“You’re so dramatic.” I laughed.
“Is that a yes then?” he asked right as a nurse came into the room.
“Ah, the famous Lola Martin is finally awake.”
Brody pulled back, but he didn’t glance away from me. I wanted to stare into his eyes all day long and never look away, but the nurse pushing in front of him broke my connection.
“Let’s get this blood pressure tested, huh?” Her kind smile put me at ease as she pulled out a cuff to wrap around my arm.
“Is the baby okay?” I asked her.
“Yes.” She glanced down at the monitor when it beeped with my blood pressure results. “The doctor will be around in a little while, but baby is doing great, and by the looks of things, so is Mom.” She wrote something down on a clipboard. “The bullet was removed from your thigh, and with any luck, we’ll have you up and walking around like normal within six weeks.”
I swallowed, already trying to calculate how much time I’d need to take off work and how far along I’d be. “Okay,” I said. “And when can I get out of here?”
She looked back at me, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “I’d say a day or two. There’s only so much distraction the nurses can take from the men who refuse to leave the waiting room.”
“What—”
“The guys won’t leave,” Brody said as the nurse pushed the clipboard in its holder on the side of the bed. “And Sal has been wreaking havoc.” He scrubbed his hand down his face and glanced at the nurse. “Can I tell them they can come in now that she’s awake?”
The nurse rolled her eyes. “Fine. But you tell them to keep it down. It’s like having a bunch of teenage boys on my ward.”
; “Will do,” Brody replied and took a step toward the door after her.
“Wait,” I called, reaching my hand out. He frowned at me and hesitated. “I…” I worried my bottom lip, my stomach bottoming out. “Yes.”
“Yes?” Brody repeated, moving toward me and taking my hand. “What do you mean?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
His breath whooshed out of him and flowed over my skin, causing goose bumps to prickle. “You will?”
“Yeah, Brody.” I tried to lift up but groaned when my leg throbbed. He leaned down, stopping a few centimeters from my face. “I’ll spend the rest of my life with you as your wife.”
His lips slowly morphed into a grin. “Hell yeah, you will.” And then he kissed me, the kind of kiss that only he could give me.
Epilogue
LOLA
I pressed the tissue to the corner of my eye, trying to stem the flow of tears that threatened to escape. Only this time, they were happy tears. The kind of tears you didn’t mind crying in front of the people you considered your family.
They called out Ford’s name at the same time Brody wrapped his arm around my waist, his other hand pressing against my once again swollen stomach. His fingers spread out, and a thrill ran through me at seeing the wedding ring on his ring finger.
“How you feeling?” his deep voice asked in my ear.
“Happy,” I told him. And it was the truth. One word could sum up the last four years of my life. Since the moment we left the hospital, things had gone from good to great. Brody didn’t want to wait to “put a ring on it”—his words, not mine. So we were married within a week, our closest friends attending the small ceremony.
Sal had walked me down the aisle, and Cade had been Brody’s best man. Things had been perfect. And then came Princess Belle—little baby Belle, who had made an entrance into this world after thirty-two hours of hard labor. She’d caused a dramatic appearance, and nothing had changed since.
The man on the stage pinned a badge to Ford’s chest, announcing him a new member of the DEA, and cheers rang out. He’d worked his ass off to get to where he was, and finally, he was coming home. A home we’d created.
People milled around as the chairs were packed away, a small party ensuing after the ceremony.
“I told you that you could see everything from up there, PB,” Cade’s deep voice announced as he sidled up next to us with Belle on his shoulders. She gripped on to his light-brown hair, messing up his mussed style.