“You fucked up my proposal, Snitch.”
STORY
Before I could say a word, Grayson dropped to his knees with me, pressing his forehead to mine, our child cushioned between us.
“I came here to propose to you, little wife.”
“Did you really?” My smile stretched my cheeks.
He shifted Sonnet and reached into his breast pocket, pulling out something thin and glass-blown.
“It’s a pen. Hand-blown. You have to dip it in ink to draw anything with it. Without ink it’s…unfinished.”
“The ink you gave me,” I said, touching my locket.
“Like the pen and the ink, I don’t work without you, Story Hale. I’ve broken thousands of promises to you. We’ve tied our knot thousands of different ways. Our love will always have a stain. Everyone will always see you as my mistress, as the girl who broke up my marriage. Everyone will always see me as the man who left his pregnant wife.
“I wanted to give you a perfect happily ever after, a perfect love, but you taught me that’s fantasy. What I want most—what I need—is you, us, this. So…will you love me imperfectly ever after? Ugly ever after? Sadly and hatefully and angrily ever after?”
I nodded crazily, my words stuck in my throat.
Too happy to speak.
He gripped my neck. “Say it.”
I exhaled the butterflies in my stomach. “Yes.”
“For real,” Grayson said. “Forever?”
“Forever, Grayson Crowne. For always.” God, that was like a weight off my chest.
Tears fell, and with them a heaviness, an ache, that had built, flowed out of me, and I could breathe. He thumbed my tears, a delicious smile spreading his cheeks, the dimples feathering with it.
“That’s my girl.” Then he kissed me, rough, slow, and with a closed mouth.
I wanted to crush myself against him, but we were careful to keep Sonnet safe.
And somehow that made it even more perfect, because it was another reminder of everything we had.
Our family.
He licked his lips. “From this day on, you don’t leave my side, do you understand? You’re in my bed every night, you’re beside me for breakfast, you’re mine. You’re home.”
“Yes.” It was all I could say as happiness choked my throat. “Yes.”
Home.
This moment finally belonged to me.
My love story was just beginning.
Eighty
THE EPILOGUE
STORY
Grayson Crowne watched me from across the limousine, eyes sultry and half-lidded. Our wedding had ended hours ago.