Page 21 of New Resolutions

“What?”

“She loves you.” Yes, I heard that part. “But not as much as I love you.”

“You…you love me?”

Chapter Eighteen

Rhett

I would laugh at the shock she has on her face, but I don’t want her to think I am laughing at her. Just the situation. So instead of laughing. I go in for another kiss.

“Angel, I cuffed you to my bed. I’m pretty sure I not only love you; I adore you. Lust after you. Want every part of you to be with every part of me. Am obsessed with you and who you are. Couldn’t live without you. But ‘I love you’ seemed like the place to start.”

Her hand comes up to touch my stubbled cheek and opens her mouth when her eyes go wide and her attention is no longer on me.

“What the…fudge sundae?”

This time I have to laugh. Fudge sundae? I sometimes forget how sweet and innocent Charity is and that she spends most of her days with small children.

Her eyes are on the ring I slipped on her left hand when I woke up from our nap. I bought the ring Christmas night when she was prancing around my place in nothing but my t-shirt. I was going to surprise her by asking her to marry me before I let her go back to her apartment to grab more clothes. It would have been the same time I planned to tell her who I was. But she left before I could ask her. So, this time I’m not asking.

We’re marrying. And if she needs more time to trust me or figure out what she wants that is fine, but she’ll do it with my ring on her finger so other men will know she’s mine. If I could wear an engagement ring I would but I figure having her draped on my body will be sign enough for those wanting to know.

“What is this, Rhett?”

“It’s your engagement ring, my love,” I say it so simply that she understands it is a matter of fact and non-negotiable.

“My engagement ring! What…why?” She huffs out a frustrated sigh. “My engagement ring? But, Rhett, you’ve not asked me to marry you? You want to marry me?”

She looks at me like I might have gone crazy. Like it is inconceivable I would want to marry her. Does she not realize?

I pull her into my lap and take her chin in between my fingers and thumb. “Sweetheart, you’re my angel. I couldn’t live without you. I wasn’t living before I met you. I saw you across the room, saw the light coming from you and all I could think about was how do I get her to stay with me? How do I make her love me? I fell in love with you before you ever even knew I existed and yet, I realized I had to come out of the dark, out of hiding, so I could have you. I would do anything -anything- for you! All you ever have to do is say the word and it will be yours. All I want from you is for you to stay with me, light my day up like you lit my heart up the first time I laid eyes on you.”

“Oh.” She says the word as a soft exhale.

“I don’t just want to marry you either, love. I want to marry you and start a family. I want little girls with your smile and your eyes and boys with my hair and muscles so they can help me take care of you and all those girls.”

Her mouth falls open and her eyes widen.

“Oh crap.” She’s just realized we didn’t use anything when I came inside her.

“I want to make sure you are never alone for another Christmas, my love. Next year, we’ll be bouncing a little one on our knee. It's the thing I was afraid to say when you asked me. I was thinking of planting a child inside of you.”

I tense up and wait for her response. Maybe she’ll be mad that I didn’t give her the option to say no or plan this with me. Maybe I’ll have to work harder to make her fall all the way in love with me and safe enough that she wants to take that step with me.

“I don’t think you should bounce a baby that small on your knee, Rhett.”

This time my eyes are the ones that are wide with surprise. “You…does that mean…you want to be with me and marry me and start a family.”

She gives me a wobbly smile as her eyes mist up and nods. “I do.”

Two of the sweetest words I have ever heard. And plan to hear again over and over again.

“So you’ll stay with me. You won’t run away again.”

“I’ll stay with you and not run again,” she pulls away from me to jab her finger in my chest, “I’ll agree to never run and always wait for you to talk with me, to explain, to fight it out with one another, as long as you promise to tell me everything, never lie to me, or leave anything out. I’ll stay if you promise to open up and give me every part of you including what you feel and think, no matter if you think I won’t like it or think you’re bad becauseof it. Because I won’t. I won’t ever think that you are bad or less. Ever…because I love you too.

I take her lips with my own as I feel my heart swell and grow at the promises and things she is saying to me. When I pull back we are both stretched out on the bed, my body on top of hers.

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