His hand left my thigh and cupped my face, his thumb pressing against my lips.
“Never again,” he growled. “Don’t ever mention that again, Izzy. I’m not stupid with money and God knows you aren’t. I wouldn’t do it if I couldn’t do it or I didn’t want to do it, even if me wanting to do it is doing something that’s for you. But I like horses and you have horses that I like and I’ll want our kids raised around animals, including horses, so now’s the time. We get stables. And I’ll buy you shoes and give you a huge-ass diamond ring and build this mill into a house you love and you’ll know I’m doing it smart. You’ll know I’m doing it because I can afford it and because I want to. And I’ll know the days you had to make do, you had to eat shit, ended the night you met me. It’s not gonna be about four-dollar dining room chairs and taking someone else’s castoffs and making it into something that works anymore. And if you got trouble swallowing that, right now, know to your soul that I know to mine I was put on this earth to do exactly that for you. So I’m gonna do it and you, Izzy, you’re gonna let me.”
“I’ll want a garden,” I whispered, my voice thick with the emotion that was welling inside, put there with all Johnny just said to me, and he moved his thumb from my lips.
“We’ll pick the spot this weekend and I’ll turn over the dirt in spring.”
Of course he would.
“And I’m gonna be buying new wineglasses before I move in,” I shared. “Yours are nice and all, but they’re kinda . . . utilitarian.”
He grinned at me. “Go crazy.”
“I’d bring mine but they’re a little too . . . girlie for the mill.”
“I think the mill might shatter those glasses through angry vibes if you tried,” he joked.
I was not joking when I asked, “If you were put on this earth to take care of me, what was I put on this earth to do for you?”
His brows knit.
“To make me happy,” he said, like I wasn’t quite all there.
“Johnny—”
“To make me laugh.”
I shut my mouth.
“To help me make babies.”
I started to draw circles on his neck with my thumb and I did this in an effort to distract me from needing to cry.
“To give them a good mother because you learned from the best,” he went on.
Okay, now he was totally going to make me cry.
And yet, he wasn’t done.
“To give me a wife made of iron and steel and everything strong all bound up in feathers and kitten fur and everything soft. One I’ll always know loves me. One I’ll always know will never leave me. The going will get tough, and you’ll stick. We’ll fight, and you’ll stick. Our world could rock, Eliza, and there’s one thing I’m certain about, you’ll stick.”
The tear that fell from my eye dropped into his beard.
Johnny moved his thumb to my cheek to sweep the trail of wet it left behind away.
“Have I mentioned the sex kitten who lets me do what I want with her and doesn’t mind lying on me, covered in my cum?” he asked quietly.
I swallowed and replied huskily, “No, you hadn’t mentioned that yet.”
He gave me a gentle smile. “Well, there’s also that.” The smile ran away and he whispered, “He didn’t come back for you because he’s a mammoth asshole, not because you weren’t worth coming back for. And if it takes until you die, baby, and if it takes every dime I have, I’ll do everything I can so you die knowing just how fucking amazing you are and that’s worth anything and everything.”
I could take no more so I shoved my face in his neck.
Johnny slid his fingers in my hair and cupped the back of my head.
It took me some time, but when all he said had settled deep, I asked, “Did you buy the ring?”
“Oh no, sp?tzchen, doing that up big. You don’t get to know when and you don’t get to know how. It could be dinner and candlelight and champagne, and I might even be moved to get down on a knee. It could be we’re at the shack right after I come back from fishing, bringing up dinner you’re not gonna eat. It could be after I make you come and you’re all soft and wet and sweet for me. It could be over the eggs I make for your breakfast. It could be anytime, but you won’t know the time. I can just promise it’ll be the perfect time. A time I can be sure I’ll remember the look on your face so I can tell our kids the story of when their daddy gave their momma her ring. So right now you know you’re my world and I’m holding on to that for always, but you aren’t gonna know when I’m gonna ask you to marry me.”
“I’m all right with that,” I muttered.
His voice sounded amused when he replied, “Well, that’s good. Now you think we should hit the shower and then maybe eat some dinner?”
I lifted my head. “Can we take a bath instead?”
He looked in my eyes and continued to be the only thing he could be.
All that was Johnny.
“We can do whatever you want, Izzy.”
I smiled at him.
And he smiled back at me.
Then we got out of bed and took a bath.
I moved in with Johnny a week and two days later.
Addie and Brooks stayed at my place rent free for the next month, and the month after that, when her attorney that Johnny paid trounced Perry, she started paying the mortgage.
Perry was awarded one weekend a month of visitation.
He came and got Brooks twice and then never came again.
He also paid child support twice and never paid it again.
During this time, Addie very poorly hid she was falling in love with Toby.
For his part, Toby very poorly hid that he was falling in love with Addie.
Brooks, however, didn’t bother hiding he’d gone head over heels for both the Gamble men.
And just to say, all that was very fun to watch play out.
Deanna and Margot thought so too.
Though Johnny didn’t agree with us.
Johnny didn’t get down on a knee.
But there was champagne and roses on his dining room table and the steaks he made with the garlic and herb cheese I loved so much.
He’d duped me.
First, he cooked all the time. He cooked because he was home first and said he was hungry.
But I knew he did it for me.
Steaks were special but he was a good cook so everything he made was fantastic.
Also, when I moved in, he found out I hit Macy’s Flower Shop every Friday. So he started to have flowers delivered every Thursday.
That was Johnny Gamble.
Yes.
That was my Johnny.
They’d broken ground on the stables that day. The day he proposed. We’d approved plans within a week of him finding a contractor he wanted to go with. They didn’t have a lot of time before there was a danger the ground might freeze so Johnny was paying for double the manpower so I could have Serengeti and Amaretto with me.
I didn’t say a word.
I should have known when I came home and there was a pink shoebox sitting on the island that contained the pair of tie-strap, suede Alexandre Birman sandals I’d been rhapsodizing about on the laptop when Deanna was over the week before.
He was trying to throw me off the scent by being doubly generous.