never forgive her or himself if he was reduced to that. She gave him a tentative smile. He couldn’t read her expression. So he continued to wait.
“I figured out that I can make it on my own, even with a child,” she said, sinking his heart. “I’ve been on my own for a very long time.”
“Erin,” he began, then closed his lips as she held up a hand. She closed the small gap between them and reached out, taking his hand, their legs now brushing.
“I also decided I don’t want to do it on my own. Knowing I’m capable, knowing I can is good enough for me. But what I truly want is to be with you. What I need is for us to go through this pregnancy together, and raise our child together. I understand why you didn’t tell me about your job and my uncle in the beginning. That’s something I wouldn’t have told a new person until I trusted them. And I understand that we’re going to have differences. But what I realized more than anything else is that I love being with you. I have a long way to go to break down the walls I’ve created through the years, but if you’re patient with me, I think you can help me with that.”
“Of course I’ll help you,” he said, his heart so full it felt as if it would burst.
“I loved my parents, and I loved my cousins, but it didn’t devastate me when they were gone. I truly loved my grandparents, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get back on my feet after losing them, but I somehow managed to survive. I love you, and with you I don’t want to just survive. I want to truly live,” she said, tears streaming down her face.
Brackish couldn’t stand not having her in his arms anymore. He stood, picked her up, and sat back down with her on his lap. She instantly curled up and buried her head against his neck as she quietly sobbed.
“I love you, Erin. I want a life with you. I want a future with you. I want to work things out when we don’t agree on something. What I don’t want ever again is to go a single day without hearing your voice. I know we’ll both work long hours sometimes, and we’ll both get busy with life, especially with a newborn, but if we make the effort to love each other, to spend time together, and to put each other first, I know we can make it through anything.”
She lifted her head and smiled, her eyes sparkling, her lips trembling. “I want that, Steve.”
“Then you have it,” he assured her. He placed his hand behind her head and pulled her close to him as he finally kissed her. It had been three long days since their mouths had touched. That couldn’t happen again. He kissed her until they were both breathless. He carried her inside the room and set her on the bed, dropped to his knees, and held her legs.
“Erin, you’ve changed my life, you’ve made me a better man. You make me think through my decisions. You make me want to be worthy of your love. You show me light when I’ve been in darkness, and you bring me joy when I’ve felt sorrow. Please, please, marry me. Let’s do this right. Let’s start our family, right here, right now,” he said. “We’ll start with this baby and then we’ll have a dozen more.” He placed his hand on her flat stomach, utterly awed that his child was safe and warm inside of her.
She laughed through her tears as she reached down and placed her hand over his. “I think a dozen babies are a bit much,” she said.
“I just thought a dozen was a nice rounded amount. Otherwise all of the good stuff like donuts and eggs wouldn’t be sold by the dozen,” he pointed out.
She laughed again. “Maybe two,” she compromised. “And yes, yes, I want to be your wife.”
Brackish hadn’t thought it possible to feel as much joy as he felt right then. He jumped up and sat next to her, pulling her close and kissing her like he meant it. Before he got too lost, he leaned back, his hand cupping her cheek.
“We’ll go to the store tomorrow and you can have any ring you want. I’ve been such a mess I did nothing but workout and brood when I should’ve been ring