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“A boy!” I yelp, tears pooling in my eyes. “A little farm boy who will love working in the fields with you, exploring in the woods, and wrap every single person around his charming, surly finger.”
“A boy.” Liam chokes, and when he pulls away after kissing my cheek, his eyes are glittering too, with unshed tears. “He’s going to be such a mama’s boy.”
We hold on to each other until the doctor clears her throat, and then we’re laughing and half-crying as I settle back down on the table for my exam. After checking all the normal things and measuring my belly to make sure it’s measuring the same gestation as my due date should be, she dismisses us and tells us to schedule another appointment for a month from now. There is no ultrasound today, and part of me wishes we got to see the baby, but hearing he’s all healthy is good enough for today.
The entire way to the car, as my hand is laced in Liam’s, I think about how this baby boy will have his last name, too. Part of me prays Liam brings it up again because the moment he asks me to be his wife, there is no way I’ll say no. He simply has to ask.
“Let me get your door.” Liam races around the car to catch up to me.
“I can open my own door, I’m not fragile. I won’t break.” I roll my eyes.
Since he saw Dan with the man who trespassed on the night of family dinner, Liam has been especially overbearing. And no, I don’t mean overprotective. I mean overbearing. He’s all over me, trying to keep me safe, protecting me, and generally being a pain in my ass.
“Do your or do you not remember what happened at family dinner?” He emphasizes again, like I could have forgotten how scared I was when he went outside and left me in the house.
“I do, but it’s not like anything is going to happen here.” Although a nervous tremor skitters down my spine at my words possibly jinxing us.
Liam gets me in and then rounds the car. Once he’s inside, he continues. “We don’t even know what is happening in the first place, so I don’t want to be too cautious. Something is fishy, that’s for sure. I can feel it in my bones. If anything ever happened to you or the baby, I …”
We both seem to fill in the blanks there, and the inside of the car is silent for a few minutes as he drives us back to his house. His sentiments about protecting me make me think through what he said at the doctor’s office, and I can’t help but bring it up. After all, we’re having a child together, might as well get all the tough discussions out of the way.
“Did you, um … did you mean what you said back in the exam room?” I stumble over the words in my nervous haste.
Liam grips the wheel with one hand, the other on my thigh. “I did. I mean, it wasn’t the way I wanted to ask. Or at least tell you of my intentions. I know we haven’t spoken about what happens next for us, but?—”
“Yes.”
The word tumbles out of my mouth before I even realize what I’m saying.
“What?” Liam nearly slams on the brake at one of the only four stoplights in Hope Crest.
A silly, crazy smile splits my lips, and my heart feels so light it’s like it’s floating in the air like some magical rainbow bubble. “Yes, I want my last name to be yours. Yes, I want this with you forever. Yes, I want whatever happens next. If you’re asking, and the end result is that I get to spend my life with you, then yes. The answer is yes.”
Liam’s face just melts. Melts. Like he’s been waiting a lifetime to ask that, to get me to agree to this, and has been holding so much anxiety over it that now he gets to relax.
“Why did I not think this would be as easy as it is? Is there some catch you’re going to throw out?” He continues driving and curses this man for going the speed limit and making sure I’m safe.
All I want to do is jump into his arms and kiss him.
“Only that you must promise you’ll always kill bugs that get into the house, won’t eat the last cookie in the package, and will get in bed with me every night to scratch my back. Don’t be so surprised, though. I’ve been fighting you a long time, fighting this. It’s only recently that I’ve seen we were inevitable, we were always destined to end up right here. Sure, the baby sped up our timeline, but it’s the greatest blessing of a push I’ve ever needed. I want you. I want us. So, the answer is yes to any and all of the above questions you were going to ask.”
Clearing his throat, his eyes flit over to me, and I find that they’re glassy. “Dammit, woman, you’re seriously going to make me sob while operating this vehicle.”
I cup his cheek as he squeezes my thigh again.
“This isn’t how I was planning to do this, by the way. The nurse calling you by your last name just threw me off for some reason. I thought about bringing you to the lake or doing it in the bookshop when we closed it up. I wanted to have a ring and candles and roses. I wanted to give you everything you deserve, not halfway get the question out as I drove us home in the middle of the day. But damn, if our timing hasn’t always been stupendous. When it comes to you, I will take whatever I can get, no matter when it is. Which is why I’m not squandering this chance. The only thing I want is every day of the rest of my life with you. Rain or shine, come hell or bad harvest, I want every second to be with you. To raise our kids on the land I was raised on. To build you a big old house that we fill with memories and laughter and muddy boots. You are all I’ve ever wanted, Gabrielle.”
Shifting up so I can kiss his cheek across the center console, I’m met with his lips as he tries to keep his open eyes on the road.
“In my head, I was much smoother and more romantic than this when I proposed,” he says again, chuckling as I sit back down.
“I don’t need any of that. Just you.” I lean across so that I can rest my head on his shoulder.
His hand comes up to stroke my hair. “At least let me get you the exact ring you want since we kind of jumped the gun.”
“Beautiful jewelry? You’ve got a deal.”
We ride the rest of the way home with my head on his shoulder, his hand on my baby bump, and all I can feel is pure, radiant joy. The man I never expected to love is going to be my husband, and that makes me the luckiest woman on earth.
