She’s right here.
“I’m a greedy bastard,” he confessed.
An answering smile, slow and sexy, tilted her lips.
“Besides, I’ve had your ring since you were twenty years old.” He’d kept it, not able to let it go. “And I’d like to start making up for lost time.”
“You had a ring...all this time?”
Because maybe he hadn’t ever given up hope. Maybe he’d thought...one day.
That day was today.
“Let me make you happy.” He had to make up for all the pain. The grief. The anger. He could do it. “I will make you happy. I swear.”
This time she kissed him. Her head dipped toward him. Her mouth, wet, hot, open, found his. She kissed him with a passion that had his body tensing and wondering just how much privacy they’d be able to get. Because he was tempted...so tempted.
By her.
“You do make me happy,” she told him. Her eyes searched his. “And yes, I’ll marry you. I just want to be with you.”
That was what he wanted. To spend his nights with her. To wake up in the morning and see her beside him. Every day. Always.
“I love you.” He had to say the words again.
The hospital door opened behind Juliana.
Jaw clenching—not now—Logan glanced at the door. Jasper stood there with his brows raised.
“Guess you’re going to be all right,” Jasper said, his lips twitching.
“I’m going to be better than all right....” Logan laughed. “Man, I’m going to be married!”
Jasper’s jaw dropped.
Before his friend could say anything else, Logan turned back to Juliana. His Julie. The angel who’d been in his heart for so long.
The woman he’d love until he died.
“Thank you,” he told her as his forehead pressed against hers.
“About time,” Jasper said as his feet shuffled across the floor. “If I’d had to spend another day watching you moon over her...” The door swooshed as he left the room.
“What do you have to thank me for?” Juliana asked him.
“For loving me.”
“It’s not going to be easy, you know,” she said. “We’ll have to adjust, both of us. You have your job, I have mine. You’re not perfect...”
He laughed at that. “No, but you are.”
Her grin flashed. “And when the kids come...”
Yes. “I can’t wait.” For the dream he’d wanted. For the life that he’d thought was long gone.
He’d fight for that dream, every damn day. Just as he’d fight for her.
The woman he loved.