“What if she changes her mind? What if she comes back?”
“Then we adjust. We don’t fall apart.”
My eyes filled with tears. “I’m afraid. That’s a lot to ask.”
“I’m not asking.” He held the back of my neck and kissed me, tightly closing his eyes, as if it were painful. He held my cheeks and looked straight into my eyes. “You’ve walked away from me twice, Falyn. I go back to Estes in a couple of months. I’m going to be a dad in December. I’m fucking terrified. But I love you, and that surpasses fear.”
Even after months of being apart, being in his arms felt normal, as if it had always been and would always be. I couldn’t break his heart again even if it meant being brokenhearted later. I didn’t know anymore what the right thing to do was. I just knew that I loved him, and he loved me, too. That was worth all the pain before and all the pain to come.
“Okay. I’m in.”
He leaned back, scanning my entire face. “You’re in? Which part?”
“Estes Park, the baby—all of it.”
A cautious small smile touched his lips. “When?”
“When you go back, I’ll go with you.”
“Falyn.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m having trouble believing you.”
“I know. But I promise.”
“I have a condition.”
I sighed a breath of relief, waiting for whatever he was going to throw my way. “Okay. Name it.”
His mouth pulled to the side. “Marry me.”
My lips parted, and my breath caught.
Taylor leaned down, touching his thumb to my chin, tilting his head. “Say yes,” he whispered against my lips.
“I … this is not a good time to be making life-changing decisions. We just experienced a traumatic event. I thought you were dead.”
“I almost was,” he said. He sucked on my bottom lip.
My breath faltered. “When?” I asked, stumbling over the word.
“Why wait?” he said, his voice low and smooth.
He left a trail of kisses from the corner of my mouth to the skin just beneath my ear while reaching around to where my apron was tied in a knot. With two tugs, it came loose and fell to the floor. He backed me up to the door, placing his palms on the peeling white paint on each side of my head.
“Do you love me?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“See? It’s not hard. Just say yes. Say you’ll marry me.”
I swallowed hard. “I can’t.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I reached behind me for the knob before twisting and ducking under his arm. I escaped to the living room, crossing my arms over my middle.
Taylor came out of the bathroom, stopping at the kitchen bar. “You can’t?”
I shook my head, pressing my lips together.
“You can’t right now or can’t at all?” he said. Waiting for my answer was torture for him.
“You’re throwing a lot at me all at once. I give you an inch, and you go balls out.”
Taylor relaxed a bit, and he breathed out a laugh. “Okay. That’s fair.”
“I might run away, but you don’t know when to quit.”
His happiness vanished. “I’m not quitting on you. As long as you love me, I’m going to keep fighting.”
“Well,” I said, “we’re definitely good at that.”
He took a step toward me. “I didn’t know I wanted it until I said it. But I said it, and now, I want it.”
“To get married?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“Fuck it,” he said, shrugging. “Who cares what the logistics are or what your college psych books said or what happened last night? I fucking love you. I want you to be my wife. I want you to have my last name.”
A small smile touched my lips. “You do have a pretty great last name.”
“Falyn Maddox,” he said, each syllable full of admiration and love.
I frowned. “That doesn’t sound so great.”
He slowly made his way to where I stood, wrapping his arms around me. “I have never exactly fantasized about proposing to a girl, but I damn sure never thought I’d have to beg.” He thought about that for a moment and then knelt.
“Oh no, please get up.”
“Falyn Fairchild, you are a stubborn woman. You have the mouth of a sailor. You buck every rule anyone lays upon you, and you’ve broken my heart. Twice.”
“This is a terrible proposal,” I said.
“Everything that’s happened since we met has led to this moment. There is only one woman I’ve loved before you, and there will never be another after you.”
“Unless it’s a girl,” I said.
Taylor blanched and then stood. “You think it could be a girl?”
“There is a fifty percent chance.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, walked away from me, and came back. “I can’t have a daughter. I’ll kill someone.”
I chuckled. “You’re right. You do need me—at the very least, for an alibi.”
“I’d feel a lot better about it if we made it official.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
His face twisted. “You’ve said that before.”
I blew out a breath, feeling like the truth had just punched me in the chest. “I guess neither one of us keeps our promises.”
“There is one promise I know I’ll keep,” he said.
I leaned over, tenderly cupping his face in my hands. “Ask me again.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Ask me again.”
His eyes glossed over, and he took my hand in both of his. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah?” he said, beaming.
He crashed into me, kissing every inch of my face. Then his lips landed on my mouth, moving slowly. When he finally released me, he shook his head in disbelief. “You’re serious? You’re gonna marry me?”
I nodded.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “The worst day of my life has turned into the best day of my life.”
“So far,” I said.
He kissed me again. This time, he lifted me into his arms and then carried me to the bedroom before closing the door.