“Cooper?”
He had to swallow twice in order to clear his throat. “I should...I should be on my knees for this.” He tried to climb out of the hospital bed.
Since he was still weak, he pretty much did fall to his knees.
Gabrielle grabbed him and staggered beneath his weight. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to...” He made it. His knees touched down. “Trying to ask you about our partnership. I told you, I want one...that lasts forever.” He lifted the ring toward her.
Her lips were parted. He waited for her to speak. Gabrielle always had plenty to say.
Only she wasn’t speaking at that moment.
And she was scaring him.
The man who’d never known fear was about to shake again.
“Gabrielle?” Cooper prompted.
She blinked. “Y-you were just shot.”
Cooper nodded.
“You’ve been unconscious for forty-eight hours.”
He didn’t know how long he’d been out. Cooper didn’t think it mattered.
“You wake up, and the first thing you do...” She swiped her hand over her cheek. Oh, wait, was she crying? He’d so messed up the proposal. “The first thing you do is ask me to marry you?”
Again, he nodded. “I love you.”
Her arms flew around his neck. “Forever,” she whispered in his ear.
He curled his arm around her. The IV jerked loose. So what? The pain means I’m alive—alive with the woman I love. “Forever,” he told her.
She kissed him.
He hoped that kiss meant yes.
Gabrielle slowly lifted her mouth from his. “I’ll take that new partnership.” She also took the ring. He helped slide it onto her ring finger. The diamonds gleamed.
A part of his past.
He looked into her eyes.
His future.
For a man who’d never looked beyond the next mission, life had sure changed. Because in that moment, when he gazed into Gabrielle’s eyes, Cooper saw every dream he’d ever had.
Love.
A family.
A real home.
Every single thing he wanted—it was right there.
He was going to grab tight to those dreams. No one—nothing—would ever take them away.