Page 121 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
Somehow, in her now empty apartment, Jada found her standing in the middle with Ben, Luiz, and Raymundo standing to her left and her mother, Ricky and Arturo standing to her right.
She stared at Gideon as he walked toward her. He stood there looking down at her for a moment, then dropped down on one knee.
He is not really on one knee, was he?
He looked up at her, his eyes twinkling.
“Now that I have successfully survived a night with your five brothers, I have a question to ask you.”
Holy shit. This is happening!
Jada raised one eyebrow. “And that would be?”
He pulled a light blue ring box out of his jacket and opened it up. It took everything she had not to squeal. For the fourth or fifth time that morning, her head whipped around to look at her mom. Then she pulled herself together and again gave Gideon the best bored-face she could under the circumstances, which werenotboring at all. She was excited as hell.
Gideon pulled the luscious, gorgeous, fantastic ring out of the box, and tugged her left hand toward him. “Will you marry me?” he asked solemnly.
“Oh yes,” she breathed out. “I love you, Gideon Henry Smith. I want to be with you until forever ends.”
Gideon slid the ring on her finger and it fit perfectly. He stood up and pulled her into his arms. “That sounds like it might just be long enough.”
Two MonthsLater
Gideon loved coming home nowthat Jada was living with him. He’d liked it before, but now he loved it. He’d really been looking forward to this weekend. He’d been out with his team at the Zussman Urban Combat Training Center at Fort Knox in Kentucky for three days, and after the hell Kane and Simon had put them through six months ago, they were in top-notch shape.
When he parked his Land Rover in the garage beside Jada’s Mini-Cooper, he was surprised he didn’t hear Lucy barking. His gut clenched. Ever since that night when the intruders had shocked her, he always watched out for her to make sure that there were no long-lasting effects.
After closing the garage door, he went into the house.
“Jada, is everything all right?” he called out.
“Everything is perfect,” Jada replied. “I’ll be right there, Honey.”
“Where’s Lucy?” he asked as he walked through the mudroom into the kitchen. He spotted Jada winding around the kitchen island to greet him. Then his head shot up when he saw Lucy sitting next to the couch with her big head in his mother’s lap.
“Jada?” he asked, his voice hoarse. “What’s going on?”
“Your mother wanted to come for a visit.”
He lowered his voice. “Do you mean to tell me my mother called you up out of the blue and said, ‘Hi, Jada, I want to reconcile with my son, can you arrange it?’”
“Well, uhm.”
“It’s not polite to whisper, Gideon.” His mother’s reprimand was said in the same old soft and loving way that she’d always had. Never belittling, just a way to remind and teach.
Gideon’s heart clenched.
“Ma.” He didn’t know what to say. He had too much to say. Jada wrapped one arm around his waist and the other around his bicep.
“Your Mom and I were just thinking about what to cook for dinner,” she said as she began to usher him toward the couch.
“Ma, you’re here in my home,” Gideon breathed. “Why? Why after all this time?”
She stood up and held out her hands and he grasped them, clutched at them. “I was so torn apart after your father died, that I couldn’t get out of my own way. You tried to get ahold of me. You wrote me letters telling me what happened, but I didn’t want to read them. Mikey told me, but it seemed like I would be betraying your father if I forgave you.”
He tried to let go of her hands, but she held tight. “No, Son, listen to me. I was wrong. I was so wrong.”
“Ma, I understood why you were mad and disappointed with me. I got it. I deserved it.”
