Page 73 of A Love So Sweet
“I’ll call an ambulance.”
“Wait. Let’s see if she’s okay first.”
“What happened?”
“Max?” Treat’s gentle voice was shaken. “Sweetness, look at me.”
She looked into his eyes as he helped her to her feet.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She saw his car behind hers, the front end smashed by the rear of hers.
“I think so,” she whispered. Then, amid the shock, the worry, and his family members pawing at her, unexpected words fell from her lips. “You said you’d love me through it.”What happened to my voice? Why am I whispering?
“What, sweetness?” Treat asked.
“You said you’d love me through anything,” Max said, a little louder this time. “I asked you, that night in Wellfleet, when I told you that if I got scared or insecure and my walls went up, I’d need you to love me through it.”Why am I crying?“And you said you’d love me through anything, Treat.Anything!You promised.”
“Uh-oh,” Dane said.
“Of course, Max.” He tightened his hold on her.
His siblings stared at her. His father watched him like a hawk. Max looked from Hal to Treat and then back again. She didn’t care if she was making a fool of herself, or if his father was sending him telepathic messages that she was a freak. She needed him to know how much his promise meant to her.
“Max, I always keep my promises. You must be really shaken up. Try to hear me, sweetness.”
“I hear you! You did what you promised, and it means the world to me that you loved me even though I was broken.”
“Broken?” Dane uttered.
Savannah shushed him.
“You’ve never been broken, baby. Not in my eyes.” Treat’s voice was a tender caress to her shaken-up heart. “And I know you worry, so please hear me. I’m not giving up my life for you. I’m not giving up Thailand or anything else.”
“I don’t understand.” Tears brimmed in her eyes.
“I’m rearranging how things are done, not giving them up. I’m coming back to help my father on the ranch—for a while, anyway—and I want to put down roots. But I don’t care where, as long as you’re with me.” He wiped her tears with a whisper of his finger across her cheek. “I slayed my demons, Max. All of them. Just like you did. We’re fated to be together.”
Max was shaking all over. She closed her eyes to try to calm herself down.
“Open your eyes, sweetness,” Treat urged. When he had her attention, he said, “The world can test us, but I’m not budging. It’s enough already. This is who we are. Treat and Max. Not Treat Braden and Max Armstrong, two separate people. It’s not you and me; it’sus.”
Us.She swiped at the river of tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried to remember all the things she wanted to tell him. “I’ll travel.”
“What?”
“Whatever we need to do for your business. I’ll travel with you. I can work from anywhere.”
“Max, we’ll figure all that out,” he said.
Between her sleepless nights, the craziness of the last twenty-four hours, and the accident, she couldn’t think straight. Everything was blurring together. Treat loved her. He loved her! She was in his arms. This was real. This wasn’t a dream.
Then Treat released her, and for a moment the world stood still. Her gaze bounced from Savannah’s to Josh’s, and a smile tugged at his lips. Dane put a hand on Hugh’s shoulder, and Rex was grinning like a fool. It was the tears in Hal’s eyes that drew Max’s gaze back to Treat, only he was no longer standing before her.
“Max.” He took her hand in his as he perched on one knee.
She gasped. “Treat?”
