Page 106 of A Cowboy's Trust
“Perfect.” With zero hesitation, Tansy picked it up and held it to her chest. She swallowed around the knot in her throat. “Because I love you and want to be your mommy.”
The three way hug that followed was perfectly awkward and very tear-filled. Tansy wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
When Jeffrey finally settled down, eyelids reluctantly closing in sleep, Jake picked Tansy up and they stole into her—their—bedroom.
Jake paused by the door. “I’m sorry for throwing that at you unannounced. When he showed me the bracelet, he was worried Melissa did what she did because he’d hidden it from her. I had to tell him about being his dad, and then he begged to know if you were his mom and?—”
“Marry me.” Tansy tossed it out, interrupting Jake’s monologue, leaning on her crutches as she grinned at this man who was now impulsive in all the right ways.
Jake’s jaw dropped.
“Marry me,” she repeated. “I’d get down on one knee, but I might not get back up again very quickly.”
His grin bloomed. “I’d say you should have wined and dined me first, but you pretty much do that every night.”
“I have a ring for you,” Tansy informed him.
He gaped at her. “Get out.”
It felt amazing to be able to say it. “I. Planned. Ahead.”
“You’re beyond amazing.” Jake curled himself around her. “Where’s my ring?”
“Where’s my answer first?”
A moment later, Tansy was resting in Jake’s lap on the edge of the bed. He stroked his knuckles over her cheek, love in his eyes as he examined her face. “I wanted to learn how to be more like you. So in love with life and the people around you. So full of joy and passion. I never dreamed how contagious it would be—exposure to full-onlife at maximumis addictive. But it’s not only your spontaneity, it’s your heart. You give so much. You love with every fiber of your being.”
Tansy kissed him gently. “Marry me,” she said again.
“I would be honoured to be yours in every way possible. But you’ve already got me, heart and soul.” Jake pulled away when she would have kissed him again. “My ring?”
She laughed. “Side table. It’s in the candle tin with the pink mandala.”
He wiggled far enough away to lean over and pull the drawer open and nab the tin. His arms around her, she helped open it, then pulled out the worn silver ring she’d been saving for the right moment.
Jake swallowed hard. “That’s a family ring.”
“It was my original grandfather’s. I never met him, but Grandma Sonora said Greg was the best of men. She fell head over heels in love with him at eighteen, and even though she’s in love with Ashton now, she said love doesn’t die when a person leaves us. It’s precious and forever, and when I told her I loved you, she said she wanted us to have it.”
Jake closed his fingers around hers. “I’m honoured,” he repeated. “And I’m thrilled to be welcomed into the Fields family. A family made by choice.”
“And love.” Tansy slid the ring onto his finger. “So much love.”
“Definitely that.”
He twisted them to the mattress and slipped off her sweater. She pulled his shirt over his head, and eventually they finished getting naked, although the kissing and touching and laughing made it take a long time.
Also the cast, but they had no trouble getting creative to deal with that issue.
When he’d already brought her up once and Tansy was breathless from keeping quiet, Jake rolled over her and slid them together intimately.
He paused. “We’re readjusting the renovation. Our bedroom is going to be on an outside wall where you can make all the noise you want.”
“Deal,” Tansy agreed instantly. She caught him around the shoulders and kissed him until they were both seeing stars.
“I love you,” he whispered as they tipped over into pleasure.
“I love you too.”
