Chapter Twenty-Nine
The living room looked like a toy store had exploded in the most beautiful way possible.
Wrapping paper formed a colorful mountain near the tree, and Lily’s new dolls sat propped against her brand-new art easel-the one Jay Bird had spent twenty minutes assembling before dawn while Willow made coffee.
The kid had stamina, that was for sure. Five a.m. on Christmas morning, and she had been bouncing on their bed, shrieking about Santa until they had both stumbled out half-asleep.
Now, at just past nine, Lily had finally crashed.
She lay curled on the couch with her favorite new stuffed unicorn clutched to her chest, mouth slightly open, dead to the world.
Ellie Two, the black lab Jay Bird had surprised her with just before Thanksgiving, was sprawled on her back in the middle of the rug, legs in the air, snoring softly.
Willow stood in the archway, watching them both, and felt Jay Bird come up behind her. His arms slid around her waist, and he rested his chin on her shoulder. He smelled like cinnamon and the pine candle she had lit earlier.
“She’s going to sleep through Derek and Juliette’s dinner if we don’t wake her,” he murmured, but there was no urgency in his voice.
“We’ve got time.” Willow turned in his arms, facing him.
It had been five months since she had shown up outside Nova’s gym with a terrified two-year-old, and years of fear coiled tight in her chest. Five months of him being patient, never pushing her, and never asking for more than she could give.
She reached up, tracing the line of his jaw with her fingertips.
The scruff there was soft, familiar now.
She knew this man. Knew the way he laughed with Lily, the way he fixed things that were broken, the way he had sat with her through nightmares she couldn’t speak about and never once made her feel small.
“I have one more present for you,” she said quietly.
His eyebrows lifted, that half-smile playing at his mouth. “Willow, you already got me more than enough.”
“Those were from Lily.” She took a breath, felt her heart stutter in her chest-not with fear, but with the enormity of what she was offering. “This one is from me. Something that I’m ready to give you.”
Jay Bird’s smile slowly disappeared as he studied her face, and Willow could almost see the moment he understood what she was trying to tell him.
“Willow,” he said softly.
She knew that tone. It was the same one he used whenever he thought she might be pushing herself too hard, and before he could start worrying about her or giving her an easy way out, she slid her hands up his chest and rested them against his shoulders.
“I’m ready, Jay.”
His eyes searched hers. “You don’t have to prove anything to me.”
“I know.”
“And you don’t owe me anything.”
“I know that too.” Willow smiled because, of course, he would need to say it. This man had spent five months making certain she understood that her choices belonged to her. “That’s why I’m ready.”
Something shifted in his expression, but he still didn’t move. His hands remained loosely around her waist, giving her all the space in the world to change her mind.
Willow loved him even more for it.
“For three years, I didn’t get to decide what happened to me,” she said quietly.
“I didn’t get to decide who touched me or when.
For a long time after I escaped, I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to separate any of that from what being with someone was supposed to feel like.
” She swallowed around the emotion gathering in her throat.
“But you’ve never made me feel that way. Not once.”
“Sweetheart.”
Willow shook her head gently because she needed to finish.
“You waited for me to take your hand. You waited for me to kiss you. When I moved into your bedroom, you held me every night and never asked for anything more.” Her mouth curved when she added, “Even when I know there were probably a few nights when it nearly killed you.”
That finally pulled a quiet laugh from him. “I’m a SEAL. We’re trained to endure extreme conditions.”
Willow laughed and gave his chest a light shove. “You’re an idiot.”
“Yeah, but you love me.”
“I do.” Her amusement softened as she looked into his eyes. “And I trust you. I want this because I want you, Jay. Not because I think I’m supposed to be ready or because enough time has passed. I’m choosing this.”
His forehead came down against hers, and for several seconds they just stared into each other’s eyes. “If you change your mind at any point—”
“I’ll tell you.”
“If you need me to stop—”
“I’ll tell you.”
“If something doesn’t feel right—”
Willow smiled. “Are you planning on giving me the entire safety briefing before we make it to the bedroom?”
His mouth twitched. “Possibly.”
She laughed again, and somehow that made the moment even better.
There was no fear sitting heavily in her chest, no feeling that she was walking toward something she had to endure.
There was only Jay Bird standing in front of her, worrying so much about making sure she was comfortable that he was apparently prepared to turn this into a pre-mission briefing.
Then his expression changed again.
Jay Bird glanced toward the tree. “I actually have one more gift for you too.”
She blinked. “You do?”
“Yeah.”
He released her reluctantly and walked toward the Christmas tree.
Willow watched him crouch beside it and reach behind one of the lower branches. Her curiosity immediately kicked in because she had been the one arranging gifts beneath that tree for the last week, and she knew there hadn’t been anything left under there.
Jay Bird straightened with a small box in his hand.
Willow stopped breathing as she watched him walk back towards her, looking oddly nervous for a man who could jump out of airplanes and apparently walk into gunfire without thinking twice.
“Jay?”
