Page 77 of A Secret Chance
“You were the whistleblower?”
“I found out my father paid off the council here, and I went back to the head office and did some digging, and that wasn’t the worst of it. My dad is a very dirty man.”
“But what’s going to happen to you?” Lauren asked.
“I don’t want that legacy.” He slid his hands from hers to cup her cheeks. “All I want is you, and our daughter.” Lauren held onto his wrists and while the tears streamed silently down her face. “Things have become so clear to me, Lauren.”
“Are you sure?” she whispered.
“I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, and I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.” He leaned in and kissed Lauren’s lips gently. He pulled back and Lauren kept her eyes closed, waiting to feel the warmth of his face against hers again. When it was taking too long, she opened her eyes and saw him kneeling down on the sidewalk in front of her. Her hands were still in his.
“Lauren Bunkman, will you marry me?”
Lauren shivered, but this time it wasn’t from the cold. Her tears started flowing again as she kept nodding. “Yes, Baxter, I will marry you.”
Baxter pulled a black velvet box from his pocket and slid a giant emerald cut ring onto her finger. The stone sparkled on Lauren’s finger. Never in a million years had she envisioned a ring on her finger, but this one felt right.
He stood and hugged her in tightly. “I’m Brock now, baby.” A whoosh of adrenaline coursed through Lauren’s body in response to hearing that name. “Brock, I will marry you.” She smiled and then kissed him. She didn’t know how long they stood in the center of town, amongst the frosty windows of the downtown shops and the freshly cut greenery of the Christmas wreaths that hung from the iron lamp posts and she didn’t care.
“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Brock said. He pulled out a matching velvet box and handed it to Lauren.
“What’s this?”
“I was going to get her a teddy bear, but even I know that she’s too old for that.”
Lauren cried out as she opened the box and saw a matching stone to hers on a simple white gold chain. “I hope that she says yes too.” This time Brock’s eyes were the ones brimming with tears.
Lauren handed the box back to him. “Let’s go get her. Our daughter. And you can ask her yourself.” She slipped her hand into his and he held hers tightly as the two of them walked down Main Street of Chance Rapids, the snow lightly falling around them. “It looks like I need to buy you another sweater,” he whispered in her ear. “I love you, Lauren.”
Nestled into his arm, Lauren didn’t feel anything but warmth. “I love you, Brock.”
Epilogue
SIX MONTHS LATER
“Dad, it looks like snow.” Tabitha lets go of Brock’s hand and ran down Acorn Street with her arms outstretched, the petals from the cherry trees floating lazily in the air around her like a pink-themed snow globe. She ran back to him and stopped to scoop up a handful of the silky pink petals.
