“Mitchell, this is the last thing I ever expected!”
Drawing back, I wiped her tears from her face. “It’s not too soon?”
She shook her head and her bottom lip trembled. “No. Not for me.”
She looked down at the ring and gasped. I took it out and slipped it onto her finger while she stared at it.
“It was my grandmother’s ring. She loved emeralds. My grandfather had this ring made for her. The halo of diamonds around it was to represent his unending love for her. She didn’t like yellow gold, so he had it made in platinum. To represent the strength of their love.”
“Oh Mitchell, that is so beautiful.”
Grinning, I nodded. “My grandmother never took it off. She told me once when she would get upset or need clarity, she’d stare at her ring. The emerald would calm her…clear her vision.”
Corina held the ring up and gazed at it. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
My smile grew bigger. “I’m glad you like it.”
Her eyes snapped to mine. “Like it? Mitchell, I love it and will treasure it for the rest of my days. You will never know how much it means that you gave me your grandmother’s ring.”
I pushed a piece of hair behind her ear. “Someday you can pass it down to one of our grandchildren.”
Her eyes filled with tears again. When I placed my hand on the side of her cheek, she leaned into it. “I have something I need to tell you, dove.”
Her grin faded some.
“It’s nothing bad, I swear,” I added with a lighthearted chuckle.
“Okay, what is it?”
I wasn’t sure how she was going to feel about this. Would she think I was insane? Maybe she would think it was too soon. It didn’t matter—I wanted to be honest with her and I knew she would want that too.
“I want to have a baby.”
Her mouth parted and she sucked in a breath. “W-what?”
“A baby. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I mean…I want to start a family.”
Corina sat onto the ground and stared at me like I had lost my damn mind.
Fuck. Maybe I had. We’d only been together since August, and we’d had a pregnancy scare the first week we were officially dating. It was only the beginning of October and I’d just asked her to marry me and have my baby.
Yep. I had lost my mind. But I knew this was what I wanted and prayed it was what she wanted too.
Corina stared at nothing, like she was trying to process everything that just happened in the last two minutes.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I sat on the floor in front of her.
“Mitch, did you hear what you just said?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“You want to have a baby?”
“I do. Very much so.”
“Before we get married?”
I shrugged. “I don’t care. If you want to run off like Amelia and Wade did, I’m game. If you want to have the biggest wedding known to man, I’m down for that too. I don’t care how we do this, I just know I want all of it. With you.”
She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before focusing on me. “What about getting to know each other? Spending time together?”
“I know I love you. I know we started this relationship in a crazy-ass way, so why not keep up with it?”
Her hand went to her stomach. When I saw her beautiful blue eyes glass over, my heart about pounded out of my chest. I could see her answer in her eyes. It felt like I could look into them and read her soul.
Dropping her hand, she laughed. “Yes!”
Narrowing my eyes, I asked, “Yes to the marriage? Because you already said yes to that…or yes to a baby?”
She took my hands in hers. “Yes to a baby! Oh my God! Are we really going to do this?”
I smiled so big my cheeks hurt. “Only if you really want to.”
“Do you? I mean, Mitchell, this is such a one-eighty for you. You’re sure that you’re not just caught in the moment of all this magic? Maybe it’s the cold weather. It’s gone to your head!”
I pulled her into my lap. “I’m positive. I want to marry you, and more than anything I want to watch your stomach grow with our child. I love you, Corina, and I don’t want to wait another second to start this life with you.”
“A baby? We’re going to try for a baby?”
Placing my finger on her chin, I grinned. “I say we start practicing now.”
Her teeth sank into her lip. “Practice makes perfect.”
Corina and I spent the rest of the morning making love as the snow fell quietly all around us. I’d never been so content in my entire life.
There was no way life could get better than this.
We raced into the hotel and shook the snow off.