Chapter Thirty #2
“Stay by your phones,” he said. “I’ll let you know when to come over.”
Cash grinned. “Go get her, bud.”
Blane shook his head as he headed for the door. He already had her. Now he just had to ask if she wanted to keep him.
When he got back to the house, Bea was out in the garden, still busy with her plants. It had only been a couple of months since she first arrived, but he could already see the garden she wanted taking shape around her.
Sifis came running to greet him, and Blane squatted to scoop the little guy up. He was healing well now and had finally been allowed out of the cone. “Might have to put that thing back on you, little man,” Blane told him as Sifis enthusiastically licked his chin.
Bea straightened and wiped her hands on her shorts. “Hello, darling. I didn’t think you’d be back this early. Is everything all right?”
He set Sifis down and went to her, pressing a kiss to the middle of her forehead. Everything’s great, darlin’. How about you?”
“Yes, wonderful. All the more so now that you’re here. I’ll go and clean up and then we can decide what we want to do about dinner.”
He hesitated. He could wait and try to set up the perfect moment. Wait until the sun went down, pour her a glass of wine, and do whatever the hell else people did when they knew what they were doing.
Instead, he caught her hand and led her toward the stone bench. The place where they’d drunk their morning coffee so often and watched so many sunsets felt like the right place for this.
“Blane, you’re starting to worry me. What’s wrong?”
He waited for her to sit, then sat beside her and took her hand. “I’m hoping nothing’s wrong, darlin’. I’m hoping something’s about to be more right than it’s ever been.”
She smiled. “Then I think you’d probably better tell me.”
He took the little box out of his pocket, and she inhaled sharply.
“I’ve never done this before. Never wanted to.” He huffed out a laugh. “But I called you my wife in front of those two girls in London. Then I called you my wife to Nikos, of all people, and lately I’ve figured something out.”
Her fingers tightened around his.
“Turns out I must have known since the beginning and I just needed to catch up with myself, because that’s what I want, Bea.”
Her chin trembled.
He opened the box and took out the ring, holding it up between them.
“This is the ring I want to give you, even if it’s not the engagement ring you’d choose for yourself.
But I don’t want to start us off by being another guy who decides something for you instead of letting you decide for yourself.
So, if you want a different one, we’ll go find it. ”
He smiled. “But I couldn’t ask you to marry me without giving you something, and this one felt right.
” He traced a finger around the line of diamonds that circled the band.
“Guy in the store said it’s called an eternity ring.
I like the sound of that.” He met her gaze.
“Because even if marrying me isn’t what you want, that’s how long I’m gonna love you. ”
“Oh, Blane.”
“I know. Cheesy, right?”
She slapped weakly at his arm.
He laughed. “I know I’m screwing this up, but I practiced it, and there’s a lot I want to say.”
Her eyes were shining now.
“I thought I had my life figured out. I mean, I have work, Brooke, Cash, Mav, Emmett, and Montana. Me doing my thing and everybody else doing theirs.” He shook his head. “Then you happened.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
“And suddenly none of it fit the way it used to.” He looked down at the ring for a moment. “I never forgot what you told me about Simon. How he knew what something was worth in pieces, but not what it might be worth whole.”
He looked back at her. “I get it now. I don’t want the pieces anymore. I want one life. Mine and yours, all mixed up together.” His mouth twitched. “And a little dog and a pain-in-the-ass neighbor goat, whether I like it or not.”
A watery laugh escaped her.
“I love you, Bea. I think some part of me has loved you since the first time I called you my wife. I just didn’t know what the hell I was doing with it yet.” He held the ring toward her. “I wanted to explain all this better, but I’m pretty sure I’m making a mess of it.”
Sifis chose that moment to hop onto the bench between them, and Blane glanced down at him. “Yeah, yeah. I’m getting there.”
Bea laughed through her tears.
He looked back at her. “What I’m trying to say is—will you marry me, Bea?”
Her breath caught.
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He gave her a wry smile. “And I guess you were right at the airport. You were the best thing I never wanted.”
Her tears spilled over.
“But you’re not right anymore.” He closed his fingers around hers. “Now you’re everything I want.”
