‘I do. It was my connection to the military, the way I still served. But doing those missions meant being out of communication for up to six weeks, and they were dangerous. It’s something a man who wants to spend his life loving a woman and raising his boys should do. The risks were too great.’
The fact that Angus had given up something he loved for her, for them, cemented her decision to speak her heart. ‘Thank you. Thank you for doing that for us.’
He glanced at the clock and grimaced. ‘Anything else? Because we’re running out of time, and I want to kiss you again.’
‘I want you to get me out of this dressing gown,’ Thadie boldly told him, getting sidetracked by the heat in his eyes. He pulled her to him, but she slapped her hands on his hard chest, pushing back. ‘But I do have a little more to say...’
He must’ve heard something in her voice because his entire body stilled, his entire focus on her.
Thadie lifted her hands to hold his face, tears brimming in his eyes. ‘While I have no intention of giving up my career, I want us to be a family, living together, raising our kids together,’ she told him, parroting the words he used weeks ago. ‘I want you to live here, or for us to buy or build another house together. Be my kids’ full-time dad, be my partner and my lover and my friend.’
He looked at her, love making him look years younger. ‘I could do that, but I have a couple of extra conditions.’
She tried to hold back her huge smile. ‘And what might those be?’
‘That you marry me in the garden of your childhood home and have the wedding you always wanted. That we limit the number of guests to fifty and go back to Petit Frère for our honeymoon. Deal?’
‘Deal,’ Thadie replied, not hesitating. She needed to taste that happy smile, so she stood on her tiptoes and placed her mouth on his, winding her arms around his neck, as his kiss turned hot and ferocious. She felt his hand on her butt, showing her how much he wanted her. She couldn’t wait for the au pair to arrive: their love needed to be celebrated and she couldn’t think of a better way than to do it in her huge bed upstairs.
Their bed.
Angus held her head, and Thadie felt loved and protected, the centre of his world, the perfect, and only, place for her to be.
‘Angus! Gus, Gus... Angus is here.’
Thadie let out a groan of frustration. Why couldn’t her boys sleep late? Just once?
‘Angus!’ Gus yelled, running into the room. ‘Yay!’
Despite being unable to wrench her eyes off Angus’s wonderful face—the face she’d grow old with—Thadie did realise something was amiss when neither of the twins spoke. She pulled back to glance down at them, raising her eyebrows at their folded arms and deep frowns. She sighed. ‘What’s the problem, guys?’
‘Angus is kissing you,’ Gus stated, his tone disgusted. ‘Again.’
Angus’s thumb skated across her cheekbone, and Thadie’s knees melted at the love in his eyes. Then he dropped to his haunches, looked Gus in the eye, then Finn, and calmly spoke. ‘I’m kissing your mum because I love her and that’s not something that’s ever going to stop.’
Gus looked a little sick at the thought. ‘Ugh.’
Angus’s smile was full of mischief, and they exchanged a look. In a decade, Gus would have different feelings about kissing. Angus hugged Gus, but Finn held back. Angus wrapped his arm around Gus but kept his eyes on his younger son.
‘Does that mean he’s going to be our dad?’ Finn asked, his tone serious.
Angus looked up at her, raised his eyebrow and Thadie placed her hand on his shoulder. ‘He always has been, Finn. Angus is your real dad, guys.’
Finn looked at her, then Angus, back up to her again. Finally, he nodded and stepped into Angus’s free arm. Angus cuddled their sons for a minute, lifted them, and Thadie placed her hands on their little backs, smiling at Angus, tears in her eyes.
She was so crazy happy, insanely in love with her man.
Her boys. Her man.
Her family.
EPILOGUE
THADIEWALKEDDOWNthe big stairs at Hadleigh House, holding the skirt of her wedding gown off the floor. She and Clara had designed the dress together and it had been made up by Clara’s seamstresses. The dress was ivory, in an A-line silhouette, the bodice covered in tiny beads, causing her bodice to glitter. She loved the skirt with its deep ruffles, and she couldn’t wait for Angus to see her in it.
Or, honestly, to peel it off her at the end of the night.
‘Now, that’s a look I should never have to see on my sister’s face,’ Jago grumbled from the bottom of the stairs. Thadie smiled at him, taking in his simple black suit, and his silver tie.