“How did you know?” she asked.
“Brody is a genius. You can find out almost anything with a computer. I’ve waited seven years to give you those flowers.” He put his hands on her upper arms, gently rubbing her skin to warm her. “I’ve been miserable since we fought. I can’t get that night out of my head. I can’t sleep. All I can see is the look on your face when you walked away, and it breaks my heart. I’d give anything to see you smile again. Today, and every day of the rest of my life.”
If the mention of love wasn’t enough, he was making sounds like he wanted to…to…
“I want to tell you the truth. Every bit of it. But it’s not just my secret to keep. There are others who could get hurt if the story were to be made public. But I can tell you this much… I was once very young and very stupid. When faced with something no child should have to handle, I made the wrong decision. I believe the evidence of that night is somewhere on your property. I’ve been doing everything I can think of to make sure no one ever finds it. I’ve done some things in the past few weeks that I’m not proud of. But I did what I felt I had to do to protect my family. You know how important they are to me. I would protect them with my life, just as I would protect yours. And for now I have to continue to protect their secret, just as I would protect a secret of yours.”
Tori could see the pain in Wade’s expression. His past was eating at him, gnawing at his gut on a daily basis. She was amazed that she hadn’t noticed it before now, but maybe he just kept it too well hidden. He was letting down walls for her. Because she wanted him to. Even if he couldn’t tell her everything, he was making the effort. And she could appreciate that. If she could be certain of nothing else, she knew that Wade would do anything for the people he loved. And if he loved her as he said he did, she would be just as fiercely protected.
The sense of security and stability that washed over her in that moment was unprecedented. A lifetime of moving from place to place had never provided it. Even buying this land hadn’t provided it. But she’d found it in allowing herself to trust Wade and be protected by him.
“One day, I hope to be able to tell you the rest of the story. And that you’ll hear everything I’ve done and trust me when I say that, right or wrong, I only ever had the best of intentions. I pray for your understanding because you are a beautiful, intelligent woman and I adore you. You make me happy just lying in bed listening to you breathe. I want to wake up every morning to your messy hair and pouty face. And I want to do it here, in Connecticut, in the house you designed.”
Tori gasped. “You’d move here?”
He nodded. “I would. There isn’t much I can do in the office that I can’t do from here with teleconferences and virtual meetings. I might have to go to the city from time to time, but when I do, I want to take you with me. I don’t think I like the idea of traveling without my wife.”
“But I—” Tori started, then stopped. She watched as Wade eased down onto one knee in the snow. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a small wooden box wrapped in a gold ribbon. “Wade…” she said, disbelieving. The flowers slipped from her fingers to the snow.
“Victoria Sullivan,” he began, unwrapping the bow. He eased open the hinge and held the box up to her. “Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
Tori glanced down at the engagement ring in his hands. The nearly two carat round diamond was set in a multirow pave diamond band of platinum. It sparkled so brightly with the sunlight reflecting off the snow that she was almost blinded. She had stood in the snow very nearly dumbstruck for the past few minutes, but now she knew she had to find the right thing to say. And it should be easy, since she’d been screaming it in her head since he knelt in the snow.
“Yes,” she said, tears pooling in her eyes from the light and the emotions ready to spill out of her.
Wade stood back up, slipping the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly.
She tore her eyes away from the ring to look up at the man who would soon be her husband. “I love you,” she said.
“And I love you.” He leaned down to kiss her, almost the official sealing of the deal he’d come here to offer her.
Tori melted into his arms, losing herself in the feeling of being with the man she thought she’d lost forever. Her blood instantly began to heat with the desire he easily stirred in her. Just when she was ready to tug him into the Airstream and make love to her fiancé for the first time, he pulled away and looked down at her with a smug grin.