Valorous(45)

“Why?”

She tips her head to look at me inquisitively. “Why?”

“Tell me why you want to marry me.”

“Because I love you desperately—” She never gets to finish that thought because I stand up to kiss her.

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

“Let me finish.” With her hands on my face, she stares into my eyes, and I feel as if she’s showing me her very soul. “I don’t love you for all the reasons the rest of the world does. I love you for all the other things about you that no one but me will ever get to see. I love you for your kindness, your generosity, your humor, the way you don’t take yourself too seriously but take your work very seriously. I love you for the way you take care of your Great-Aunt Sally—”

“How do you know about that?”

“You’re not going to tell me the press got that wrong, are you?”

“No,” I say with a laugh, “that’s one thing they got right.”

“I love you for who you are, not what you have. That’ll never matter to me as much as you do.”

“And that, my love, is why, for you, I’ve broken all my earlier vows to never marry again and exactly why I’m willing to take all new ones with you.”

I pick her up and twirl her around, bringing her down for a kiss that’s far more chaste than I’d like it to be, but I’m mindful of the security detail watching us.

“I can’t believe this is happening. Are we really getting married?”

“We really are. What’re you doing tomorrow?”

“As in the day after today? You want to get married tomorrow?”

I love her so much. I don’t have the slightest doubt that this is the right thing for both of us. “Yes, I do. We’re checking on what we can pull together for tomorrow or Monday.”

“We? Who is we?”

“Addie and me, of course.”

“I think I’m hyperventilating. Am I hyperventilating?”

Laughing, I put my arms around her and kiss her. “Oh my God! I forgot the most important part of this whole proposal thing.” I reach into my pants pocket for the ring I stashed there before we left the house. I’ve checked at least twenty times to make sure it’s still there. Reaching for her left hand, I slide the ring I had made for her onto her finger.

“Flynn! Oh my God! It’s gorgeous.” She’s crying freely now as she stares at the four-carat one-of-a-kind diamond in the platinum setting I chose for her. At times like this, it helps to have a brother-in-law in the jewelry business. Hugh and I have been in cahoots for days now, and the ring is perfect on her.

“So tomorrow or Monday? Unless you want the big white wedding. In that case, I suppose I could be convinced to wait a month or two, but absolutely no longer than two months.”

“I don’t care about a big wedding.”

“I’ve already had one, and it was a lot of headaches for one day of partying.” I hold her close to me with my chin resting on the top of her head as I watch the sun dip toward the horizon. “You don’t care about the big wedding. I certainly don’t want to go down that road again if you don’t. We really ought to take advantage of this break in the action to take care of business.”

“What about your parents? And your sisters. The kids…”

“This isn’t about them. This is about you and me. We can have a big party later to celebrate. I don’t need anyone else there. Do you?”

“Other than Leah and Aileen, I really don’t have anyone else.”

“You do now, sweetheart. You have me and an entire family that will love and protect you always. You are not alone anymore.”

“This has to be a dream. Nothing this amazing could possibly be real.”

“It’s very real, and I’ve gone from publicly swearing I’d never get married again to needing to be married to you so badly, I can’t bear the idea of waiting even two more days to make you my wife.”

“Flynn… God. This is crazy.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes!” She laughs even as she cries. “It’s a yes.”

I pick her up again and swing her around, making her scream with laughter, which of course makes Fluff bark and snap at my legs. The sound of Natalie’s laughter is the sweetest music I’ve ever heard. I put her down, make sure she’s steady on her feet and withdraw my phone from my pocket. I keep an arm around Natalie as we start back toward the house.