him. “Let me see it.”
“See what?”
“The ring, sweet-ass. I want us engaged before I walk out of here.”
Grant’s grin came from a place of warmth. He lifted his wet denim jacket, removed a small box from the pocket, and opened it.
On a fold of tissue paper lay a simple and beautiful ring. A gold band held a round diamond flanked on four sides by diamond chips. The ring shone softly, burnished by time.
Grant drew the chair next to the high bed. He settled one knee on the chair seat and took the ring from the box.
“Christina Farrell,” he said. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Christina’s brown eyes shone with tears. “Are you sure you’re sure? What about …” She touched her abdomen. “What if the baby isn’t yours? Will you really want marriage to me then?”
Grant closed his strong hand over Christina’s. “What I want is you. I know the kid might be Ray’s. I know if it is, it probably means I can’t have kids at all. But we can adopt kids, have as big a family as we want. Hell, Carter’s adopted, and he turned out all right. And if this baby is Ray’s, the poor kid’s gonna be stuck with two dads.”
Christina burst out laughing, even while tears trickle down her face. “I was thinking the same things. I love you Grant Campbell. I will marry you. I will, I will, I will, I will.”
Her smile took Grant’s breath away. A wave of happiness broke over him, a sense that everything was in its right place in the world. Didn’t matter what they had to face, they’d face it together.
Grant took Christina’s warm left hand in his and slid the ring onto her third finger. The ring fit like it was made for her.
He leaned down and kissed his Christina. The sweetest kiss, the one Grant had been waiting for all his life.
“What the hell?”
Grant came up swiftly at the sound of Ray Malory’s voice. Ray stood in the doorway, the nurse who’d brought Grant in trying to keep him out.
“Ray,” Christina said in surprise. Then she made a reassuring motion to the nurse. “It’s all right. He’s just worried about me.”
The nurse frowned. “Maybe, but your doctor said you needed rest, and too many visitors will over-stress you.” She gave Ray a severe look. “Talk quick. Then you need to go.”
“They said at the diner you were hurt,” Ray said to Christina after the nurse had left them. “And that Grant had driven you out of there like the devil running out of hell. I was afraid … afraid …”
“The baby’s fine,” Christina said, giving him a smile. “Just fine. Grant got me here quick enough, through a wild hailstorm.”
Ray glared at Grant as though he wanted to throw him to the floor. Grant made himself not respond. Ray must have been just as scared as he’d been for Christina and the baby. At this point, Ray had as much to lose as Grant.
Ray’s hair and shirt was all wet—he’d come through the storm too. For Christina.
“It’s probably a good thing you’re here,” Christina said, her voice losing its energy. “Dr. Sue said she got the test results back late this afternoon. She was going to call me in the morning, but she said she’d give them to me tonight if we wanted to know now.”
Grant’s tension ramped back up. To know. Tonight.
Now that it came down to it, Grant didn’t want the truth. He wasn’t sure he could handle it.
Maybe it was a family trait, not being able to make kids. Adam—before Bailey—and Tyler had never been able to keep it in their pants, and they didn’t have a string of women holding up babies whenever they walked by. The only one of them who had a kid was Carter, and he wasn’t a Campbell by blood.
No, Grant needed to know this. To take it in the gut. The knowledge would change Grant’s life, but he needed to face it.
He saw that Ray was going through the same dilemma. Ray’s face was drawn and pasty, as though he suffered from a three-day hangover.
“Yeah,” Ray said. “Let’s get this over with.”
Grant nodded tightly.
Christina rang for the nurse and asked her if Dr. Sue would come down. The nurse looked alarmed at first, but Christina told her that Dr. Sue was waiting for her call.
If Grant had thought the two hours waiting to see if Christina was okay had been the longest of