“What else do you want, Autumn?”
“Me and you and Conner. I want us to be a family.” He sucked in a breath as she unbuttoned his shirt. “I want to always be here when you get home. I want to hear about your day. I want that for the rest of my life.” She kissed the hol ow of his throat.
“If you want that for the rest of your life, you have it.” He grabbed her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. “I want you to always be here when I get home. I want to hear about your day. I love you and I wil love you for the rest of my life.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He didn’t want to choke up. He didn’t want the woman he loved to see him cry like a girl. “You and Conner, that’s al I’l ever need.”
“No, that isn’t al .” She brushed his hair from his forehead. “I love you, Sam. I fel in love with you five years ago, and you broke my heart. For a long time, I couldn’t get past that, but I’ve fal en in love with you again. Only harder and deeper and more maturely this time. You don’t need my forgiveness for the past. Like you said, we were different people then, but if that’s what you want, if that’s what you need, then I forgive you.”
He lowered his face to her neck and breathed in the scent of her warm skin. He hadn’t realized how long he’d waited to hear those words. Didn’t know how much he wanted to hear them until she’d spoken them. He ran his hands down the back of her jersey and grabbed two bare cheeks. “You seem to have lost your panties again.”
“Oops. I bet that happens around you a lot.”
“Not anymore.” He slid his hands up her smooth back. “You’re the only woman I want around. The only woman I want to see drop her panties. The only woman I’ve ever real y wanted.”
She leaned back and looked up at him. Her green eyes smiling with laughter. “Up until a few months ago, I wasn’t even the kind of woman you dated.”
“No.” He pressed his forehead into hers and brushed his mouth across her lips. “But you’re the kind of woman I marry. If I’m real y lucky, you’re the kind of woman who wil marry me twice.”
Epilogue
Any Man of Mine:
Gives a Good Lei
The setting sun hung just above the white sands of Lahaina Beach in Maui. Orange and red beams caught in the curls of Autumn’s hair and touched the side of Sam’s square jaw. Dressed in a simple oyster silk sheath, Autumn wore a lei of white orchids that Sam had given her that day. She’d pinned roses in her hair, and a slight breeze ruffled the veil attached to the back of her head. Sam and Conner wore matching black tuxedos with white orchids in their lapels and white bow ties.
When it came to planning her own wedding, Autumn had opted for smal and intimate. Sam’s mother and Vince stood within the wedding party to the bride’s right. The Ross twins and their husbands just back from their respective honeymoons and Ty and Faith Savage, their baby girl asleep on her daddy’s big shoulder, watched Sam take Autumn’s hand and raise it to his lips. He kissed the backs of her knuckles and smiled just before he said the vows he’d written.
“I’m a hockey player,” he began. “I’m not romantic, so I asked Conner what I should say to you today. He suggested a few knock-knock jokes.” He laughed. “Mostly, he wanted me to tel you that you’re the best mommy in the world. And that’s true, but that is only one reason why I love you so much. I love the way you make me feel when you walk into a room. You fil my life with light.” He paused and looked into her face. “Autumn, I love you because I can’t imagine my life without you. I don’t want to even try.”
Autumn gazed into Sam’s eyes as the sinking sun streaked his cheeks with smears of orange and lavender. “I love you Sam. You healed my heart and taught me that forgiveness is about love. I used to think that any man of mine had to live up to a list of my expectations.” She shook her head and her veil brushed her bare shoulders. “I was wrong. Love has no list.” A tear splashed past her bottom lashes. “You are the pinch in my heart. The catch in my breath. The reason my stomach tumbles and why I lie awake at night just to look at you. And every time I look at you, I know that I want to look at you forever.”
Sam brushed her tear with his thumb and lowered his face to hers.
“We’re not to that part yet,” the minister reminded him.
Sam grinned into Autumn’s face. “Get there. I’m not a patient man, and Conner tel s me he wants a baby brother.”