Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Four
“ Y ou’re sure this is the one?” Gabriel glanced around the campus again, the stately buildings and the trees that ruffled in the warm breeze. It was the third campus they’d toured in as many weeks but this time her face didn’t have the faint wrinkle of dissatisfaction.
“It’s got everything I need,” she mused, her hand flat against her stomach as she followed his gaze with her own. “Well, they all did, I suppose but this one feels …”
“It feels like home,” he finished. She’d done a summer internship with Amy, soaking up all the knowledge she could, but she’d applied to several law schools and many of them had been out of state. They were good schools, and her acceptances were impressive, but they were far from her friends and her family, and he knew that wasn’t what she needed right now. They would still have to move, but she’d only be a few hours away. Close enough for her to visit them often. Close enough for them to come and visit her when the baby was born.
“Exactly.” Tears misted her eyes and she shrugged helplessly, a confused laugh spilling from her lips. “I’m so emotional about everything lately.”
“You’re entitled.” He grinned and pulled her into his arms. “If this is what you want, then this is where we’ll go.”
“There’s a lovely little house for sale, not far from here.” Her smile was wide, unrepentant as she lifted up on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips. “It has the perfect room for a nursery.”
“Does it?” He tugged gently on the ends of her hair, rubbing the silken texture between his fingers. “I see you’ve got it all planned out.”
“I wanted to look at all my options, but I think I knew this was the right place.”
“And you’re happy? About everything?” He had to be sure. There was no room for doubt or uncertainty now, not when he’d given everything he had to making sure she had all the good things she deserved.
“So happy,” she confirmed. “And it’s not just this—though I’m thrilled about school and the baby—it’s everything. You’re doing so well now. Your relationship with your mother and the progress you’ve made with the nonprofit. The interviews you’re doing to bring awareness to what happened to you and all the ways the system failed you.”
“I know she had to talk me into that last one, but she was right.” It was frustrating how often Lilah had already been right about the nonprofit, but she had spent a lifetime learning to manipulate the press and she’d insisted that they use that knowledge to their advantage. “It’s drawn a lot of attention to what we’re doing and helped us get things off the ground.”
“It doesn’t hurt that it lets you tell your own story this time, instead of the warped version the press concocted back then.”
“About that …” He puffed out his cheeks and huffed an embarrassed breath. “She thinks I should write a book.”
“You should.” There was no hesitation in her voice, no worry in the delicate lines of her face. “I always believed God helped us find each other for a reason and I still believe that. We are meant to help people, and this is how you’re going to do that.”
“It might help—I think the part of the idea is publicizing what I know about Seth Wiseman and hoping that it encourages other victims to come forward since the statute of limitations has passed for me now—but it would mean less privacy for us.”
“Maybe a little.” She nibbled her lip and considered it. “I know you’re worried and I don’t blame you. Your parents didn’t do such a good job with you—parading you in front of cameras for your mother’s campaigns and spending so much time worried about their ambitions that they forgot about you—and maybe you’re afraid we’ll go down the same road.”
“How do you know we won’t?”
“I guess I just have faith.”
“That’s all we’ve ever had, and it’s worked out pretty good for us so far.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, his heart racing. “Listen, Mia—”
“I’m proud of you,” she said. “Proud of us and everything we’ve accomplished.”
He laughed, heart fuller than he’d ever imagined possible. All the years of loneliness, all the pain, and his failures. Everything he’d done and all the ways he’d let people down and she was proud of him. “You’re the one that pulled us through,” he assured her. “Look at what you’ve done, at everything you’ve achieved.”
She beamed at him, fresh tears on her lashes as she sniffled.
“I thought there would be a better time for this,” he fumbled in his pocket, his fingers closing on a small black box, “but this seems like the right moment.”
“Gabriel—”
“Please, let me finish.” He flipped open the lid and held it up for her to see the ring inside, the shadows dancing over the cut angles of the sapphire set in platinum. It was classic, timeless, and had been the only ring in the store he could imagine on her finger. “Everything we’ve become is because of you. You’ve made me a better man. You’re making me a father. You’ve given me love and a reason to live.”
He placed a kiss on each corner of her mouth, soft and gentle as he wiped away the tears on her cheek with his thumb.
“I can’t imagine spending a single day of my life without you,” he continued. “I wanted to do this when I was a whole man, one you could depend on, and I think … I think I’m finally that man.”
“I’ve always been able to depend on you,” she said fiercely. “You were always the only one, the only man that mattered.”
“I love you, Mia.” He pulled the ring from its velvet bed, once again painfully conscious that his future hung on a single moment, a single decision. He’d come up lucky since the moment she’d started to push her way into his life, and he just needed that luck to hold a little longer. “Will you marry me?”
She laughed and threw her arms around him, pulling him close to rain kisses over his face. “I love you,” she said, repeating it again and again and punctuating each word with another frenzied kiss.
“Sweetheart,” he pulled her away, his own laugh rising to meet hers as she struggled against letting go of him. “Is that a yes?”
“Oh!” Her eyes went wide, caught between horror and amusement when she realized she’d forgotten to give him an answer. “Yes! Absolutely and with my whole heart.”
He swept her off her feet, ignoring the stares as he spun her around, both of them laughing wildly until he set her back on her feet and slid the ring onto her finger. When he kissed her, he kissed like a man who truly believed they had forever, and he didn’t need to rush.