsend to my father. I know that without speaking to him because you gave him the support and respect that I was not able to. You were as much his family as I ever was and, no matter what my relationship with him was like, I would hate to think that I had spoiled it. Please tell me you understand that—please tell me you know what you meant to him?’ Mateo half begged.
She nodded into his palm, the dampness of her tears hot on his skin but not burning nearly as much as he deserved.
‘You were right, on so many levels, but the most important being that Iwasjust like him. I was hiding from my feelings by burying myself in work.’ He tried for a small smile.
Evie placed her hands over his, her eyes widening and her mouth beginning to open. How like her to want to deny the truth of what had happened in that moment. He shook his head slightly and pressed the pad of his thumb to her lips.
‘The moment I realised what I’d done, I wanted to come back, I wanted to find you and tell you. But... I needed some time. I talked with my mother. We were finally able to speak aboutpapá. For so long I had blamed myself and I would have continued to do so, if you hadn’t made me realise how much it was holding me back. I...regret the last years in which I didn’t speak to my father, but Evie... You gave him back to me. You healed something for me that I never thought would be healed. Our relationship wasn’t perfect, and there are things I wish had been different, but you gave me a peace I never thought I’d have.’
Understanding softened her gaze, and her head dipped ever so slightly to brush her lips against his thumb, as if she was praising him with the smallest of kisses, without realising that she fanned the flames of his hope.
And finally he found the courage to say what he wanted to say, what he needed to say. ‘I want you to know that I love you. That nothing you would do or say would change that. There is, and never will be, anyone I will love the way that I love you. I want all the forevers and all the happy-ever-afters with you and only you.’
Her eyes softened and she opened her mouth to speak, and when he silenced her for one last time, she glared at him but allowed him to continue. ‘I’m sorry that I made you ask to be loved, so eternally sorry. But I promise you that if you give me this chance to make things right, I will show you every single day how much I love you, how you are the centre of my world and always will be. I love you. I love everything about you. I love the way that when you focus on something, it is yourentiretyin that moment, whether it is a problem to be fixed, or a new piece of information to consume, or a new experience to be had. I love that when you think things through and say it, you mean it. I love the way that you see the world differently and show me just how much there is that I’m missing out on.
‘I know that you’ll need time to think this out. To poke and prod from every angle intellectually and emotionally, and I’ll wait, no matter how long you need, so you take whatever time you—’
Evie crushed her lips to his, urgency and need and happiness and love all mixing together to make one heady, powerful combination. He had seen her. She knew it and felt it in her heart. For a moment she allowed herself to get irrevocably lost in his kiss, their tongues dancing together as if on their own accord, her hands at first clutching at his waistcoat, and then slipping around his torso to bring him even closer.
She ended the kiss only because she had something she wanted to say, and then—hopefully—they’d be able to return to that kiss and many more.
‘I’m sorry too,’ she said, searching his eyes for understanding she desperately wanted. ‘I was hurt and I lashed out at you. I should never have forced that on you. I was hurting but that is no excuse.’
‘But you were right and I was wrong,’ he argued with a sweet stubbornness.
Evie bit her lip. ‘I don’t think you were wrong about everything.’ She smiled up at him cautiously. ‘Ihavelet things happen to me that I should have fought harder against. I still disagree that I let myself be taken advantage of,’ she said, shooting him a gentle glare to know that she wasn’t quite happy with his choice of words, ‘but I perhaps didn’t push back as much as I could have. There were so many times and so many people who turned away from me, or rejected me...and that fear made me timid in ways that I am sorry for. But...you saw the strength in me in spite of that.’
‘It hurts to think that you questioned it,’ he said, his eyes sparking in defiance and defence. ‘It hurts to think that I caused you to question it.’
She shook her head, eyes damp and cheeks aching from the smile she felt bursting from her heart.
‘But you didn’t. You showed me that I was strong enough to handle the things that hurt me and survive. You’ve given me the courage to reach for things I would never have done before. I’m beginning to look for my birth parents,’ she confessed, loving the pride and delight she saw in the way he looked at her.
‘I don’t know what will happen, or whether I’ll even manage to find them—’
‘You will,’ Mateo said adamantly. ‘And when you do, if you want, I’ll be right there with you.’
She bit her lip again, hope soaring free in her heart. ‘Would you?’
‘If you’d let me, absolutely. Evie...’ Mateo searched her eyes for something, a sign of whatever it was he needed and finally, when she thought he’d not speak again, he dropped to one knee. ‘Evelyn Edwards, you are my north star. You are my home. You are my Pirate Queen,’ he whispered, sending shivers across her skin and tremors into her heart. ‘Would you do me the honour of becoming the other half of my heart and life?’
Goosebumps plucked at her skin as Evie took in his words and the love shining in his eyes, but it wasn’t until she looked at the ring in the box that she gasped. There, nestled in the folds of old black velvet, was a gold band, supporting a red ruby surrounded by pearls.
Isabella’s ring.
‘How did you—?’
‘I am under strict instructions to give you this ring whether you accede to being my wife or not.’
‘Accede?’ Evie repeated, her smile holding back laughter.
‘It felt fitting,’ he replied, a sparkle in his eyes that ignited fireworks in her heart.
Evie held out a shaking hand, and Mateo removed the ring and slid it onto her finger.
‘A perfect fit,’ he observed in a whisper and Evie knew they were both thinking of the twists and turns that had brought them here.
He rose from the floor and took her into his arms, and between kisses he told her of how much he loved her. It wasn’t until a janitor walked in on them that they finally realised that they should probably head home.
