The love she and Justin shared truly was the most rare and precious thing in the world. So she would fight for it, against any and all odds.
Taylor could barely speak around her tears, but she knew she needed to get the word out. "Yes."
"Yes, my family stuck their noses in where they didn't belong? Or...yes, you'll let me be your donor?"
She let her decision settle down deep inside of her, into all the places that were still afraid, but that she wouldn't let triumph over hope. "I want your kidney, Justin."
"You've just made me the happiest man alive."
"Most guys say that after a wedding proposal," she said in a teasing voice, "not when they've just been told that one of their kidneys is going to be surgically removed from their body."
"I've already got the girl." He ran his thumb over her engagement ring. "Now I know I'm going to get to keep her. And," he added with a grin, "I forgive you now."
She was laughing when the door opened and her mother and father rushed into her room. "Oh, honey!" Her parents hugged her for several long moments. "We've been praying for good news every single second since Justin called."
"Then you're both going to be really happy to hear that Justin is a match. And," Taylor added, knowing she couldn't keep them in even the slightest suspense, "I've decided to go ahead with the transplant."
As her mother pulled her in for another hug, Justin said, "We have one more piece of good news."
"Tell us." Her parents looked as though they hardly dared believe there could be better news than hearing that their daughter would be getting a live kidney transplant.
Justin threaded his fingers through hers before they said, as one voice, "We're engaged."
Her mother's mouth fell open. "Oh my..." She finally looked down to see the rings on their fingers. "After all this time..."
"You've barely started dating," her father began, looking as suspicious of Justin as Taylor knew Justin would one day be with any man who wanted to marry one of their daughters.
"I love your daughter, Mr. Cardenes," Justin said. "I love her with all my heart, and I always have. I know our engagement might seem quick, but--"
"Eight years!" Her mother elbowed her husband. "That's how long they've been friends. And he's giving your daughter a kidney, for Pete's sake! What more could you possibly ask from a future son-in-law?"
But Anthony Cardenes's face remained stern, his gaze unwavering and intense as he stared at Justin.
"Dad." Taylor squeezed her father's hand. "You've taken such good care of me my entire life. Both you and Mom have. And now--"
"Now you want us to let you go," he finished for her.
"No." She shook her head. "I'm always going to be there for you when you need me, just like you've always been there for me. But I hope you can see that I want Justin to be my partner in everything I do from now on." She turned to Justin and smiled. "You're the best partner I've ever had, right from our first bio lab at Stanford."
Taylor's father looked between the two of them, then finally gave a little nod. "I'm afraid I haven't gotten the chance to know you as well as I would like, Justin, but I've always trusted my daughter." His lips curved up ever so slightly at the corners as he held out his hand. "You have my blessing."
Dr. Ishak walked in on the tail end of their handshake. "Oh good, everyone's here. Hello, Caroline, it's nice to see you again." Taylor's mother had come to several appointments in the early weeks after Taylor's diagnosis. "And you must be Taylor's father, Anthony." After they shook hands, the doctor smiled at Justin, then turned to give Taylor her full attention.
"Has Justin given you the news?"
"He has." Taylor still had butterflies in her stomach at what she was agreeing to, but that was no excuse not to be brave. "I've agreed to let him be my live donor."
"I'm very happy to hear you say that, Taylor. In fact, in the hopes that you would, I made a few calls to the transplant center to see about getting the ball rolling."
Taylor's breath caught in her throat at how quickly plans for the transplant were thrown into motion. "How soon do they think they can perform the surgery?"
"Two weeks."
"Thank God." Justin and Taylor's parents all spoke at the same time.
Taylor was still worried about everything that could go wrong. But as Justin pressed a kiss to her forehead, then tucked her in closer to him as her doctor detailed the huge number of tests and preparations that the two of them would be undergoing over the next two weeks to prepare for surgery, she truly did feel like the luckiest woman in the world.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
One week later, Justin woke with Taylor in his arms. She was usually up before him, ready and raring to greet the new day and make breakfast for her guests. This morning, however, he had a chance to hold her and take in her beauty, to marvel that she was his, and to give endless thanks.
Not, of course, that he didn't do that all day long anyway. She constantly caught him gazing at her from across the kitchen or the parlor or the garden, utterly lovestruck, thinking that he was the luckiest guy in the world. He wasn't going to apologize for his behavior, though. On the contrary, he was planning on staring at her like a lovestruck fool for the next fifty years, minimum.
"Are you staring again?" Her teasing words told him she'd likely been awake for a while.
"Can't help myself."
She was grinning when she opened her eyes. "Can you believe we're getting married today?"
His grin mirrored hers. "Best day of my life."
"You keep saying that."
"That's because it's always true."
She wound her arms around his neck and pressed her curves to his. "You know what else is true?"
"What?"
"I ache for you."
"I ache for you too, sweetheart." He covered her mouth with his and ran his hands down her shoulders and back, until they rested at her hips.
He'd been extra careful with her since she'd been released from the hospital, and she'd been careful too. She'd let him take on more responsibilities at the B&B and had also made sure to go to bed early each night so that she didn't get worn down again. Justin had arranged for five months' leave from his lab--his vacation time had added up in a big way over the past five years--and he was perfectly happy to let Grant take on the job of putting together the new lab and team in Napa. One that would be focusing not only on breast cancer research, but also on kidney disease.
Taylor's doctor had suggested they wait a week for her body to heal, and then, if she felt up to it, they could resume being intimate with each other.
Justin didn't need sex to feel close to Taylor. Smiling with her over a private joke or holding her hand already felt deeply intimate. But he couldn't deny that he also wanted her with every fiber of his being.
She rocked her hips against his, a slow and seductive press of heat and softness that made him even more desperate to have her. He wanted nothing more than to give himself up to pleasure--and to give her the release she craved--but he didn't dare do anything that might hurt her.
"We don't have to rush it," he said.
"Oh yes, we do." Putting her hands flat on his chest, she pushed herself up into a straddling position.
Though the sight of her gorgeous naked body made it all but impossible to think straight, he made himself say, "Promise me you're ready. Promise me you feel up to this."
"I'm beyond ready." She looked sexy, and stubborn, and determined as she said, "I agreed to wait one week--and not one second more." When his hips moved against hers entirely of their own volition, her eyes fluttered closed, and she made a happy humming sound in the back of her throat. But when she opened them again, the look on her face was pure emotion. "Before we make vows in front of our family this afternoon, I want to make vows with you in private."
"I want that too." He lifted her hands to his lips, pressing kisses to each of her fingertips, and then her palms, and then her wrists.
When he was done, she lean
ed down so that her hair tickled his skin. "Have I ever told you how much I love kissing you?"
"If it's anywhere near as much as I love kissing you," he replied, their lips barely a breath away, "then I already know."
For so many years, he'd longed to know how soft her lips would be against his. To learn her taste. To hear her sighs of pleasure. In the past weeks, he'd kissed her hundreds of times. But he would never take for granted how incredible it felt when she was in his arms and he could show her just how much he loved her, the way he was now.
Shifting beneath her, he ran his mouth down from her lips to her jaw, then her neck and collarbone, and then to her breasts. She arched into him as he played over her soft skin with his lips, his tongue, and then the slightest scrape of his teeth over the aroused tips. With every kiss he gave her, he could feel her need growing.
With his hands on her hips, he moved her farther up his body, needing nothing more in that moment than to taste her desire--and to know that he was the only one who would ever make her feel this way from now on.