Page 94 of Between Brothers

Chapter 42

Hayley

I turned from the counter in the middle of a horrendous lunch rush to the bell above the door chiming. I looked up, the words ‘be right with you’ dying on my lips when I spotted Blue and several of his co-workers.

“Two seconds and I’ll get a table cleared,” I said and he nodded, a strange look in his soft gray eyes. I bussed a booth carefully, went to the counter and pulled menus but when I turned around, Blue was on his knees and the diner had gone quiet.

“What are you doing?” I asked, and he raised his eyes to mine, a small gray velvet box appearing in his hands.

“Blue?”

I felt my face burn, a matching one taking up residence in my chest as my heart just stopped.

He opened the box and there, resting neatly inside was a paper orchid, a band of green electrical tape forming a ring.

“Marry me, please… I’m begging you,” he said and I swallowed hard, tears collecting in my eyes.

I stared at him hard past the perfect ring in its perfect little box and silently asked him if this was what he really wanted… searching his face to make absolutely sure that this was real and not just because I was pregnant or because of any other reason but the simple fact he loved me and wanted me.

“You know this is forever, right?” I asked breathlessly.

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

I nodded dumbly and said, “That’s a yes.”

The diner erupted in cheers, whistles, and applause. He leapt up and wrapped his arms around me crushing me to him like I’d wanted him to, despite remaining stubbornly in limbo with my anger and forgiveness. I flung my arms around his shoulders and buried my face in the side of his neck breathing him in, dying for more. Wanting and needing him like never before.

He put me down and kissed me like he was a drowning man and my kiss was the only thing that would provide him air and I knew the feeling.

“Go on and get out of here, you two!” My dad called from the kitchen and Blue called back, “Would love to, sir, but I have to get back to work myself.”

A man behind Blue said, “Aw fuck off with that shit! Go on and get out of here with your girl.”

Blue laughed and I stared at him, begging him silently to take me anywhere but here. He nodded and said, “I’ll follow you home.”

My hands shook as I turned the wheel into my driveway. I kept staring at the ring on my finger, a match for the first one he’d ever made me, the night he’d slipped it on my finger and had told me, I see you.

I parked my car and he pulled up on the bike, shutting it off and heeling down the kickstand. I got out into the warm sunshine and sighed.

I hated that he rode after what happened to Cell, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t ever begrudge him doing it. I couldn’t. It was too much a part of him. He came to me and leaned down, one hand on my lower back the other on my lower stomach. He kissed me, and I melted into it.

“I love you,” he said against my lips.

“Show me,” I murmured and went to kiss him again.

He drew back, however slightly and said, “The next time I make love to you, it will be as my wife.”

“Then we’d better hurry up and get married.”

He chuckled lightly, “How does a date with the Justice of the Peace sound?”

“When?”

“Next week.”

“You’re on.”

“Okay, then.”

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