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The next morning, I opened my eyes to find the most beautiful man I’d ever seen looking at me. Lying face to face in my big king-sized bed, I reached out and ran my palm over his face.
Austin smiled and covered my hand with his before lacing our fingers together. Without breaking eye contact, he brought my palm to his mouth and placed a kiss in the middle of my palm. My heart was overflowing with emotion, and I prayed to God this was real.
Looking into my eyes, he shocked the hell out of me with six little words. “I think we should get married.”
I blinked at him. And blinked again. Three. Then four blinks.
“Greer? Did you hear me?”
The blinking picked up speed. Maybe I was asleep.
“You’re not asleep. And you’re not dreaming,” he mused, trying to stifle a smile that was threatening to overtake his gorgeous face.
“You mind repeating that? Because what I heard made no sense.”
Austin grinned and rolled himself on top of me. The heavy weight of his body on mine pressed me into the expensive moon mattress, and I’d never been happier. How had I gone without him for so long? I was pretty damn sure no one had ever made me feel this way before. No one but him.
“I said,” he whispered against my lips, “I think we should get married.”
My brows flew up under my disheveled hair as my eyes became saucers. “You do?”
He bit his bottom lip and nodded as he settled between my legs. Austin braced himself on one elbow as he used his right to slide around the back of my head. My hands slid around him as I held him to me. Placing open-mouthed kisses on my throat, he kissed my neck before moving to my cheek. My eyes closed as I tried to process all the feelings and emotions coursing through me as he kissed the edge of my mouth. And when his lips found mine, and his tongue slipped into my mouth, the world stopped.
Suddenly, his suggestion made perfect sense. We were meant to be together. There was no doubt in my mind, and, it would seem, none in his. So what was I waiting for? Time was not on our side, and who knew how long either of us would live. But it sure seemed that we were so much better together than apart. The last decade and a half had proved that.
I tried to pull myself out of the love-drunk haze we were experiencing, but his kiss was more addictive than the finest chocolate. I craved him and never wanted this to end.
But I had to know he was serious. Placing my hands on his face, I pulled back and looked into the green eyes I saw in my dreams. I wanted nothing more than to say yes, but something was holding me back.
Austin smiled down at me. “I see how much you love me every time your eyes meet mine. It’s the same way you looked at me all those years ago in Chicago. And the way you tried to hide the longing every time I walked into your office back in Portland would be impossible to miss now. You didn’t feel sorry for me like I thought. You were sorry for how much time we’d lost. I can see it now.”
My eyes were welling against my will, but this was Austin. My Austin.
“Don’t you think it’s a little soon?”
“Not at all. I think it’s long overdue. I’m tired of being angry. I just want to love you, go to bed with you every night, and wake up next to you every morning. I can put all that behind me if I know you’re mine and I’m yours. The only way either of us is going to feel secure is if we make it official.”
I wanted to make a joke about possessing a magic wand, or boat oar, in my case, but I didn’t. And I didn’t diminish his request by joking about my age. Because it didn’t matter when you loved someone like we’d always loved each other.
I pulled his mouth to mine and kissed him like he’d kissed me before giving him my answer.
“Okay, babe. Let’s get married.”
The smile that lit his face up was breathtaking as my soon-to-be husband lit my world on fire. And I hoped he never stopped.
An hour later, I walked down the stairs to find my sister. I knew she would be ready to grill me about Austin after steering clear of her last night. Now that our status had changed, I looked at the world in a different light and realized I was fucking happy. Happier than I’d ever been in my entire life.
After getting a cup of coffee, I found her out on the veranda. It was her favorite place in the entire house.
Katherine smiled at me over the rim of her coffee cup when I sat down across from her. Might as well get the inquisition over with.
“Good morning. What’s on the agenda today?”
She reached over and darkened her iPad. “Well, the maid of honor arrives today, and some of our friends from Chicago. But let’s start with you, since you avoided me last night.”
I chuckled as I looked at her. “What about me?”
“Well, big brother, you can start by explaining why you brought Austin with you. I thought we were on the same page. I told you I was taking care of you socially.”
