His chuckle rumbled in her ear, against her back. "Still not quite there, am I, hon?"
"You're getting closer."
He turned her sideways. Streetlamps and the moon cast mellow beams across his face as he stared down into her eyes. "Close isn't good enough. It has to be right. You said so yourself, and you're the smartest woman I've ever met."
If she'd been smarter, she could have saved them both so much heartache by figuring it out the first go-round. But then they never would have met Magda, the precious child who had brought them back together.
"Please come with me. I know your job's important, so I checked. There's a northwest branch of the NGO in Tacoma." He cradled Lori to his chest. "I can't do anything about the Air Force right now. I owe them—"
"Gray, I understand—"
"No." He gave her a gentle squeeze. "Listen. I owe them four more years for financing part of med school." His chest rose and fell deeply behind her. "But when my time's up, if this isn't working for you, I'll get out."
Lori twisted to see him, hope blossoming into full bloom. "You would do that? For me?"
She would do that for him, but hadn't expected he would do the same for her.
He answered without hesitation. "Yes. You mean more to me than anything else. I can't lose you again."
Peace settled within her as she leaned back against the man who'd given her the only thing she'd ever truly wanted. His whole heart. Of course she couldn't let him give up the military, but she'd needed to hear his willingness to do it for her all the same.
"Thank you, Gray, but I could never ask you to do that." She heard herself echoing Angela's words, finally understanding a depth of love she'd never felt before. "It's too much a part of who you are. A man I love so very much."
He clasped her braid, wrapped its length around his arm and cupped her head close to his thudding heart. "Thank you. But know the offer stands."
Lori nodded against his chest, savoring a whiff of bay rum and the scratch of starch against her cheek. She'd tried so hard to make things work between them. Finally she realized what she had to do to earn Gray's love.
Nothing.
It was already hers, but she'd been too blinded by insecurities to see it. Love wasn't like a house or piece of land to be bought, but had to be freely given—and received.
She'd wanted Gray to fit her cookie-cutter image of what a husband should be, down to dictating the way he should propose, and hadn't recognized the gift of his unique love.
Something she intended to change.
Lori relaxed into the warm security of his chest, her head nestled under his chin. "Marry me."
The muscles cording his chest contracted against her. "What?"
They had never held back with words before, and she didn't intend to start now. "Will you marry me?"
"Wait!" He gripped her shoulders, turning her to face him. "I'm supposed to say that. I've been practicing all day."
"You have?"
A slow smile spread over his face, stirring a shiver so like the first time he'd cast his best bad-boy grin her way.
"Oh, yeah, hon, because I am not going to mess it up again." He shoved to his feet, his arm extended for her.
Lori laced her fingers with his and stood. "Okay, flyboy, give it your best shot."
Their hands clasped between them, Gray looked into her eyes. "Please be my wife. Let me be Magda's father. Let me give you more babies so we can grow old together and watch their babies grow. Lori, honey, I love you like crazy and if you don't answer soon I'm gonna die here. What do you say?"udge fingered her brass-tipped gavel as her gaze homed in on Gray and Magda. "What exactly is your relationship with Magda that you've spent so much time with her since the airlift operation?"
"I love her." He smoothed a hand over her cap of tousled curls, the small child cradled to his uniformed chest "Just as much as I love Lori, her mother."
Lori grabbed the edge of the table. He couldn't have said what she thought, and if he did, had he meant it? Or was this just another attempt to help her win Magda, give her a child?
Either way, the beauty of his words blossomed into a joy and hope within her far more beautiful than any bed of pansies.