When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(78)

I blink a few times but don’t answer. I’m sure, without a doubt, that if I were to open my mouth to speak, I would cry.

“Are you really okay?”

I clear my throat. “I am now. Thanks to you.”

He looks down, holding my hand in his. “I’ve never felt the kind of fear that I did when I thought I was too late, Ember. Just the thought of spending one second without you is more pain than I care to ever feel.”

“Nate, baby, I’m here. I’m okay.”

“I can’t, Ember. Not one second or any day. I can’t be without you.”

I can’t see his face with his hair hanging like a curtain shielding him from me, but I don’t miss the tear that falls down from his eyes to his lap.

“Get up, Nate.”

I shift to the side and wait for him to stand. He doesn’t argue with me; instead, he climbs to his feet and looks down at me. My heart clenches when I see the expression on his face. Eyes wet with unshed tears and full of fear as they look down at me. His strong chest is moving with the force of his harsh breathing. I see his hands shake before he clenches them into a tight, white-knuckled fist.

“Come.”

I make sure my tone is hard and unbending, giving him no doubts that I mean what I’m telling him.

His fists release, and with shaky movements, he pulls his pants off and his shirt over his head. With just his black boxers on, he lifts the corner of the sheet and folds his tall body down next to me. I move to my side, facing him, and with the hand that is against the bed, I slide it up until I’m holding one of his. My other hand moves up his arm until I can curl it around his neck and focus on his face.

I stare into his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

His breath hitches.

“You saved me, Nate. You saved me long before last night when you showed me just how much your love completed me. I won’t lie to you and brush last night under the rug. I was scared out of my mind, but I’m going to look at it as the last battle in our beautiful war. It’s fought, now over, and we won. It’s up to us how we move on and turn that beautiful war won into a beautiful love.”

“God, Ember. I mean it, baby. Not one more day can I spend without you.”

I smile, feeling the ring on my left finger move when my hand shifts against the mattress, and I know in an instant what it will take to get him to realize that no matter how horrible last night was, I’m still here and never leaving.

“So here’s what we do. I apparently gained a fiancé last night, so he’s going to sit with me as I plan a wedding. I’ll have my dad put my house on the market and you make sure all my stuff stuck in storage is filling this house. I’m going to take over your man cave and you’re going to turn Dirty into the biggest club the South has ever seen. Then, the way I see it, we spend the next ten years making babies or practicing to make babies. I’ll let you know when I decide how we’re going to spend the next fifty plus years after that. Is that enough to convince you that you won’t have to spend another day without me?”

His eyes change and he looks at me with wonderment instead of sad trepidation.

“Is that all?” His voice is thick with emotion.

I shrug. “All for now.”

“I think that’s a great start, baby.”

He pulls me into his arms, and with a deep breath from us both, we fall asleep knowing that as long as we’re together, in each other’s arms, we will feel the beauty of our beautiful war won.





I woke up the next morning feeling a lot better than I had the day before. My headache was gone and my back no longer hurt. The scrapes I had were small and the slight redness was the only thing left. My neck looked bad, the bruising something that I would have to face for days before it faded away, but at least I could move without pain.

True to my word, when we woke up this morning, I had my dad contact a realtor. He didn’t question my decision, and I had a feeling that he was proud of the choice I had made.

I look down at the huge diamond on my hand and smile. Leave it to Nate to not even ask, but to slide the ring on and not mention it. He’s crazy, but I love him for it.

“Hey, Nate,” I call over to him. He turns, looking at me from the kitchen as I stay sitting on the couch, curled in the softest blanket I’ve ever felt. “Just in case our kids ask one day, I said yes.”

He tips his head to the side and looks at me as if I’m the crazy one. I hold my hand up and enjoy the hell out of seeing his face get soft when he looks at the engagement ring on my hand.

“But just out of curiosity, were you even going to ask me?”

He pauses in his dinner preparations and leans both hands down on the island. “There was no doubt in my mind, Ember, so I figured asking was just a formality. I’m sure I could have thought of something romantic, spent an hour after trying to dry your tears when you were overcome with happiness, and then taken you home and f*cked you until you passed out with nothing but bliss in your eyes. But I didn’t want to see you cry any kind of tears, so I went with my gut and just took what’s mine.”

I laugh, the sound making him smile. “I love you, you crazy man.”

“I know; I’m easy to love.”

“I wouldn’t have cried for an hour,” I add a few minutes later.