And speaking of kids…
“Gracie, sweetie, what are you doing?” He walked over to where his daughter was playing with bottles of colorful ink on the floor and scooped her up into his arms, loving her laughter. “Are you daddy’s ornery girl? Yes, you are, aren’t you?”
Gracie giggled and squirmed in his arms, trying to push away and return to her newfound toys. And to her, just about everything was a toy. She was at that army-crawling stage and starting to get into everything. One of the best features of their fancy new digs in the suburbs was the huge, fenced-in backyard behind the enormous seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom house. It gave Gracie plenty of room to play and explore, plus all the extra space indoors gave Noah and Serena lots of room to expand their family one of these days. But first…
He put Gracie back down, then crouched beside her. “Okay, now you promised to be a good girl today, since Daddy has something important to ask Mommy, right?”
Gracie mumbled something incoherent while gnawing on the cap of one of the bottles. She was still teething too, and everything went in the kid’s mouth. He pulled a baby wipe from the stash he always kept in his pocket now for emergencies and wiped down all the bottles, making sure all the lids were on securely, before leaving his daughter to it. “Okay, Gracie. Wish Daddy luck.”
His daughter gave an ear-splitting squeal, because there seemed to be only two volume settings right now, loud and silent. Still, he loved her more than he ever thought he could love anything in this world, and he thanked God for her and Serena every day. He still wrote in his journal too. And yep. They’d moved to the top of his daily grateful list.
In truth, they’d always belonged there. It had just taken him nearly losing it all to realize it.
Noah was determined never to make that same mistake again.
After giving his daughter a big kiss on the cheek, he stood and took a deep breath for courage, patting his other pocket where a small velvet box resided.
He made his way back over to the table where Rebel was putting the finishing touches on Serena’s new tattoo. They’d sketched it out together, though she’d made a few last-minute tweaks that he hadn’t seen until today. She was getting a matching angel tattoo on her hip, the same as his except her angel had his face—one of those tweaks he’d not seen before—and held a baby Gracie in its arms. She’d told him when he’d first seen it an hour ago that it represented everything they’d been through the past year and what they’d triumphed over. He couldn’t argue with that. He probably wouldn’t be standing here now if not for Serena and Gracie’s love. He certainly wouldn’t be as happy without them.
He stood beside the table, going over the speech he’d prepared in his head. Man, this was more nerve-wracking than the time he and the guys at SSoF had had to defuse that bomb with just thirty seconds on the clock.
“How’s it look?” Serena asked him. “I can’t see it in the mirror yet.”
“Um, yeah,” he said, distracted. “It looks fine.”
“Fine?” She propped herself up on one elbow. “Sweetie, when a girl gets your face engraved on her ass, the last word she wants to hear describing it is ‘fine’.”
“It’s great. Awesome,” he said, wiping his damp palm on the thigh of his jeans. Damn. He was nervous as hell, which was stupid. He and Serena told each other all the time how much they loved each other. Hell, they’d bought a frigging McMansion together. This step should be easy-peasy. And yet, it wasn’t. Maybe because putting a ring on it made it that much more real.
Right. Time to man up and do it! The voice of his old team leader in the SEALs reverberated through Noah’s head, spurring him into action. Before he could doubt himself again, Noah pulled the ring box out of his pocket and went down on one knee beside the table, facing Serena.
“Sweetheart, I have something I want to ask you,” he said, swallowing hard.
Serena frowned, her gaze darting from the box in his hand to him. “Are you doing what I think you’re doing?”
“If you think I’m asking you to be my wife, then yes.” He raised his chin and opened the box with one hand to reveal the sparkling emerald-cut diamond set in platinum inside. “Serena Carson. I love you more than life itself. I love your intelligence and your strength. I love your beauty and your grace. But most of all, I love your kind heart and your generosity. If you would do me the supreme honor of being my wife I promise to love and cherish you for the rest of my days. I can’t promise they’ll all be perfect or that we won’t argue because, well, it’s us and we will.” He gave an awkward laugh. “But I can promise you that no matter what happens nothing will ever change how much I care for you and Gracie. You two are my everything.”
She blinked at him a moment and everything went still. Even Rebel stopped working, the whirring of his tattoo machine halting as he wheeled his stool back to give them a moment of comparative privacy.
Finally, Serena propped herself up on one elbow again, reaching out a shaking hand to trace her fingertips over the ring, tears welling in her beautiful eyes. “Oh, Noah. I love you too. And I’d love to be your wife!”
Rebel gave a whoop and Gracie squealed again from where she was playing on the floor. Noah’s heart soared as he took the ring out of the box and slid it onto her hand before kissing the woman he loved with all his heart.
When they finally pulled apart, it was to an aggrieved squeak from behind Noah’s shoulder. He turned slightly to see his daughter and frowned. “What is it, sweetie?”
Gracie banged two of the plastic ink bottles together, grinning at him, all baby teeth and drool.
“I should check on her,” he said, giving Serena one more kiss before straightening and rushing over to swoop a laughing Gracie up into his arms. “A dad’s work is never done.”
“Neither is a husband’s,” Serena said, beaming. “Have I told you I love you lately?”
“Not for the last thirty seconds or so,” Noah said, smiling from ear to ear, happier than he could ever remember being in his life, and it was all due to the two women right here in this room. “And I love you too, wife.”
End of Protecting His Kidnapped Family