Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Blaze stood over his brother’s grave. Tentatively, he reached out and fingered the letters on the tombstone.
Axel Reynolds Wright.
Loving husband, father, brother, and son.
A true hero and a friend to all.
“I miss you, brother,” Blaze whispered. “A lot has happened since I was last here. You’d be so proud of your boys. They’re growing like weeds and so much like us when we were kids. Respectful and yet total pains in the ass. Brenda’s doing well. It’s a struggle for her sometimes. I promise I’ll come around as often as I can. I work search and rescue in Fallport, Virginia, with Brock. It’s a great gig, although I haven’t been able to really do anything but sit in the office. Oh, and I’m starting a handyman business.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, fingering the ring. “You’re not going to believe this one. About two months ago, I ran into Pandora. Yeah. Totally random, if you can believe that. Anyway, we’re back together. It took me getting shot in the chest and nearly dying, but I love her.” He laughed. “Of course, you’ve always known that. Anyway, I bought a ring and everything. I’ve mentioned marriage and kids to her a few times. She always thinks I’m joking. I’m not. It seems soon. Only, with us, it’s like we’ve waited a lifetime for this. Hopefully, she won’t say no. So, wish me luck.” Blaze pulled his hands out of his pockets and tapped his knuckles on the hard stone. “Not the most romantic place to do this, but I wanted you, and your family, here for it.” He turned and waved to Pandora, Brenda, and the two boys. “Come here.”
Little Blaze and Marvin took off running like a bat out of hell. They loved to come visit their dad, and they did so every week. To them, it was like coming to church or going for a weekly family picnic. They had grown up as military brats. Lived on three different bases. Dealt with their friends’ fathers and mothers dying in the line of duty until the day the chaplain came to their door.
It had been a way of life for them.
Many found that sad.
But those boys wore it with honor.
“Did you have a nice chat with Daddy?” Little Blaze glanced up at his uncle.
Blaze ruffled his hair. “I sure did.”
“Can we go to the go-cart place now, Uncle Blaze?” Marvin asked. “You promised.”
“In a minute. I have something I need to do first.” Blaze took Pandora’s hand and kissed it.
“Are you going to get all mushy again?” Little Blaze rolled his eyes.
“All you two do is kiss. It’s gross,” Marvin said.
“Really? This coming from the boy who thinks he’s old enough to have a girlfriend.” Brenda folded her arms.
“But I don’t put my tongue in her mouth. That’s literally disgusting.” Marvin shivered.
“Hopefully, disgusting will happen shortly, so in about five minutes, you boys might want to close your eyes.” Blaze reached into his pocket.
“Oh my.” Brenda looped her arms around her boys. “I can’t believe you’re doing this?—”
“Be quiet.” Blaze blew out a puff of air.
“Doing what?” Pandora stared at him with wide questioning eyes.
“That thing you always believe is a joke,” he said. “But I’ve always been serious about it. I love you. With my whole heart. My entire soul. And with my family present, ready to make fun of me, I’m asking you if you’ll marry me.” With a shaky hand, he slipped the ring on her finger.
Pandora held it up toward the sun. She glanced between it, him, Brenda and the boys, then back at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be on one knee?”
He arched a brow. “Seriously. Is that what you want?” He sighed. “Okay.” He began to lower himself.
“Oh my God. Stop. I was kidding.” She grabbed his shoulders. “Of all the insane things, that is one gesture I don’t need. All I need is you.”
“Is that a yes?” He gripped her hips, pulling her closer.
She nodded, pressing her lips against his cheek. “One thing, though. I don’t want to wait. I want to get married as soon as possible.”
“We can get married as soon as we get a marriage license. Which we can do the second we get back to Virginia.” He turned his head. “Boys, it might be time to close?—”
She covered his mouth. “Don’t you want to know why I want a quickie wedding?”
“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Brenda said with a short chuckle. “I can’t wait to see his expression for this one.”
Pandora tilted her head. “Have you always been able to read between the lines like that?”
Brenda nodded. “Drove Axel nuts.”
“What are you two women talking about?” All Blaze wanted to do was plant a wet one on his fiancée’s lips.
Damn, that had a nice ring to it.
It was going to sound even better when he got to call her his wife.
“This might get awkward with little ears,” Pandora said. “I hadn’t planned on saying this here.”
“Boys, go down to the car. We’ll be right there.” Brenda gave them a good shove.
They scoffed for a second, then took off running.
“Go ahead.” Brenda smiled. “And don’t ask me to leave because I’m not going to. This is going to be classic.”
Blaze slapped his hands on his thighs. “I feel like my proposal was kind of ruined here. Someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Pandora palmed his cheek. “It was a beautiful way to ask me to marry you. I loved that it was here. But I feel like I owe you an explanation about how this happened.”
“Babe, I’m so lost.”
“When you were in the hospital, I never went home. Not until after you woke up. People would try to make me, but I couldn’t. I’d pretend to leave, but I didn’t.”
“What does this have to do with us getting married as soon as possible?”
“During those first five days, I never took my birth control pills, and then you decided we should get frisky the first chance you got right there in the hospital.” She cocked her head. “You know what happens when a woman doesn’t take birth control and they have unprotected sex?”
It took about three seconds for that concept to smack his brain like a grenade going off in his skull.
A baby.
He was going to be a father.
Well, holy fuck.
He cupped Pandora’s face and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. It was wild. Passionate. Loving. All the things that went into a kiss that told a woman there would never be anyone else. That she was the only one who mattered. Well, her and the little person they had created.
“That was not the reaction I expected,” Brenda said. “I’d been hoping for shock. Maybe tripping over his feet. Falling on his face. But not that. I’ll be at the car with the boys.”
He dropped his forehead to hers and blinked. “You’re really pregnant.”
“Yup,” she said. “How do you feel about that?”
“Incredibly happy. Utterly terrified.”
She laughed, but a few tears trickled down her face. “Me too.”
“You didn’t seem surprised by my proposal, which actually shocked me. I’ve been hinting at it since the hospital, and you’ve been brushing it under the rug.”
“At first, I did think you were joking, but three days ago, I saw the ring.”
He jerked his head back. “Seriously?”
“You suck at hiding things. I mean, did you think hiding it in your underwear drawer was a good spot? You’re great about doing laundry, but not so much at putting it away.” She raised up on tiptoe and kissed him softly. “I think it’s time we ditch the one-bedroom apartment and start searching for a home. One with a backyard. One that our children can play in and your nephews?—”
“Our nephews.”
She nodded. “Can come play ball in.”
“I love you so much it hurts sometimes.”
She pressed her hand over the exact spot where he’d been shot. “I love you and if we have a boy, I want to name him after your brother.”
He closed his eyes for a second and exhaled. “Axel would have loved that. He always knew you were the one.” Blaze blinked. “And if it’s a girl?”
Pandora glanced over her shoulder. “Brenda.”
“She’ll hate that.” Blaze laughed. “But I love it.” He took Pandora by the hand. “Come on. We need to take those boys go-carting.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure I should be doing that. But I’ll enjoy watching you with a big thing of buttery popcorn while those two ram their cars into you because you’re a shitty driver.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
They could go on like this forever.
For the longest time, Blaze had thought he’d been waiting for death. But what he’d really been doing was searching for Pandora.