Chapter 125 125
She grinned and shook her head. He could be so silly if he wanted to be, but she knew for a fact that he wasn’t like that with anyone else. He reserved his most unguarded moments for her. “Are those your PJs?”
“Of course. I’m not leaving you in this bed alone.” He’d put on a T-shirt and basketball shorts. How she loved those glorious, lanky legs of his. “I figure we’ll watch bad movies all afternoon. I haven’t played hooky from work in well, forever, I guess.”
“You know, I think I just want to talk for now. Maybe take a nap.”
She climbed into bed and he did the same, on his side. This was indeed an odd setup, not really knowing the state of things between them. She knew how she felt—he’d obliterated her doubts about whether he’d fight for her. And he’d been right there with her at the doctor’s office, holding her hand. He’d even cried with her, at that moment when they were waiting to hear if the baby was still okay. She knew then that her love for him had never gone away. There had just been other things in the way and she could see now that she’d put a few of those things there herself, or at least allowed them to remain.
“This wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned when I was hoping to get you back into my bed,” he said, punching his pillow a few times.
Sherry laughed. “Right now, this is all the romance I can take.” She watched as his expression became decidedly less jovial. “I didn’t mean it like that, Justin. Really. I didn’t.”
He nodded. “It’s okay. I’m just trying to follow your cues. I’m waiting for the moment when you tell me that it’s okay for me to love you again.”
She rolled to her side and took his hand. Of course he was waiting for her. She’d been the guardian of every roadblock between them, making sure he knew the reasons they shouldn’t be together. It felt as though the time had come for her to focus on the reasons they should. “Do you think you can? Love me again?”
“Sherry, I never stopped loving you.”
“Never? Not even for a minute? What about the day I barged into your office?”
He shook his head. “I still loved you that day. It simply hurt more then. That’s all.”
She thought of the awful things that had come out of her mouth that day —yes, he had done the unimaginable, but she shouldn’t have been so determined to end things, no matter what. “I should have listened to you that day. I was hurt, but you were right about a few things. What you had done didn’t change what was between us.” She smiled when she noticed the way he was hanging on her every word. “In some ways, it was better that we fell in love in a vacuum, hiding our relationship from my family and the rest of the world. It was really the only way it could happen and be real. There was no outside influence.”
“Just you and me, Sherry. That’s the way it should be. Just you and me.” The smile that rolled across his face was so pure and unguarded, it took her breath away. “I love you more than you’ll ever know. Forever.” He leaned closer and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. “I started to fall in love with you from that very first kiss, and my feelings have only gotten stronger.”
His words floated around in her head—so beautiful, so lovely. She couldn’t help but be swept up in the moment. “I’m sorry that being with me has been such a test.”
He shrugged. “We tested each other. All couples do. We just got a lot of testing out of the way during those early days.”
“In some ways, it’s good. If we can survive all of that, we can definitely handle sleepless nights and diapers, the terrible twos and kindergarten.”
“You make it sound so glamorous.” He reached out and pressed his finger to the end of her nose.
“You know what I mean.”
“But that’s the baby, Sherry. There’s more than that ahead of us. If you want it. Do you want more?”
She suddenly found it difficult to breathe. Even if he was merely asking for them to spend more time together, the answer was yes, although she hoped for more. Much, much more. Even these few moments in bed together were enough to remind her that she didn’t want anything other than him, at her side. “I do.”
“Good, because I can’t lose you again. You know that I’m a pragmatist. I deal with numbers all day long. I deal with absolutes. But the truth is that my love for you is an absolute.”
The tears came. There was no stopping them. They rolled right down her cheeks. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“It’s true. All true.” Before she knew what was happening, he climbed out of bed and walked over to the dresser. When he turned, he held a blue box in his hand.
Sherry gasped. It was the most horrifically girly thing to do, but she couldn’t help it. “Justin. Are you?” She sat up in bed, wiping the tears from her face.
His eyes grew very serious. “Shhh. I only get one chance to get this right.”
“I know. But I just want to make sure you’re thinking about what’s happening here. I might lose the baby. Will you still feel like this is the right thing to do if that happens?”
He perched on the edge of the bed. “Sherry Bennet, I might have asked you to marry me before, but I did it wrong. And I wanna fix that now. I love you with all of my heart and soul. If we lose the baby, that doesn’t change my love for you. We will get through it together and we’ll find a way to be stronger on the other side. In the end, all I want is you.”
He presented the box, which was dwarfed by the size of his hand. “If you’ll do me the honor of becoming my wife, I promise to love you and put up with your family until my very last breath.”
She smiled, staring down at everything he held in his hand—their future, happiness. This wasn’t at all the way she’d ever dreamed this moment would transpire, but she wouldn’t have traded it for anything. “I love you so much. I want nothing more than to have you as my husband.”