Natalie poured herself into the kiss, imagining her love was as pure and warm and radiant as the yellow diamond Blake had chosen for her engagement ring. She stroked his face to soothe the hurt she’d caused and cried some more when she finally understood he was tracing the infinity symbol over and over again in her palm. She let their breaths merge to communicate how much she wanted to be joined with him again, how much she wanted infinity again.
Touchdown tunneled between them, his face pressing against her stomach. She edged back and looked into Blake’s eyes, needing to say the words he’d stopped her from saying moments before. After everything she’d put him through, put them through, he deserved them.
“Blake?” she asked, her voice soft.
His head tilted to the side as he gazed at her, simply gazed at her. “Yeah, babe.”
“Will you marry me…again?”
The muscles of his face bunched up like he was going to cry, and his jaw locked as he took a moment to answer. “You know I will.”
When he picked up her engagement ring, she extended her left hand to him. His eyes shining, he slid the ring onto her finger and then brought it to his mouth to kiss it. She let out a shaky laugh.
“Now, we need yours,” she said.
This time he was the one who let out a shaky laugh. “Shit, you aren’t going to believe this. I…ah…left it back at the house in Dare. I thought…”
He didn’t need to finish that sentence. She knew what he’d thought.
“Then we can go get it when we head back there,” she said, ducking her head. “That is…if you’re willing to go. I need to get back so I can go to the doctor with my mom tomorrow. I was hoping…you might come.”
He traced infinity over her engagement ring. “You know I will.”
She glanced down at their hands. “Blake…I know what you’ve given up for me, and it…overwhelms me sometimes. In the best way possible.” Crap, she was crying again. “I realized tonight that I’ll go anywhere with you. I don’t want you to have to make something work in Dare Valley. I want you to have your dream job. I can find another dream job or open another business. I can help Mac and Terrance find a replacement.”
It would be hard to leave Dare Valley again, but she wanted to support him after everything he’d done for her. She wanted him to understand that she would do for him the things he had already done for her, that she wasn’t going to step back from him like she had earlier tonight.
“And what about your family?” he asked.
Her shoulder lifted, in contrast to the hurt his question caused. “I can visit them, just like you visit yours.”
“That’s not the kind of life I want for our kids,” he said, his voice like sandpaper now. “They should have cousins to play with…and aunts and uncles to dote on them.”
She jolted in surprise at his words, and their gazes locked. Kids. Hearing him share his vision after she’d used children as a sword to sever their remaining bonds of matrimony reduced her to tears. God, she couldn’t seem to stop crying now that she’d started.
“And let’s not forget about your mom. She’ll be a great grandma.”
That did it. Hearing him talk about her mom and the future broke her, it simply broke her. He brought her to his chest, her sobs a renewed torrent from deep inside her.
“I’m so scared for her,” she whispered against his hard frame.
“I am too,” he said against her ear. “Whatever happens, we’ll face it together. And we’ll be there for her.”
She nodded. “On the way here I realized I have more…healing to do. About Kim. About this thing with my mom. About running from my emotions. I’m going to see a grief counselor. I don’t want to do that to myself—or you—ever again.”
“How about we both go? God knows, I have grief too, and that’s what partners do. They share their pain.”
She raised her head to look at him. His eyes were as puffy as hers had to be. He wasn’t having the best hair day either. But he was so beautiful. She didn’t ever want to look away again, push him away ever again. Her fingertips traced his face.
“I love you. Do you have any idea how much?”
His throat moved. “I love you too, and God, after all this, I hope you know how much.”
They’d reached the moment where words faded, where the mind stopped. She stood on shaky legs and extended her left hand to him, the diamond shining like a yellow star in the night sky.