Written with You (The Regret Duet #2) - Aly Martinez Page 0,84

herself right back into being Willow Banks.

I’d never been prouder of breaking the law in my life as I was when I walked out of that courthouse hand in hand with the woman of my dreams.

“Daddy, look!” Rosalee called, holding up two fingers.

Willow pushed her sunglasses up and squinted. “What is that?”

It was nothing. Or at least that’s what it appeared to be.

I tilted my head to the side as if it might make it easier to see. “Uhhh… Dad experience tells me it’s the the tiniest speck of a broken shell.” I looked at her and grinned. “Or possibly a booger.”

“Ewww,” she groaned. But she’d been getting a lot of parenting practice as well recently. So she gave her a thumbs-up and called back, “Oh my gosh, that’s so pretty!”

I’d died every single second that Trent had been holding Rosalee with that gun in his hand. It had been burned on the backs of my eyelids and carved into my subconscious. I’d woken up almost every night since it’d happened in a cold sweat, the sound of gunfire and her cries reverberating in my head. Willow was always there, whispering reminders that it wasn’t real and we were all okay. I didn’t know what I would have done without her that day. She’d saved my life when she was just a kid, but that day, as she took off out of the house with Rosalee, she saved me all over again.

I’d lived through a lot. But if anything had happened to Rosalee, I would have been stuck in hell forever.

We were all struggling in our own ways. Willow had jumped into caretaker mode, baking and cleaning as if having sparkling countertops could cure everything. And Rosalee, my poor sweet Rosalee—she was also waging war with nightmares. And the questions. Oh my God, all the questions. I didn’t know what to say when she asked why Uncle Trent had become a bad guy. Above and beyond wanting to shield her from the harsh reality, I had no explanation for why Trent had done what he’d done, either.

But not having an answer or sugarcoating it in the name of protecting her weren’t going to cut it after what she had been through.

We all started therapy within a few days. Individual sessions. Couples sessions. Family sessions. Any session I could get us into. Malcom had ruined her mother’s life. I was not going to allow Trent to do the same to my daughter. She was adjusting and coping as best as a four-year-old could. I’d noticed that she was a lot clingier and more cautious than she had once been, but that was okay. I was there for her. And so was Willow. If she wanted to sit in our laps or sleep in the bed with us, that was A-okay because we needed her just as much as she needed us.

I’d asked Willow to marry me as we were driving to the beach.

I had no ring. No plan. No grand proposal. No getting down on one knee.

All I had was her smile lighting one of the darkest hours of my life and the overwhelming need to keep her forever. Life was short and unpredictable. Sometimes, the seconds were all you had. And, dammit, I was going to make the most of them.

She told me no.

We argued about it. Her stating that the timing wasn’t right. Me stating that I loved her, so the timing didn’t matter.

But then that night, only moments after I drifted off to sleep, I woke up to hear her counting to ten.

“Yes,” she whispered in my ear.

I couldn’t even be mad that she’d waited for the splice. It was a new day. And she was going to be my wife. I would never love anyone like I loved that woman. And while she believed that the world was dictated by unorchestrated coincidence, I had not a single doubt that she had been sent to me from someone up above.

I didn’t deserve her. And our lives, as twisted and tangled as they were, would never be easy.

But she was mine.

They were mine.

The rest would fall into place.

“Have you given any thought to if you want more kids one day?” I asked.

She hummed and smiled out at Rosalee. “I just wanted a family. She’s enough. We’re enough.”

I stared out at Rosalee splashing in the ocean, the tide rolling in, my guardian angel and soon-to-be wife sitting on my left, and I had to agree with her. Though some doors