“I need to make a statement,” he murmured at Julian, who seemed to be amused by the fact that Garrett had gotten himself in this mess in the first place.
“Statement. You mean like ‘I’m a jerk and I had to make up for it with a big rock’?”
“Go to hell.”
“Tsk, more respect, old man. You’re marrying my fiancée’s sister.”
“If she’ll have me,” he grumbled.
“A little drastic of you to do this just so she doesn’t move to Florida, don’t you think?”
Garrett snorted.
He just wouldn’t let her leave.
For years, he had seen that need in her, calling to him like a siren song. He had needed to summon more self-control every year not to cave in. He had prayed she would one day realize she was too good for him and move on. Now, he needed to prove to her the opposite. He needed to remind her what that night had meant to him, how it could have been between them all along if two deaths and a lot of regret hadn’t stood between them.
He freaking loved her, too. More than anything or anyone.
He wasn’t letting her go.
He was ready to chase her to Florida if he needed to.
He held the ring between his fingers and watched it catch the light. The man at the store said it was guaranteed to make a statement, and when Garrett had said, “Guaranteed to make her say yes?” he’d nodded amiably. If only the man knew half of it. That she could be pregnant with his child.
His stomach roiled once more at the thought, and he snapped the velvet Tiffany box closed.
If she wasn’t pregnant, he couldn’t wait for her to be.
She wanted a family. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted one, too, until now.
He imagined being a father in eight months.
She didn’t seem to want to consider the possibility, but he did. Hell, he even hoped she was pregnant. Because she’d have to take me no matter what.
It had been years since he’d had a father. Kate herself probably no longer remembered what her father had smelled like, felt like. Garrett barely remembered his own. But he could remember how good it had felt to have him around, and he burned with the desire to be one himself. Protective and just, but he wanted something their fathers hadn’t given them.
He’d once thought he’d never marry. For Kate was out of his reach.
Now he would marry no one else. And he wanted a litter of little kids for them. Girls and boys.
He would bond with his boys over cars and planes, money and business....
As for girls, a picture of a red-haired little girl like Kate popped into his mind, and his toes almost curled with the love he already felt for that little thing he’d pamper like a princess.
Then he thought of Kate when she was young, the age when her father died. His chest constricted at the reminder. Garrett still dreamed about that night, and woke up drenched in sweat, hearing the sounds of gunshots. Sometimes in his dreams they were shooting at Kate and Molly. Sometimes at his brothers. And the worst part was that Garrett survived every time.
And somehow it was always Garrett’s fault.
Would he never do things right? Would his actions always hurt the people he cared about?
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He breathed out through his nose as he shoved the ring box into his suit pocket. It wasn’t time yet. But it would be. And once he put that ring on her finger, it would never be undone. She would be his.
And he’d spend his life making things right for her. For them both.
Ten