He kissed her, hard and on the mouth. “I don’t deserve you.”
“If this is going to work, then we have to forgive each other. Which means you do deserve me. You are a wonderful man. A wonderful doctor. A wonderful lover. A wonderful friend.”
“I’d like to be a wonderful husband and father, Emily.”
* * *
Emily couldn’t believe her ears. “You want to get married again?”
He gave a low, nervous laugh. “This isn’t how I had this part planned.”
“What part planned?”
“I came here to convince you that I loved you and wanted us to be together. To talk about your depression and what went wrong between us. I’d hoped with time you’d learn to trust in our love, in us, and then I planned to propose.”
Eyes wide, heart pounding, she stared at him. “You did?”
Smiling, he nodded. “I was going to take you up in the Statue of Liberty, get down on my knee and ask you to be my lady forever.”
“I’m not sure if that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard or the corniest.”
“I did have a plan B if that didn’t work.”
“What was that?”
“I was going to whisk you off to Paris and ask you at the Eiffel Tower. If that didn’t work, I’d come up with a plan C.”
“Seriously?”
He nodded.
“So, really there’s no incentive for me to agree.”
“Only that you’d get to put this back on my finger.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden band.
Emily’s breath caught. “You really want to get married again?”
“I do, and this time I want to do it right.”
“Right?”
“I want you to walk down an aisle to me with our parents and friends there. I want to take you on a honeymoon to wherever you want to go—”
“Even if I said Atlantic City?”
His eyes glimmering, he nodded. “Even if you said Atlantic City.”
“I don’t need fancy weddings or fancy trips, Lucas.”
His smile told her all she needed to know. He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingertips.
“Just fancy orgasms?”
“That and a fancy pediatric neurosurgeon husband. I’ll be the envy of all my coworkers. They think he’s pretty awesome. I agree.”
“You’ll marry me?”
She took his wedding band out of his hand and clasped it tightly in hers, lifting it to her heart. Rather than answering him, she rose from the sofa, went to her bedroom and returned with something she held out to him.