Page 62 of Mine to Hold
I wondered if I should get dressed for it, but in the end, I decided against it. If it went the way I was hoping it would, my clothes would just be coming right off again anyway. Closing my fingers over the box, I turned back around and took in the sight she made, lying there in her bed with hair loose and messy, her lips puffy from the force of my kisses.
Her blue eyes were blazing with curiosity as they locked on mine. She pushed herself up on her forearms. “Colt? What are you doing?”
“You might want to sit up for this.” I went back over to the bed, kneeling down in front of it and taking her hand in mine when she took my suggestion and sat up. “I know this is a long shot, but I’m going to take it. I love you, Emma Lee. I was a fool for not telling you back in Paris, and that’s why I’m doing this right now, before I waste even more time that I could’ve had with you. To quote my sister, I was stupid, but I don’t want to be stupid anymore. I love you and I don’t want to wait, but if you do, then I’ll ask again when you’re ready. I’ll keep asking until you’re ready. Lord knows, I made you wait long enough for my dumb ass to come around. If I have to wait for you, I will. I will wait as long as I have to, but just in case you’re tired of waiting, I’ll ask right now. Will you marry me, Emma?”
She’d started gaping at me the moment she’d realized what was going on, and she didn’t stop immediately when I was done talking. Too many emotions to name passed over her features, but the dominant one, miraculously, was joy.
“Of course, I will,” she whispered. Then her hands were on me and she was pulling me back up onto the bed and kissing me at the same time, repeating her answer between fervent kisses as she wrapped her arms and legs around me. “I love you too, Colt. I love you so much. Of course, I’ll marry you.”
I’d never felt anything like the happiness and relief that I did in that moment. It was so intense that it brought tears to my eyes and made me feel like some kind of superhero, a man who would be invincible as long as I had her by my side.
“On one condition,” she murmured into my mouth and my entire being froze.
My heart started throbbing in my chest as I pulled back to look into her eyes. “What’s that?”
“There’s one place I’d like to travel to as soon as possible.”
I frowned. “Yeah? Where do you want to go? Name it and I’ll take you there anytime you want.”
“Las Vegas,” she said simply. “To get married without having to wait months and months before we get to say our I-dos.”
Lowering my head back down to hers, I kissed her deeply before breaking away just long enough to give her my answer. “I’ll have us on a flight out there tomorrow. Your parents are in Arizona, right? Tell them to check their emails. I’ll send them their tickets as soon as we’re done here.”
She laughed into my mouth, pulling me closer and murmuring how much she loved me before sealing her mouth over mine and making me forget that the rest of the world even existed.
Emma was my entire world now, and she always would be.
EPILOGUE
EMMA
It wasn’t quite the next day, but a month later, Teddy and I were standing in the bridal suite above an upscale wedding chapel in Las Vegas. She was standing behind me, smoothing out the folds in my wedding dress as she smiled at me in the reflection of the mirror in front of us.
“That was a pretty cool experience last night,” she said, looking a little tired but not too worse for wear. “Having a last hurrah in Vegas was a great idea.”
“I’m hoping it helped ease the transition for Colt,” I replied nervously. “He’s so used to a different lifestyle that I figured it might help if he had something like this to look forward to. Everyone had fun, right?”
She chuckled, letting go of my dress with one hand and pointing at her eyes. “We had a little too much fun, if you ask me. Everyone seems to be a little loopy today, but that definitely made breakfast more fun, too. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the same for the rest of the day.”
“I didn’t think so many people would show up,” I admitted. “When Parker, Hunter, Nash, Josh, and their wives all flew to Ohio to visit last month, I thought that would be the last we’d be seeing of them for a while.”
“It’s never going to be the last you’ll be seeing of them for a while. That group is tight. Maybe even as tight as we are. It doesn’t matter where they live or how far apart that might be, they’re always going to be in each other’s lives.”
“I like them.” I smiled as I thought back to their visit and then their absolute exhilaration and energy when we’d all arrived yesterday before the bachelor and bachelorette parties last night. “I’m glad they’ll still be in Colt’s life. I’ve been worried that if he misses anything or anyone too much, he’s just going to take off again.”
“He’s not,” she said firmly, her expression serious when her gaze came back to mine. “The consulting has been going well, and he told me just the other day how much he’s enjoying the slower pace. He was ready for it, Em. Are you, though? Ready for it, I mean?”
“Are you asking if I’m getting cold feet?”
She shrugged. “I’m the maid of honor. It’s my duty to ask before you have to walk down the aisle, and seeing as how we’re just about coming up on that time, it’s now or never.”
I laughed, shaking my hands out in an attempt to rid myself of some of the nerves rushing through me. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I want to marry Colt and have his babies, but I’m worried he might not feel the same way. It’s just all been so much of a whirlwind, you know? I’m scared that once the romance and excitement of it all fades and he’s left with me in Rockdale, he might realize he’s made a mistake.”
“If that’s what you’re worried about, then you’re as dumb as he is,” she said, laughing as she smoothed my dress out one more time. “He’s not going to change his mind. He might even want everything you just mentioned more than you do.”
She cocked her head and held my gaze in the reflection. “Colt always felt like there was a great big world out there that could be his for the taking if he wasn’t stuck in some small town in a lonely corner of Ohio. He needed to get out there and experience it for himself, but he’s done that. Now he’s happy to be back. Really. Scott and I have both been talking to him about it a lot, especially Scott, since he did the same thing for me that Colt did for you, and he’s over the fucking moon about settling down with you in Rockdale.”
“We’re going to Spain for a week in two months’ time. He needs to sign off on that project he was supposed to go there for after Paris. What if we get there and he realizes how much he misses it all?”
