Adding the handles was wonderfully foolproof, no instructions needed. She put them on one by one, until she got to the last remaining knob.
She screwed it on, and the second it was all the way tightened, she dropped the screwdriver and covered her mouth to hide a sob.
Nick pulled her to her feet, hauling her body against his.
He held her. He held her as she cried big sobs over…she didn’t even know what. Him. The baby. The family unit that would never be because he’d hurt her.
He’d hurt her so bad.
“I know,” he said in a choked voice. “I know, and I’m so fucking sorry.”
She stilled. Had she spoken her pain out loud? Or had he just known?
Didn’t matter. Sorry wasn’t good enough.
She pushed at his shoulders. He let her shove him away, but only just enough so that he could continue to hold her with one arm, using the heel of his other hand to wipe gently at her tears.
“Leave,” she whispered.
Nick shook his head. “Can’t do that.”
“Well, you don’t get to do this,” she said. “You don’t get to accuse me of cheating on you, of trying to pass off someone else’s baby as yours, and then walk out the door. You don’t get to do all that and come back and build a dresser and act like it didn’t happen. Like you didn’t break my heart.”
His face creased in anguish. “Tell me what I can do to make it better. To make you mine again.”
“I don’t want to be yours.”
“You think I don’t know that I don’t deserve you?” he said urgently, cupping her face. “You think I don’t know that I was a fucking idiot? That the baby you’re carrying is mine? I know all of that, Taylor, but here’s what I need you to know. I need you to know that I want that baby so much, but I want you more.”
“Oh, I get it,” she scoffed. “Your dreams of being a dad are finally coming true, and you’ve decided I’m as good a vessel for your progeny as any?”
“Progeny? Vessel? What? No. No. This isn’t about the baby. This is about the fact that I love you.”
Her heart seized up, and she pushed at him. “Don’t say that. Don’t say that! Do you know how long I’ve waited for someone to say that and mean it? Hardly anybody says it, and nobody means it,” she said on a sob. “Nobody means that when they say it to me.”
“I do,” he said softly. “I mean it.”
The simplicity of his response made her go still. There was no pleading, no pretty words. Just that quiet statement that made her hope, that made her long…
“No,” she said shaking her head. “I’m not doing this. We’ll get your paternity test, see that the baby is yours, and then we’ll work out custody, but—”
“Fuck the paternity test,” Nick said angrily. “I know the baby is mine, but it could be Calloway’s or George Clooney’s or Indiana Jones’s and I’d still be right here. I’d still be doing this.”
Taylor’s eyes went wide as he pulled something out of his pocket and dropped to a knee.
His thumb flicked open the simple black box, and a solitaire diamond winked up at her.
“I’d still be asking you to be my wife, Taylor Carr, because I want to marry you. Baby or no baby, you’re the love of my life. And you can say no, and I’ll be annoyed, but then you’ll be annoyed too, because I’m not going to stop asking. Not ever.”
“This is so clichéd,” she whispered. “The post-pregnancy-announcement proposal.”
He shrugged. “Got the ring before that.”
Her eyes flew to his. “You did not.”
“When I was in Oregon. My mom helped me pick it out and was bossy as shit. That’s going to be one more reason I’ll be annoyed if you say no, because I did not endure that process for nothing.”
“You wanted to marry me before you knew I was pregnant?” she whispered, disbelieving and yet wanting so, so much to believe.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Very much.”
She could only stare at him, then the ring, then him again.
Nick sighed. “What’s it going to be, Carr? You can say yes now, or tomorrow, or next year, but you will say yes. And by the way, I’m still paying rent for this place, and it’ll take you time to evict me, and every day you try will be another day I propose, and—”
Taylor’s heart was bursting. There was no choice, really.
She snatched the ring out of the box, but he snatched it right back, standing up and tossing the box aside so he could grab her left hand.
“Please let me do this,” he whispered. “I’ve been dreaming about it for weeks.”
“You’re a sap,” she whispered.
But then she was a sap too, because when he slipped the ring onto her fourth finger, she started crying. Again.
He laughed and pulled her in for a hug. “Is this your new thing? Crying all the time?”
“Having second thoughts?” she said.
“Never,” he whispered, brushing his lips against hers. “I love every version of you, even the soggy one.”
“I love every version of you too,” she said. “Even the idiotic one.”
“I deserved that,” he whispered.
She nodded.
“Good thing I’ve got the rest of our lives to make it up to you,” he whispered before giving her a toe-curling kiss that felt like even more of a promise than the ring.
“Do we know if it’s a girl or boy yet?” he asked softly when they pulled back to breathe.
She shook her head. “No. But if it’s a girl, I’m thinking Taylor Junior. If it’s a boy…Bradley, obviously.”
Nick laughed and scooped her up before walking toward the bed and laying her down gently. He followed, framing her face with his as he moved gently on top of her.
“I knew you were trouble from the very first second, Ms. Carr,” he said, reverently running a finger over her mouth.
“Worth it, though. Right?”
He smiled tenderly. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me. So hell yeah. It was all worth it.”
Epilogue
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
“I suppose the fact that they called to let me know she went into labor makes up for the fact that I didn’t get to be a bridesmaid,” Brit Robbins said, tapping her fingers against the waiting room chair. “Almost.”
Hunter Cross didn’t glance up from the laptop he’d brought to get some work done while they waited. “We’re all so glad to hear it, Brit. Since today’s most definitely about you.”
She kicked his shin.
“I didn’t get to be a bridesmaid either,” Daisy pointed out. “They eloped.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not feeling quite so bad for you, because last year you were the maid of honor at your sister’s wedding, where you met this one,” Brit said, pointing at Lincoln. “I want to meet my Lincoln. A wedding would be a good place to start.”
“Sorry, doll. I’m one of a kind, and a one-woman man,” Lincoln said, resting his hand on Daisy’s knee.
Hunter sighed and shut his laptop with a glare at Lincoln. “Must you? You’re ruining the reputation of men everywhere, giving women the impression we’ll all be as whipped as you. No offense,” he said to Daisy.
She blew him a kiss. “None taken.”