When her doorbell rang, she frowned and set the paper aside. Maybe Rose or Paige had come to check on her. Her sister-in-law had told her to take a few days off to get her feet under her before facing the gossip mines and she hadn’t taken no for an answer.
But, as she walked to the door, she could see the outline of a light bar across a big SUV through the curtains and her heart turned over in her chest. It was Drew, and it was too early to be a casual visit even if they hadn’t just broken up.
She smoothed her hair, which was a wasted effort, then pulled open the door. He looked as tired and wrung out as she felt, and she stepped back. “Come in.”
“I love you.”
She’d expected words. Maybe an apology. More explaining. She hadn’t expected him to stand there with such serious eyes and hand her his heart.
“I love you,” he said again. “I want to have babies. I want to have your babies. I want a daughter with your blue eyes and your laugh and I want sons who live to kick my ass in water ball. I want little children of doom running through my house.”
She smiled, feeling how shaky it was because she was trying to hold back the tears.
“But more than that, Liz, I want you to be my wife. Holding you and loving you for the rest of my life is what will fulfill me. You once told me you wanted to turn a man inside out. You do that to me. You turn me inside out and upside down and a little bit sideways.”
“I love you, too,” she told him because it was the truth and it seemed to important to get it out there in case she fell apart before she could say anything else.
“When I said getting involved with you was a mistake, that was a lie. It was a lie I was telling myself and then I told it to you. What was a mistake was not being willing to take a chance on us without some kind of guarantee we would be okay. I was scared to believe in what we have. I was so afraid of putting my faith in love again only to find out it wasn’t real. I still am.”
And she wasn’t? But she knew Mallory hiding her true feelings from him was something he’d probably never get over. “I’ve never lied to you, Drew. I never will.”
“Not deliberately. But what if you finally figure out what you want to do with your life and it’s not here? Or it’s not with me?” The ragged emotional fear in his voice tore at her heart.
“I know now that figuring out what I want to do with my life was just a way of saying I’m looking for the thing that will make me happy. Or I was looking.” She reached out for his hand. “I was happy with you. I’m not happy without you. It’s that simple.”
“I want you to marry me, Liz. I want us to be a family and, when the time comes that we’re ready to have kids, then our family will get bigger. Until then, I don’t want to spend another minute without you.”
“Yes,” she whispered, looping her arms around his neck. “I want to marry you and have children of doom to kick your ass in water ball. I want a loud and messy and crazy life with you.”
He pulled her close and kissed her until the hurt drained away and all that was left was love and hope for their future. Then he kissed her some more.
“You should tell Rose as soon as possible,” he said once he decided to let her breathe. “My dad’s checked on me about twenty times and I think it’s Rosie’s doing.”
She smiled up at him. “I saw the curtains across the street move and what I think was a camera. I think we just had our engagement portrait taken and it’ll be up on Facebook before you can come inside and shut the door.”
“Good. I want everybody to know,” he said. But he stepped inside and nudged the door closed with his foot. “I love you and I don’t intend to ever hide that.”
“I love you, too.”
When he lowered his mouth to hers again, she sighed happily against his lips. Sure enough, within a few seconds, her cell phone started to ring, and then his right after that.
“Ignore them.” He laughed, and then took her hand to lead her inside. “Let’s go get loud and messy and crazy.”