Page 169 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

“That’s what we’re figuring out,” said Cash.

“My plan is to head back now that I know you guys are settled here.” Blane slipped a hand into his pocket and touched the small box inside that felt like it’d been burning a hole in it since this morning. He’d felt like a damn fool in Chania, walking into the jewelry store with an entourage behind him. Not foolish enough to stop him, though. Back home, the guys had a tradition—when one of them was buying a ring, they all went along—and Blane had wanted some version of that here. He couldn’t have all the guys, but he’d had Emmett, Cash, and Mav with him, and Brooke and Harper had insisted on coming. Meg and her husband, David, had come along, as she’d put it, to represent Bea’s interests. And Emmett’s girls, Tanya and Alana, had wanted to be part of it too. And in the end, he hadn’t listened to a damn one of them. He'd known the ring the second he laid eyes on it.

He straightened, coming back to the moment. “Can't tell you exactly what your plan is yet. Mine's simple.” He smiled. “Go home. Ask her the question.”

“And what if she says no?” Mav asked.

Brooke slapped his arm. “Don’t even say that, Mav!”

Mav shrugged. “You make a plan, you plan for contingencies. Right?”

Blane huffed out a laugh. “That's what I'm doing. That's why you're all sitting up here instead of coming with me.”

“No, it's not.” Cash grinned. “We’re waiting because he doesn't want to put a lick of pressure on her.”

Blane didn't bother arguing. “All you need to know for now is that I'll text you when it's time to come over.”

Mav lifted an eyebrow. “Regardless of the answer?”

“Regardless of the answer.”

That quieted them.

Blane looked at Brooke, then around at the others. “I wanted her to meet you all anyway. And I wanted you guys to meet her. That wasn’t dependent on what she says to me.”

Meg’s expression softened. “I really don’t think you’re going to need that contingency.”

Blane smiled. He didn’t think so, either. But that wasn’t the point. Cash was right—the point was that Bea got to choose. She got to give him her honest answer without a crowd of people she didn’t even know yet watching.

“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.”