“It’s a good series. I can’t believe I forgot it was Delinda who used to read it to me. I didn’t think I had any good memories of her.”
“She’s a tough cookie, but she has her reasons.”
“Yes, she does. My family is lucky Skye brings out the best in her. That’s no easy feat. She’s a remarkable child.”
“She is.”
“It’s not shocking, though, because you’re pretty damn amazing yourself.”
“So are you.” A lick of desire spread through Hailey, and Spencer tensed beside her.
He whistled softly. “I can see why some people call kids birth control. I’m enjoying a rather filthy fantasy of what I’d like to do with you, but it’s not going to happen with your niece across the hall.”
“Nope.” Hailey smiled. “But she goes back to school soon. There’s always long lunches.”
He nodded slowly. “I like the way you think.” He dug in the pocket of his trousers and produced the ring box again.
Hailey let out a shaky breath. Her life had been a series of highs and lows filled with both love and loss. She couldn’t open herself to one without inviting the possibility of the other. What’s the alternative? To close myself off? To let my fears win? Like Spencer, I don’t want to live or die that way. So here we go.
Spencer moved to stand.
Hailey protested. “You don’t have to—”
“I do. I want to do it right.” He dropped to one knee and held out the ring.
With happy tears welling in her eyes, Hailey sat forward, eye to eye with the man she loved. “I love you.”
With a huge smile, he wagged a finger at her. “Don’t steal my lines. This isn’t something a man has a chance to practice.”
“Oh, sorry,” Hailey said and tried to contain her amusement.
He cleared his throat, then winked. It was endearing and sexy and better than any version of that moment she’d ever allowed herself to imagine. The man kneeling before her was not just a lover, he was also a friend, and that added a whole new layer to what they had. We’re on the same team.
“Hailey Tiverton, any worthwhile advancement in technology includes a period of trial and error. Things that should work—don’t. Whole networks can crash from one faulty upgrade.”
“Okay.” Hailey tipped her head to one side. A joke was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t voice it because he was being sincere.
“I don’t measure the success of a project by how few mistakes I made along the way. I measure it by the end result. We didn’t get here by the shortest route we could have taken, but we’re here. We made it. Just as I can’t imagine the world without the Internet, I can’t imagine my life without you in it. Marry me, Hailey. I love you. You’re my pie, my cake, the only damn pastry I need.”
The man who was on one knee before her was a combination of the boy she’d once loved and the man he’d become. Although he had morphed from football player to successful businessman, his core was still all geek, and she loved him more because of it. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. When she raised her head, she said, “How could I refuse a man who can integrate coding issues and sugary analogies into a proposal? I’m sold. Where do I sign?”
He placed the ring on her finger before rising to his feet and pulling her up and into his arms. “I can think of a better way to seal the deal.”
The bulge of his excitement pulsed against her. “Really? I never would have guessed.”
He laughed, kissed her gently, then sat back onto the couch and patted the place beside her. “You’re heartless.”
“And yet you want to marry me,” she said. Their relationship was the best of what they’d once had and so much more.
He growled playfully and swung her up and across his lap. “That’s because I’m a dick.”
She burst out laughing.
He joined in.
It was a moment that should have ended in a kiss, and would have had they been alone in the house. Instead, she forced her attention away from him and to the rock on her hand. “How do I wear this without being a nervous wreck that I’ll lose it?”
“You don’t like it?”
It was stunning. Flawless. Probably worth more than the total income she’d made since she started working at sixteen. She twirled it on her finger. “It’s too much—too big. I’m not sure I could ever feel like it was mine.”
He ran his hand through her hair in an intimate, possessive caress. “Delinda knew you’d feel that way. Before you give it back, I think you should hear the story of the ring. It just might change your mind.”
A month ago, hell, as recently as that morning, had someone told Spencer that he would be holding Hailey in his arms and quoting Delinda, he would have laughed it off as impossible. One day, one conversation, had changed his perspective of many things.
He took Hailey’s hand in his and turned it so the large diamond shimmered in the light of the lamp beside them. “This ring has been in the Westerly family for at least four generations. Delinda said she told you about her husband and her family.”
“Yes. It’s a sad story.”
“Not all of it. Delinda’s husband, Oliver, didn’t come to her with money, but he did have one possession that was said to be worth enough that he could have started his own business had he sold it.”
“The ring?” Hailey’s eyes rounded as she looked down at it.
“Yes. Oliver had promised his mother, though, that he would never sell it. Generations of Westerlys have treasured that ring. Delinda said that instead of it being given to the oldest son, it was given to the one who could be most trusted to uphold the tradition of passing it on. Tradition, she said, is a bridge to the past that has only lost favor in this generation. The ring doesn’t represent wealth, but in fact, the opposite. Restraint, loyalty, family—above the luxuries that selling it could provide. In the end, everything else is temporary and insignificant, but family endures.”
Hailey’s eyes flew to his. “I completely agree.”
Emotion tightened Spencer’s throat. “Dereck gave it to my mother, but she returned it to Delinda after they divorced. According to Delinda, Dereck felt that he had failed both the generation before and after him.”
“That’s heartbreaking.”
“If you weigh the sum of something by the number of mistakes taken to create it, yes. When Delinda gave me the ring, she said I am 100 percent Westerly. In her heart I have always been and will always be her grandchild, regardless of the blood that runs through my veins. Hearing that meant more to me than any inheritance ever could. I guess that’s the point of the ring.”
“Your batshit-crazy family can be pretty wonderful sometimes.”
“Who knew?” he joked as he nuzzled Hailey’s neck. “And I’m glad you feel that way because they’ll be your family soon.”