Page 54 of Second Chance Fate

“Um, yeah, I guess so. I do want to talk to you.”

“Oh no, has anything good ever happened after a we-need-to-talk talk?”

“You called it that, not me,” he clarified. He wished he could tell her that it was a good talk, but he honestly wasn’t sure she would classify it as that.

“Semantics.” She pressed the up arrow on her bedrail and sat up straighter when alarm overcame her. “Wait, is it Owen? Does he know? Did you tell him?”

“What? No, I wouldn’t…it’s not my place. I wouldneverdo that behind your back.” He shook his head. “It’s not anything like that. I just want to ask you something, but I want you to do me a favor and not answer me right away. Please, just before you say anything, hear me out.”

She sat perfectly still, staring at him silently.

When she didn’t respond, he prompted, “Will you do that?”

“Yeah.” She shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what I was doing.”

“Right.” He grinned and shook his head and hands out as he tried to release his nerves.

“Oh,” she breathed.

“What?” he asked as he lifted his head and looked at her.

“Nothing, you just…you’re nervous. I haven’t seen you nervous.”

He was. There was no point in denying it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his grandmother’s diamond ring. Her eyes widened, and the machine monitoring her pulse began to beep faster. When he heard that her pulse rate was getting high, he quickly began to explain.

“I would get on one knee and ask you to marry me, but I don’t want to freak you out even more than I already am.” He motioned to the machine, then placed the ring in her hand. “I want to marry you. Not in a month, or a year, or a week. I want you to be my wife, and I want to be your husband. There are a lot of reasons why I want to marry you. One of them is love. You may not believe me, but I do love you. I love the mom that you have been to our son. I love how kind you are. I love how resilient and strong you are. I love that you laugh at your own jokes. I love that you have put our son first, his needs first, andI want to be the person who finally puts your needs first, who takes care of both of you.

“Another reason that we should get married is that I absolutely am not going to let you go home when you get out of here?—”

“I’ll be fine; I’m?—”

“It’s not about you.” Caleb interrupted her. He was lying a little;, itwasabout her, but he couldn’t say that. And there was truth in his reasoning, too. “It’s not fair to put that on Owen. He can’t be responsible for your recovery. He’s got his own health to worry about.”

Caleb could see the battle going on behind Taylor’s eyes. He knew that the arguments he was making couldn’t be easily dismissed.

“Another reason we should?—”

“There’s more?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “As of right now, Owen is your next of kin. I think that’s too much for him. Thankfully, because so many staff here know me, I have been able to get information and the same visiting privileges that a family member would have, but Ihatednot being able to say, she is mywife.” Caleb felt tears begin to fill his eyes, but he did his best to hold them back. This wasn’t about him. “Youaremy family. You and Owen are both my family. When you were in the ICU, one of the newer doctors dismissed me when he found out I wasn’t married to you. I had to make him see that, married or not, I was the man that visiting hours didn’t apply to when it came to you.” She grinned a little at the callback toGood Will Hunting.“And I almost ended up in jail doing so.”

“I’ve already contacted my medical insurance, and I can add you and Owen immediately once we are legally married. The coverage is much better than Medicaid for you and Owen.” Caleb could see how overwhelming this was. He hoped that shewas taking in everything he was saying. “I’m not asking for a traditional marriage. I know that you’ve been through hell. I know I wasn’t there when you needed me most; whether it was my fault or not doesn’t change what you went through. I’m just asking you to let me start to make it up to you both.

“You can have the master bedroom, Owen has the spare room, and I’ll sleep in the basement. I just want you both under my roof so that I can take care of you both; that’s it. I’ve already taken out a life insurance policy and named both you and Owen beneficiaries. That is staying the same whether you marry me or not.” Caleb pulled the paperwork from his back pocket and handed it to her. Once she looked it over, he handed her another piece of paper. “And that is a marriage license. It’s our marriage license.”

“Marriage license?” She looked up at him.

“Yes. I applied online, and a friend of mine from the county clerk’s office, Belinda Santos, will be here in about an hour. If you say yes, we can get married today.”

“Today? What do you mean today?”

“Yes, it’s basically just paperwork. It would take less than ten minutes. If we wait and do it in town,everyonewill know about it. Which, for the record, is great with me. I would love that. I just don’t expect you to be on the same page as me. I know this sounds crazy. I know that, but it really does make sense, to me at least. I totally understand if you don’t want to do this. Or if you want to think about it. Or if you do want to, but you want Owen here. We have talked about us getting married, and he seemed?—”

“You did what?!”

“It was hypothetical,” Caleb quickly explained. “He asked me if I was ever married; I said no. He asked if I ever wanted to be married; I said yes. He asked what sort of person I would want to marry; I said someone like your mom. He said that was a goodanswer. I asked if he wanted you to get married again, and he said yes, but only if it was someone who made you happy and who would take care of you like you take care of people.”

She nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like him.”

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