I looked down at the simple gold band and my throat started to close. Not with anxiety. I knew I was going to marry Evette. And likely Jenn was not going to get to plan a huge, elaborate wedding because I wasn’t waiting for however long it took to plan a huge, elaborate wedding. No, my throat was tingling because Joe had given me his blessing. I hadn’t thought much about needing it but now that he’d given it I realized how badly I’d needed him to accept me.
“Thirty-two tries?”
“I asked my Jenn on our first date to marry me. She said no. I ask thirty more times before I complained to my father I couldn’t get her to say yes. When I was done he slapped me on the back of my head, rummaged through my mother’s jewelry box, and gave me that. My mother had been dead a good number of years by then. That ring was hers. Then it was Jenn’s. Now I’d like you to give it to Evette and one day she can pass it to your daughter. Even if you get her something that is hers it’d be an honor you ask her with that.”
I cleared the emotion threatening to unman me and told him, “I’ll ask her with this.”
“Good. I appreciate your hospitality. Next time we come it will be under better circumstances and we’ll enjoy a cigar and shoot the shit. But now, you’re dead on your feet. Go grab your girl and get to bed. Jenn and I will lock up.”
“Growing up I didn’t have a dad.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“After he died things went to shit.”
Joe didn’t reply to that. Not that there was anything to say.
“Would’ve been good growing up with a man like you as my dad.”
Joe’s chin dipped to his chest and I continued. “I know it would’ve been good because you gave all that you gave to Evette and made her who she is. Thank you for that. Thank you for raising her to be strong and brave. She saved my life, Joe. And she was able to do that because of the father you are. She didn’t break down, she didn’t hide and wait for help. I hated every damn second of it. But you should be proud.”
“I am,” he mumbled.
“I love her and I promise I’ll make her happy.”
“All a father can ask.”
I said no more. Neither did Joe.
Then I left the sunroom, found Evette washing out her mug. When she was done I took her upstairs to bed.
That was the first night a house I’d lived in for years felt like my home.
And I slept in a bed with Evette close by and the ring that was her mother’s and grandmother’s before her in my nightstand waiting to be slipped onto Evette’s finger.
Soon.
Chapter 35
Seven weeks later
“Gabe!” My gasp of surprise turned into a moan when Gabe pulled me back into the shower and pressed his erection against my behind.
“We’re not done,” he told me with his face buried in my neck.
“How is that possible?”
His mouth stopped working the sensitive skin under my ear and I felt him smile.
“Honey.”
That one word was full of humor.
It was Sunday morning. My favorite day of the week. Sometimes Gabe had to go into the office on a Saturday and sometimes while he was gone I sat at my desk in my new kickass home office and worked while he was gone. But neither of us worked on Sundays and I could decree that because I was now my own boss. Thus Sundays were my favorite day of the week.
Normally we lazed in bed and talked, only getting up to eat. A few times we’d had to get up and get dressed because Owen, Cooper, or Kevin had stopped by. Kevin and the Red Team had been home for two weeks. Myles was not. He was still in Mexico looking for Delilah. A mission he refused to give up on. Garrett and Tex were still doing their best to help but Gabe said Tamir Cohen had gone to ground. Those were his words. When I asked what that meant exactly he explained that Tamir was former Israeli Special Forces and if he didn’t want to be found it was highly unlikely Myles was going to find him. The hope was Delilah was still alive but as the weeks passed I was losing hope. Even though I’d never met her I felt horrible.