Page 83 of Under Pressure

She started typing out a message to Lily, carefully reading it several times before sending. Was that really what she wanted? She sucked in a quick breath and hit send.

Shred it.

As she watched the message get delivered, she saw everything she’d been obsessing over rinse away. She didn’t need it anymore.

Tucking her phone back in her tote, she poured all her love into her son, knowing that things were going to be different.

“Hey.” Delta came up behind her.

She turned around, looking up to Delta as he strode toward her, light catching off the gold buttons and medals adorning his white uniform. The way his uniform hung on his fit, muscular body was something like a dream.

“Congratulations.” She grinned as he stepped closer, putting his arm around her back and looking down at Leo.

He leaned in and kissed her slowly, whispering how much he loved her. When he drew back, his dark gaze quickly assessed what she’d been trying to hold back—a sadness in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he quizzed.

She shook her head, not wanting to ruin the moment or his day.

He pulled her closer to him and placed his other arm around Leo. Breathing down into her hair, he said, “It’s because I’m leaving today, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“It’s not going to be easy for us. I’m gone a lot and my job is dangerous.” He kissed her hair.

She grazed her lip with her teeth, guilty that she would put it on him. She was truly so damn proud of him. It was a day for celebration, not pain.

Then he tilted her chin up to look at him, his focus drifting back and forth between her and Leo.

“Kendra, I was running from all this. I thought you guys were better off without me.”

He fumbled in his pocket and brought out a small royal blue velvet box. She watched him absently turn the box in his fingers and glance out of the window.

He looked back at her, confiding, “I wasn’t going to show up to this ceremony. I didn’t want this medal.”

“But you deserve it,” she replied in a soft voice, confused.

“Do I?” He shook his head, at first in disbelief, but then he said, “Maybe I do. I don’t know. Things have changed. I’m changing.”

“Why?”

“Because of you. You gave me a reason.”

He locked his dark eyes onto hers, melting her. He grinned and popped open the box to show her a gorgeous, way-too-expensive sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds laid over a white-gold band.

“When I rotate back, I want to marry you,” he stated, watching her carefully. “I want us to be a family.”

She gasped and he scooped up Leo from her arms, holding him against his shoulder with one arm. They were so at ease with one another, so natural, that no one would have believed that father and son had really only just met. Seeing them together, bonding and connected, filled her heart in ways she’d never felt.

With the other arm, a determined Delta held the box in front of her, waiting for her reaction.

“I’m not promising it will be easy and I’m not promising that I’ll be perfect,” he added. “But I’m promising to love you, and I’m promising to try.”

She flitted her focus between the ring and his gorgeous face, her chest feeling full, her head feeling light.

“What do you say, little guy?” Delta asked their son. “Should Mommy and Daddy get married?”

Kendra didn’t know if it was fate or coincidence, but Leo let out a big smile as he started sucking on one of the gold buttons on Delta’s uniform. She reached forward to the box, removing the ring and slipping it on, seeing how it sparkled on her hand. It was heavy and beautiful—and made her want to cry. He’d done all that for her.

She just felt speechless, taking him in as she gazed back up. Just the way he looked down on her, the sunshine catching his golden face, their son pressed against his white uniform—it was all too enchanting. A part of her wondered if she was about to wake up from another dream—a remarkable, unbelievable dream.

“So, what do you say?” Delta demanded again in his low, seductive voice. “Mrs. Kendra Valente?”

The way it dripped off his lips gave her chills. She bit her lip in her usual way, her eyelashes flickering up to him.

“Yes, Daddy.”

Then he dropped his head and kissed her, showing her just how much he loved and wanted her.