“Cap,” I whisper, my voice shaky.
He nods. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life, and I’m certain about a whole hell of a lot of shit, Ruby. You’re everything I never knew I wanted and beyond. The thought of living one fucking day without you from this point forward is completely unimaginable, and I want every single person we come into contact with to know it. I want to be yours, forever—”
Tears pool in the corners of my eyes before spilling over one by one.
“Until the world stops turning and we as a civilization choke out everything good and sustaining on this planet.”
“Cap,” I snort through a wet laugh.
“I need this. I need to know I can count on an us. I need to know that I have something to fight for every goddamn day. I need to know that you know you’re the only thing in my life that’s irreplaceable, and I want you to know it now.”
The rationality in me, unfortunately, won’t let me have this without questioning it. “But, Cap. This is fast. Fast and so opposite from the life you’ve always known. What if…what if you change your mind?”
“I won’t.”
I roll my eyes. “Cap—”
“Ruby, I love you. I know I came at this from all the wrong angles, but I swear I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving just how good of a partner I can be. Because, you and me?”
I raise my eyebrows, and he doesn’t hesitate to continue.
“We’re like the stuff in every last one of your books. We’re meant to be.”
I shake my head as my brain fills with every single possibility of distrust and hurt…and then, in a sudden rush of clarity, I empty it.
I love him. I love him enough that none of the rest of that matters.
“Yes.”
“What was that?” Cap asks teasingly, curving a hand around his ear.
“Yes!” I say louder.
He shakes his head. “Is that all you got?”
“Yes!” I yell, and he scoffs.
Annoyed, I shove him back and follow him down, my body on top of his now. “Yes, yes, yes! Okay, you idiot? Yes, I’ll marry you!”
His smile is overwhelming as he laughs. “Now that’s the kind of finish my neighbors are used to.”
Cap
It’s only been a few months since I proposed to Ruby, but time feels like it’s going too fucking slow. I want her to be my wife—fucking yesterday.
This is the first time I can say my bastard friends were right. When you finally find the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with, you know, without a doubt, she’s the only thing that matters. Life before her suddenly doesn’t count, and life with her…well, you want it to start right now.
Thankfully, with the wedding plans in full swing, we’re smack-dab in the middle of the first official step toward Ruby saying I do—our engagement party.
My eyes find her across the room, and she looks like every dream I’ve never been lucky enough to have. Her hair is pulled half up at the top of her head, and wild, loose curls cascade down and around her shoulders.
A cream-colored sweater dips down and off a tanned shoulder, and the fabric of her dark denim jeans hugs her ass perfectly.
I smile to myself, thinking about how I had that bare ass in my hands just this morning as she laughs at something Kevin says. It’s weird, being okay with my woman having someone who undoubtedly wanted to fuck her at one time as her best friend, but I’ve been around him enough in the last couple months to know he’s a good guy.
In fact, he was rooting for my success behind the scenes all along. Who knew?
I’m just about to admire the thigh-high, brown suede boots my woman is wearing in a concerted effort to give me a raging boner when Ruby’s dad walks up next to me and stops.
I smile. When it comes to Mark Rockford, you really never know what might come out of his mouth, and I seriously love that about him.
“Well, son. I met your folks.” I nod. It is our engagement party, so some mingling of the parents was inevitable. Still, I can’t wait to hear how it went.
“And?”
“Jared’s good people. Maybe a little bit of a pushover, but I like him.” I laugh to myself at Mark’s candid description of my dad. He really doesn’t give a shit about being facetiously polite at all. “Your mom’s a real shrew, though. The wicked stepsister to my Connie.” Mark shakes his head. “It’s perfect.”
I jerk my head back at his unexpected assessment, and I laugh.
“Perfect?”
“Oh yeah. Connie’s so preoccupied with trying to decode Vicky that she’s forgotten to keep tabs on me and Ruby.” Speaking of my beautiful bride-to-be, she looks across the room, smiles, and gives me a little wave.