“No!” Doctor Abara pointed at me, wagging his finger. “No! Leave that man alone, Noah!”
It hurt like hell, but I laughed.
“Stop,” Elliot warned as I groaned in pain. “Stop it right now.”
I closed my eyes and sighed.
“I’m sorry.” I opened my eyes and looked at the doctor. “I’m not allowed to frolic with him . . . I remember.”
“Uh-huh.” Doctor Abara approached me. “You cause nothing but trouble when you’re in my hospital.”
“Sorry.” I smiled softly. “But at least this time I remember you . . . that’s an upgrade from before, right? No new prime minister for me.”
Doctor Abara’s lips twitched. “I’m going to get your parents, then I’m going to do an examination on you, and then we’re all going to have a big talk about how this time there will be strict rules concerning your recovery. Strict.”
He left the room and my eyes darted to Elliot.
“Kiss me quickly before he bans it during my recovery.”
Elliot smiled as he moved to my side, and he bent down and kissed me gently.
“Can I ask ye a question?”
“Is it more important than kissing me?”
“Right now?” He raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”
I sighed. “Shoot.”
Elliot reached out and brushed hair out of my face.
“Will ye marry me, sasanach?”
I stared at him, then looked down at his hand, which had two silver bands on his ring finger. With my lips parted in shock, I felt like I was choking on air. He removed one of the rings and held it out to me.
“I wanna marry ye,” he breathed. “I know what it’s like to not have you in me life, and how much it hurt. Not havin’ ye in me life scared me more than anythin’ else in this world. I want ye in every single way, sasanach. Marry me. Be my person for life.”
“Yes,” I said, trembling. “Yes, yes, I’ll marry you!”
With a beaming smile, Elliot slid the band on to my left ring finger, and then I took his face in my hands and kissed him until a throat was cleared.
“This is exactly what I’m talking about.” Doctor Abara’s voice carried loud and clear. “She just doesn’t listen.”
“I’ll make her listen,” my dad’s amused, and very relieved, voice answered.
I opened my eyes and looked at Elliot’s ocean blues as they gazed into my eyes.
“That was some kiss, Elliot McKenna.”
“Ah.” He grinned, rubbing his nose against mine. “That’s because you’re some woman, Noah Ainsley.”
I kissed him again, and smiled when Elliot jumped away laughing as Doctor Abara held up my patient chart like a weapon that he was going to whack Elliot with. I closed my eyes and relaxed. I was in pain both physically and emotionally. Bailey’s death was very fresh in my mind – and heart – and I knew the time to come would be a test for me. I was going to have to adapt and overcome many things. I had to somehow move on from a dark past that was filled with pain because of Anderson; I had to come to terms with the fact that the blank spots in my memory may never return. I had to move forward. But I knew I could do it all because I would have Elliot by my side.
We were going to do things in our new way . . . we would take it day by day.
EPILOGUE
NOAH
Five years later . . .
Rumbling laughter followed by light-hearted giggles – that was the first thing I heard as I entered my home after a long day at work. I’d been hired to provide flowers and arrangements for the funeral of an old man who had passed away a couple days prior, and the orders from his family and friends had me, my mum and two of my other employees rushed off our feet. I’d never had a day like it since I opened Bailey’s Lily Patch two years ago.
I was certain my feet were numb from the pain.
“Do I hear something?” I said out loud as I removed my jacket and hung it up on its peg. “Huh. I was sure I heard something, I must’ve imagined it.”
I turned, set my bag down on the floor, then tossed my keys on to the side table just as shouts sounded from behind me. I was expecting to be surprised, but the volume of the shouts frightened me out of my skin. I didn’t have to fake it when I screamed, I bloody well near shit myself. I spun around with my hand on my chest and found the culprits. Both of them were on the floor and laughing so hard they couldn’t speak.
“That wasn’t funny!” I admonished. “If I have grey hairs, it’s because of you two!”
“Aw, Mummy,” my almost-four-year-old son said as he got to his feet. “You should have seen your face! It was like this.”