He pulled straight into the garage when he got home, then he looked over at her. “Do we need to buy you a car?”
“No. Mine’s at my apartment. I’ll have to drive it up here when I go back.”
“I’m going with you.”
She laughed. “I’m a big girl, Ryan. I don’t need—”
He gave her a stern look. “I’m not saying you need. I’m saying I want. Unless you don’t want me to go with you? Are you still at the same place?” He winked. “We could recreate history in the elevator?”
“No. I’ve done well for myself. I have a bigger place.”
He nodded and let it go. He didn’t want to think about her life in the years they’d lost. Didn’t want to know where she’d lived or if she’d lived with anyone.
“Will you keep it—your apartment?” Suddenly he needed to know that she didn’t want it, that a life here with him was all she wanted now.
She raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to?”
“Not only no, but hell no!”
She smiled. “Good. But can we go inside now or is there a reason we’re still sitting out here.”
He touched the box in his pocket again. He kept searching for the right moment. But this wasn’t it. He couldn’t get down on one knee while they were still in the truck.
He got out and went around to her door to lift her down. When her feet touched the floor, he dropped a kiss on her lips. “Have I told you today how beautiful you are?”
She laughed. “Only if telling me that you missed my ass counts.”
He hung his head in shame. “I can’t help it. I’ve always loved your ass. And your …” He brought his hands up and held them close to but not touching her breasts “These babies.”
She laughed and swatted his hands away.
Once they were in the kitchen, he put his hands on her hips and pulled her close. “And your hips. I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I love your hips.”
She laughed. “You don’t need to. The way you’re always grabbing them tells me that.”
He held his hands up in a helpless gesture. “Ass, breasts or hips—which would you rather I was grabbing all the time?”
“You might have a point there.”
He turned her around, so he was standing behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Sweeping her hair away from the back of her neck, he nibbled the soft skin there. She sagged back against him and he started walking her through to the living room.
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Do you trust me?”
She looked up over her shoulder and met his gaze. Her eyes were deadly serious when she answered. “I do. With all my heart.”
It made his heart happy that she wanted him to know that she felt that way again. “Thank you.”
He didn’t stop walking until they were standing behind the sofa. She chuckled and wiggled her ass against him when she realized what he was up to. “I should have known.”
He nibbled her ear while he unfastened her blouse. “You should.”
She turned around with a smile and started to unbutton his shirt. Once they were both standing there in their underwear, he cupped her face between his hands and kissed her.
When he stepped back, she started to turn around, but he caught her shoulder.
“Not yet, Lee.”
She gave him a puzzled look.
“I thought I had to recreate the moment. But I don’t. It’s different now. We’re different now. Older, wiser. Part of me wonders if it would be wiser to wait, but I don’t want to.”
“What are you …oh.” Her hand came up to cover her mouth when he got down on one knee.
He didn’t let go of her other hand and brought it up to his lips to kiss it. “The first time I did this, I said that we both knew it would be a wild ride. But neither of us knew it would go the way it went.”
She nodded. Her eyes were filled with tears. He could only hope they were happy ones.
“Perhaps I should have waited to ask you again, but I don’t want to waste another minute of our lives. It was always you, Lee. It’s always going to be you. I want you to be my wife. I want to be your husband. I want to wake up next to you every day for the rest of our lives.”
He had to swallow around a lump in his throat.
“I want to make you feel safe again. I want to be the one you turn to. I want you by my side and I want you to feel that’s where you belong.”
The tears were rolling down her face now.
He held up the little box and flipped it open.
Her eyes widened. “Is that? Is it …?”
He nodded. “I told you the first time I gave it to you that it was my way of letting you know that I was all in—forever. That I wanted you and I wanted us—forever. That it meant that I loved you and that you could trust me—forever. Things didn’t exactly go the way we planned. But it’s all still true. Even when you hated me. Even when I was so angry with you, I could never make myself get rid of it. I guess I never wanted to give up on our forever.”
He had to wipe his eyes. “Sorry, babes. I’m talking too much. All I really want to say is, will you marry me?”
~ ~ ~
Leanne looked down at him. Ryan, the man who’d stolen her heart almost ten years ago and despite all her claims to hate him, had never given it back.
She nodded as she got down on her knees to face him. “Yes.” Tears were streaming down her face. “Yes. I’ll marry you. Yes. I want you forever; I’ll love you forever.” She smiled through the tears. “And you can bet your ass that from now on I’ll trust you forever.”
He chuckled. “I won’t ever take it for granted.” He slid the ring onto her finger and held it up to catch the light.
“Do you remember, our very first time I asked you who you were, Leanne Miller?”
She nodded. “I told you I was whoever you wanted to see me as.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m telling you now. I want to see you as my wife, my best friend, the love of my life.”
“Aww.” She cupped his face between her hands and kissed him. “See, you are a romantic, really.”
He chuckled. “Nah. I’m just building up to the next part.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“That I don’t want to see you as Leanne Miller anymore.”
She didn’t get it. “What do you mean?”
He touched the ring. “That I’m hoping that might make you Leanne Brady.”
“Oh!” She hadn’t even considered that. “I, err, I don’t know …”
She met his gaze and he laughed. “It’s important to me, Lee. It makes us family. I want to be the family that you didn’t have.”
She was still trying to figure out how she felt.
He held his fists up like a boxer. “I’m prepared to fight for it.”