“I had a whole speech.”
That made her laugh shakily. “Of course you did.”
“No, I really did. I practiced the damn thing too.”
Willow pressed a hand against her mouth.
“What happened to it?”
He looked down at the box. “I forgot every fucking word.”
A laugh escaped her.
Jay Bird looked back at her, and every trace of humor slowly faded.
“I spent a lot of years believing the best part of my life was already behind me. I thought I had my shot at a family and lost it, so I stopped looking for another one.” His gaze moved briefly toward Lily sleeping on the couch before returning to Willow.
“Then you two showed up and completely wrecked that plan.”
Jay Bird took her hand. “You walked into my empty house and somehow turned it into a home without even trying. Lily took over my living room, half my bed, and apparently my entire paycheck.”
Willow laughed through the tears gathering in her eyes.
“And you...” His thumb moved slowly across the back of her hand. “You gave me something I never thought I would want again because I was too damn scared to lose it.”
Willow’s throat tightened.
“A future.”
He opened the box. Inside was a simple, beautiful ring.
Willow stared at it as emotion hit her so hard she couldn’t speak.
Jay Bird lowered himself onto one knee.
“Willow, I’m not asking because I think you need me to take care of you. You’ve already proven you can take care of yourself, and God knows you’re stubborn enough to remind me whenever I forget it.”
A laugh slipped through her tears.
“I’m asking because I don’t want a life that doesn’t have you and Lily in it.
I want pancakes at six in the morning and toys all over the damn floor.
I want you planting things in my yard until I can’t find the grass anymore, and I want to spend the rest of my life pretending I’m annoyed every time you tell me the house needs more color. ”
Willow covered her mouth as tears spilled down her cheeks.
“I want all of it, Willow. I want the good days, the hard ones, and everything in between. So...” He paused, and for the first time since she had known him, Jay Bird actually looked nervous. “Will you marry me and allow me to be Lily’s dad?”
Willow stared at the man kneeling in front of her.
Five months ago, she had arrived in Virginia Beach believing she had nothing except Lily and the few things she had managed to escape with.
She had been exhausted, frightened, and still convinced that safety was something temporary, something that could disappear the moment she allowed herself to believe in it.
Then Jay Bird had offered her a room, a locked door, his name when hers wasn’t safe to use. And slowly, without ever demanding anything in return, he had given her a place where she could learn what freedom actually felt like.
She wasn’t saying yes because Jay Bird had saved her.
She was saying yes because somewhere along the way she had fallen completely, hopelessly in love with the quiet, broody SEAL who bought toddler car seats without being asked, learned how to tame Lily’s hair, planted flowers even though he claimed landscaping was unnecessary, and even let Lily call him a bitch.
He was her home.
“Yes,” she told him.
Jay Bird stared at her. “Seriously?”
Willow laughed through her tears. “Yes, you idiot. Of course I’ll marry you.”
The relief that crossed his face made her laugh even harder as he stood and pulled her into his arms. Willow wrapped herself around him, crying and laughing against his shoulder while he held her tightly.
“You sure?” he murmured.
She pulled back and stared at him. “Did you seriously just ask me that after I said yes?”
“I’m just checking.”
“SEALs are exhausting.”
“So I’ve been told.”
He slid the ring onto her finger.
Willow looked down at it and smiled. It was perfect.
She looked back at him. “Now, about that other present...”
Jay Bird’s eyebrows rose. “Is that still happening?”
Willow laughed. “Unless the proposal exhausted you.”
His mouth curved into that familiar half-smile. “I’m a SEAL, remember?”
“Oh, right. Extreme conditions.”
“Exactly.”
Willow rose onto her toes and kissed him.
Jay Bird let her control it, just as she knew he would. His hands stayed at her waist while Willow curled her arms around his neck and allowed herself to enjoy something she had once believed had been ruined for her forever. When she finally pulled away, his forehead settled against hers again.
“You’re sure?” he whispered.
Willow looked into the eyes of the man she had just agreed to spend her life with.
“I’m sure.”
She slipped her hand into his and started toward the hallway, but after two steps she glanced toward the couch where Lily remained sound asleep, the unicorn still clutched against her chest while Ellie Two snored beside her.
Willow looked back at Jay Bird. “We probably have twenty minutes.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Twenty?”
“Maybe thirty if Santa completely wore her out.”
“Jesus. No pressure.”
Willow bit back a laugh. “You said you were a SEAL. Adapt and overcome.”
The look he gave her nearly made her lose it.
“Woman, that is not how I pictured this conversation going.”
“Too late now.”
Still laughing softly, Willow tightened her fingers around his and led him down the hallway. When they reached the bedroom, she stopped with one hand resting against the doorframe and looked back at him.
Jay Bird wasn’t rushing her. He wasn’t pulling her inside or deciding what happened next.
Even now, after she had agreed to marry him, he was waiting for her to choose.
Willow smiled, stepped into their bedroom, and gently tugged her fiancé in after her before closing the door behind them.