Chapter 728
“Gavin—”
“In your speech earlier, you mentioned that in your childhood, you wanted a joint wedding with your best friend,” I said, cutting off whatever she was about to say. She blinked up at me, surprised, but after a moment, she nodded slowly.
“I did say that, yes,” she confirmed.
“It got me thinking that I could never give you that,” I admitted, hating how her face fell a little and the light dimmed from her eyes. “I could never give you the wedding you wanted as a child…”
She nodded.
“I know…” she said, her voice coming out as a broken whisper.
She was trying to hide away her pain, but I could feel it because of our mate bond. I could feel it as if it were my own. She looked away for a moment; holding my gaze had become too painful.
“I could never give you that wedding because when I marry you, Judy, I want that day to be all about us,” I told her, dipping my head to capture her eyes again. “I would never want to share that moment with anyone else. When I marry you, it won’t be at the tail end of someone else’s vows. It’s our day. Just you. Just me. Because you deserve every bit of it.”
Her breathing got caught in her throat as she sucked in sharp breath; realization dawning on her.
“Gavin…” she whispered, her eyes holding mine steady.
I dipped my head lower, capturing her lips with mine, tasting her because I couldn’t stand not tasting her for a second longer. My tongue slid across her bottom lip, and she parted her mouth to let me in, but I didn’t accept the invitation because I wasn’t done yet.
I stopped the kiss, smiling when she made a small, distressed sound from the loss of contact. “You healed parts of me that I didn’t think could heal. You filled me with something that I thought died a long time ago,” I whispered against her lips You filled my house with and laughter after it’s been empty for so long. You thawed a heart that was kept frozen and turned my house into a home again.
Tears spilled from her cheeks, and her lips trembled. I kissed her lightly on the lips before pulling back.
I put my hands on her rounded belly, feeling our baby between us. “And now you are giving me and my family the greatest gift we could ever ask for,” I told her. “You are giving us hope for a better future… You are completing our family.” “I love you,” she whispered, her tone quivering. “And your children.”
I smiled down at her, my heart swelling with so much love I thought it was going to burst. I pulled away from her even more, my arms dropped from her waist, and she frowned at the loss of contact as her hands fell to her sides as well. I reached into my suit pocket, pulling something out that’s been weighing me down all night.
I wasn’t sure when the right moment for this would be; I had this ring picked out for weeks, and so many times I had wanted to give it to her, but none of those moments felt right. At least not until now. Her eyes grew large when she saw the black velvet box in my hands, and when I opened it, her hands flew to her mouth as she gasped.
“Marry me,” I said it as a command, though it was actually a question. “Let me spend every day proving to you that even when you’re a mess, even when life gets hard, and complicated and messy, you’ll never Stop being one of the most extraordinary things that’s ever happened to me. I want you as my Luna, my mate, the mother of my children… and as my wife.”