Legend (Arizona Vengeance 3)

“Brooke,” he begins as he drops to one knee. A few women in the room give an audible sigh. “I gave you this ring once and you gave it back to me once our fake engagement came to an end.”

I look up at Legend, and he’s grinning at the couple. One night in bed, Legend had told me all about Brooke and Bishop’s fake engagement because they got busted fooling around and the coach—her father—caught them. Brooke told an immediate—and really bad—lie, claiming they were engaged. At some point, Legend had told me, Bishop’s widowed mom found out what was happening and got in on the charade, loaning her own engagement ring for Bishop to use.

Brooke’s hand is covering her mouth and her eyes are shining with tears. Bishop takes her other hand in his, resting the ring box on his knee as he continues. “But now…with my mother’s and your father’s full blessings…I’d like to give it back to you. There’s no ruse this time. Nothing phony. My love for you is as real as it gets. And if there’s anyone out there that would look at us and say, this is too soon, I would tell them…they don’t know what’s between us. Only you and I do, and because I know you so well, and because I know you love me, I know you’re going to say yes. So can I put this ring back on your finger, where it will stay, and then we can start planning our wedding?”

Brooke is nodding before Bishop stops talking, her hand dropping from her mouth to cover her heart. Bishop opens the ring box and pulls out a gold ring with a marquise diamond. It’s beautiful from what I can see, and while I bet Bishop could afford way bigger, the fact that it’s his mother’s ring tells me that he couldn’t do better.

Even though Brooke has worn that ring before, she holds it up before her face while tears slip down her cheeks and looks at it as if it’s the most precious thing in the world.

Bishop stands up and then someone yells out, “Ten” and it takes a moment for us all to understand. Heads turn to the TV and we see the countdown to midnight has begun.

“Nine, eight…” the crowd starts to chant.

I whip back around to Bishop and Brooke, and I find that they’re kissing with their arms wrapped around each other so I take that to mean she said yes and that they don’t give a damn about New Years.

Legend’s free hand slips into mine.

“Five, four…”

We look at each other as the crowd chants, “Three, two, one.”

Screams of “Happy New Year” reverberate around the room and people throw confetti and blow horns.

I tune it all out as Legend dips his face closer to mine and murmurs, “Happy New Year, Pepper.”

“Happy New Year,” I tell him back, just before he kisses me.

Slow, sweet, and full of wonder at what the new year has in store for both of us.Chapter 15LegendI tiptoe quietly down the stairs and find Lucy in the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher. She had stayed the night in one of the guest bedrooms while Pepper and I celebrated New Year’s at Erik’s house.

Last night was pretty awesome, hanging with Pepper. I found that the easy friendship that we had developed since Charlie landed on my doorstep didn’t waiver once we were put into a purely social situation as a couple. It was our first date together since Charlie came into my life, and I certainly anticipate asking Lucy to babysit on more nights in the future so we can go out.

“You don’t have to do that,” I whisper so my voice doesn’t carry up the stairs. I’m not worried about waking Charlie up. I just fed her half an hour ago and she’s sleeping hard again. In fact, I make it a point not to whisper around my daughter when she’s sleeping because I don’t want her to be sensitive to sounds when she’s in slumber. I think I read that in a book somewhere.

But I don’t want to wake Pepper up. After we got home last night, we didn’t exactly go straight to sleep.

This morning I woke up early as usual and felt refreshed. I considered waking Pepper up, but that didn’t last long when I heard Charlie starting to make sounds on the baby monitor. So I spent a fantastic hour early this morning just hanging out in the nursery. I fed my daughter, changed her, rocked her in a chair and sang songs to her. I then started teaching her about hockey, because you can never start your education too soon.

When Charlie went back to sleep—just as I was trying to explain what offsides meant—I once again considered waking Pepper up. I even crept up to the bed and watched her like a creeper while she slept. She’s totally comfortable in her nudity and doesn’t get dressed after we fuck. She’s got no problem snuggling in and going to sleep, even as my cum leaks out of her. I fucking find that hot and so we sleep naked.