She stared at him for a moment, tears rolling freely down her cheeks, then reached for the ring.
“Yes, Blane. Of course I’ll marry you.” She laughed softly and shook her head. “I never thought I’d want to be married again. But you…” Her voice cracked. “You enormous, impossible man. I love you with all my heart.”
Blane snatched the ring back when he realized she was going to put it on herself. “Hey. I get to do that part.”
Her laugh broke through the tears as he slid it onto her finger. Then she brought that hand up and rested it in the middle of his chest, right over his heart.
“Do you know something, darling?”
“What?”
Her smile trembled. “I think you’ve caught up with yourself just fine. And I hope you realize I’m going to remind you of this speech for the rest of our lives. Every lovely, ridiculous word of it.”
~ ~ ~
Bea slid her hands up around the back of his neck and pulled him down into a kiss, laughing against his mouth when Sifis let out an indignant bark and jumped down from the bench as Blane curled his arms around her and held her close.
When he finally leaned back, he frowned down at the little dog. “See what I mean about him? He’s ruining our first kiss as a married couple.”
“Our first kiss as an engaged couple, Blane,” she corrected, laughing.
His eyebrows drew together. “Yeah, you’re right. Gonna have to see what we can do about that.”
“Oh no. You’re not going to treat the wedding as logistics, are you?”
She loved the way he laughed. “Now there’s an idea. You wanna let me arrange the wedding? I’ll take care of it. No hassle, no problem for you.”
She slapped his arm. “We can talk about all of that later. Let’s just enjoy this for a moment.”
His arms came around her again, and she thoroughly enjoyed the next few moments.
She still couldn’t quite believe this was happening.
She really hadn’t imagined that marriage would ever be something she wanted again and, until Blane, it had never occurred to her that the question might even arise.
Yet, when he’d asked her, the answer had been so simple.
When they eventually came up for air, she held her hand out in front of her and admired the ring. “I love it, Blane. It’s beautiful, and it fits perfectly. How did you—”
“Ah. Yeah. I might have some explaining to do there, but is it all right if I explain in a little while?”
She eyed him suspiciously. “Why? What else are you up to?”
“Can’t tell you yet. But will you trust me for about half an hour?”
“I think I’ve just agreed to trust you for the rest of my life, Blane, so yes, I can probably manage half an hour.”
He laughed and pulled his phone from his back pocket.
“But what are you up to?”
“Arranging for some champagne to come over.”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to complain about that.”
“Got some of your good red wine coming too. Didn’t figure you’d want champagne all night.”
While he tapped at his phone, Bea got up and wandered to the edge of the terrace.
The sun was beginning to dip toward the horizon, and she lifted her hand to let the ring catch the light.
It really was beautiful. She didn’t want to go and choose another one, but she loved Blane even more for understanding that she should have the choice.
Her gaze drifted toward the little stone house at the far side of the field.
Nikos’s place. Not officially yet, and he certainly wasn’t moving into it, but the lawyers had started working out how to transfer the title back to him.
Blane still wasn’t convinced she’d done the right thing, but he respected that she believed she had, and that mattered more to her than she could ever properly explain.
She turned at the sound of a vehicle coming up the lane and frowned when she spotted a large, shiny black SUV approaching the gate.
She looked at the dusty, dented white Vitara and smiled—she much preferred theirs.
When she looked back, there were two black SUVs, both slowing as they approached the gate.
Blane was shaking his head. “Damn. Didn’t think they’d be that quick.”
“Blane? What’s going on? I wouldn’t have thought it took two Mercedes SUVs to deliver champagne and wine.”
A huge smile spread across his face. “I invited a few people over to help us celebrate.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You did? Who?”
He came to stand behind her and rested his hands at her waist just as the SUVs stopped outside. The back door of the first one opened, and Bea stared as Meg climbed out, followed by David.
She whipped around to look at Blane. “What…?”
He chuckled and slid an arm around her waist, pulling her back against his chest. “Figured it had been too long since you’d seen your friend. And I figured no matter what you said to my proposal, you might want to see her afterward.”
“Oh, Blane.” Her voice cracked, and before she could recover, the other doors opened and people started climbing out.
There were three men, a woman, two girls and—“Is that Brooke?”