He stepped closer. “Care to make a promise on that?”
She smiled, and her eyes were teary, and just when he cupped her hips and pulled her closer, she said, “I promise to love you forever and make your life a living hell if you ever hurt me like that again.”
He brushed his lips over hers. “Hell is life without you. I’m sorry, baby. I love you so damn much, you’re going to be so annoyed with me by the end of all this.”
“Promise?” she asked.
“Promise.”
Matt came up to him then, and East turned to face him. His face was red, and East couldn’t read his expression.
“So, you want to tell me why in the hell you didn’t talk to me about this?” Matt asked.
East looked at his friend but didn’t let go of Natalie. “I wanted to, man. I just couldn’t. I knew you wouldn’t think I was good enough.”
Matt’s face went redder and he sighed. “You’re such an asshole,” he said. “I’ve depended on you to take care of Nat our whole lives. I told you she was vulnerable.”
East held up a hand to stop him. “I know, I fucked up.”
Matt looked at Natalie. “So. Are you happy with this guy?”
Natalie nodded. “Yeah.”
Matt put his hand on East’s shoulder. “I love you, bro. But if you fuck this up, I will kill you.” He fake-punched East, but just hard enough to let him know he was serious. And then he broke into a grin and gave him a huge hug before he went back to his new bride.
East felt Natalie’s arms wrap around him, and he turned back to face her. He held her face in his hands and kissed her, and a round of healthy applause erupted. He wrapped up Natalie, the one woman he couldn’t live without, in his arms and held her, kissed her, in front of everyone.
Finally feeling like he was clinging to something worth holding on to.
Epilogue
“Why are you being such a pain the ass about this?” East asked.
Natalie rolled her eyes and just kept her head down, frosting another batch of cupcakes. “Because I prefer living in sin, all right?”
East slapped the counter and paced. “I’ve asked you to marry me thirty-one times in the past month.”
“Thirty-one?” she repeated and glanced to the ceiling.
“Yeah.” East came around the counter to stand behind her and kiss along her neck. “Remember last week, when I asked you right before I fucked you in my truck because you were so hot for me you couldn’t wait to get inside…”
“I may recall some vague memory like that,” she whispered, and leaned into his kiss.
“And then I asked you again an hour later when you kissed me in the kitchen.”
“Oh, yeah. You got down on one knee and everything. That was cute.”
“Twice, Natalie. Twice in one day, and every damn day I’ve asked you.”
“Yeah, but in fairness, if you hit your knees in front of me, I just assume you want me to wrap my legs around your shoulders.”
He nipped her earlobe. “I do. And I want you to marry me. So give me both.”
She sighed and continued frosting her cupcake while his hands slid around her waist and he kept kissing down her neck. He was making her hot, like he did every day, a lot more than twice a day. Since Matt’s wedding just over a month ago, Natalie had had a hard time keeping her hands off East. And neither of them seemed to care about anything but touching each other at any given moment.
It was awesome.
She’d never felt so wanted in her life. And she loved the hell out of this man. And everyone knew, and everyone supported them, and she couldn’t quite believe it. She was going to spend forever with him, but there was a lot on her mind, and making him work a little wasn’t a bad thing.
“You think this looks all right?” she asked East and held up the cupcake.
“It’s perfection. Just like every single one you make. And Leslie will love them.”
Natalie smiled. She’d come to an arrangement with Leslie McMann. Natalie had kept the rights to her cupcake recipes and supplied them as a secondary vendor to Leslie’s elite clientele. Business was booming, and Natalie got to stay where she was, doing what she loved.
“Oh, by the way,” East said, and kissed her neck again. “Marry me, baby. My life sucks without you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. And we’re hanging out now. This is nice.”
“Not enough. I want more.”
She turned to face him. “Oh yeah? How much more?”
“All of it,” he said with seriousness. “I want you. All the time. All of you. In every way.”
“You have me,” she said and kissed him softly.
“I have you as my love and my best friend. I want you as my wife, the mother of my children, my road trip buddy, and my bowling partner.”