“Don’t be, we love you, and like Fallon said, we are blessed to have you back.”
They didn’t say anything for a while, as they held each other’s gaze. Then anger filled Audrey all of a sudden and she wished she could rip Levi Moss’s throat out. “I hate him,” she whispered. “I never thought I could hate someone the way I hate him.”
Tate laughed. “I want to kill him.”
Audrey nodded. “I’m glad you saved my life.”
He reached over, cupping her face. “I’m glad you saved mine, love.”
“How did I save your life?” she asked. “You didn’t get beat up.”
“No,” he said, “but I’ve been walking through darkness since my family died, and baby, you brought light to my darkness. I was empty, Audrey, completely and utterly empty, but now I am so full of love and happiness. All because of you. I owe you my life, so do you really think I’d let you die on me?”
Her eyes filled with tears as her mouth quirked in a painful grin. “I love you more than life itself, Tate. You know that, right?”
He smiled. “I don’t want to sound cocky, but yeah, I kind of knew that.” They laughed before he leaned over and kissed her softly again. She wished that her mouth wasn’t messed up so she could ravish his, but it would heal, she told herself. She would heal.
“Are you hurting?” he asked softly, moving his fingers along hers.
“Not really, a little.”
He nodded. “Good. Let me know if it gets worse and I’ll get the nurse.”
“Okay, I will.”
Tate shot her another grin before reaching over to the table beside her. “Now I know it’s killing you not knowing what everyone on Facebook is doing, that’s why I’ve been charging your phone.”
Audrey’s eyes went wide with excitement. “I love you,” she giggled as she grabbed her phone from him and touched the Facebook app.
As she updated her social sites, they talked about what had been going on while she was unconscious. He told her about all their friends coming to see her, and how they brought flowers for when she woke up. Meanwhile, she was busy thanking everyone for the Get Well wishes she had on her Facebook Timeline. Then her phone vibrated and Tate’s picture came up on the screen. Her face twisted in confusion, but before looking up to ask why he was calling her, she noticed that where it usually said Tate’s name, it said something else.
Will you marry me?
“What the hell?” She looked over at Tate, but all she saw was half of him. He looked up at her from his bended knee with tears in his eyes and the biggest grin imaginable on his face while still holding her hand in his. “Oh my God.”
“I got you this ring while I was in Canada,” he whispered, and when she held out her hand, slid a beautiful silver band that had his name engraved along the top of it onto her ring finger. “But it isn’t your engagement ring. I planned to ask you to marry me when I took you home, but I can’t wait that long. I need you to know that you mean the world to me and I want you to be my wife. I want to raise our child together, and Audrey, I want to make a life with you. I need you, love. All of you. For the rest of my life.”
Tears rushed over her cheeks as she nodded. “So you want to make me Mrs. Oooooooodder?”
Tate smiled, his eyes welling up. “I do. And I want to make more baby Ooooooders with you.”
Her brows came in as she asked, “This isn’t like a Shea Adler type of thing is it?”
Tate laughed, moving his hand over her cheek. “No, I’ll let you decide how many we have.”
Audrey pulled him into her arms, kissing him hard on the lips, through the pain, past the dizziness, everything. She was going to marry this man, and she was going to love him for the rest of her life. She loved him. All of him.
When they broke that kiss, he kissed her again, softly, then three more times, before he smiled down at her. “So what do you say?”
She shot him a toothless grin as tears rolled down her cheeks, onto their hands and her belly and their child. “I say, ‘I’m in,’ where do I sign up?”
Epilogue