Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“Will you marry me, baby?”
“Oh my God.” She lifts her right hand, covering her mouth as her eyes, still on her ring, fill with tears.
“Baby.” I squeeze her hips, and her eyes finally come to me. “Will you?”
“Yes!” She leans in, pressing her mouth to mine. “God, yes, yes,” she says as the tears spill over. Taking my face between her hands, she rests her forehead to mine. “I love you, Harlen, so, so, so much.”
“I love you too, Angel.” I touch my lips to hers and pull her against my chest when she suddenly sobs. “I don’t really like hearing you cry.” I slide my hand up and down her back, and she laughs through her tears, tucking her face deeper against my throat.
“Sorry, I… I… I’ll stop in a second,” she says, and I close my eyes, feeling her tears wet the skin of my neck. Fuck, I wish my mom and dad were alive to meet her, to see I did good, that I found an amazing woman to share my life with, to build a family with.
“I wish my parents could have met you,” I whisper aloud, and her arms tighten around me and her body bucks on a loud sob that’s painful to hear. “They would have loved you baby, fucking loved you for me.”
“I wish… I… I wish I could have met them.” She hiccups, and I kiss her hair, running my hand down her back. “They made you the way you are, so they had to be amazing, so amazing. I know I would have loved them.”
Killing me. Fucking killing me.
“Baby,” I whisper against her ear, holding her tighter.
“I love you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for making it easy for me to trust you, to fall in love with you.”
Yes, totally fucking killing me.
“I gotta tell you something,” I say, and her head comes out of my neck, her eyes searching mine.
“What is it?” she asks, worry filling her voice.
“My last name’s MacCabe.”
“Yeah, I know,” She smiles, leaning in to touch her mouth to mine, but I pull back, keeping her where she is.
“You ever hear that name before?”
“Aside from you, no.” She shakes her head then shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe in a romance novel or something. Why?”
“My parents owned MacCabe Lumber in California. When they passed, they left the company to me.”
“Okay,” she drawls, sounding confused, and I give her waist a squeeze.
“What I’m trying to say is I’ve got money, a lot of it.”
“You have money?” she repeats, her brows drawing together.
“Yeah.”
“A lot of it,” she adds, and I nod. “What do you mean ‘a lot of it’?”
“I mean I’ve got enough money to take care of you, any kids we have, buy a mansion, this place, a beach house, take trips, and live large, still never making a dent in that money.”
“Holy shit,” she breathes, eyes wide with shock and her lips parting as she stares at me.
“We won’t be doing any of those things,” I tell her, and she blinks. “We’ll go on trips, yes, buy a bigger place when we need to, again yes, but the rest, no.” I shake my head, feeling her fingers dig into my shoulders.
“I don’t care about your money,” she whispers, and I slide my hand up into her hair and pull her closer.
“I know you don’t, since until a second ago you didn’t even know I had any. I’m telling you, because I needed you to know. It’s part of who I am, but not who I am.”
“All I want is you.”
“And you got me, all of me. Always.”
Her eyes close, and when they open, her hands slide from my shoulders to my neck then up into my hair. “Then I don’t care about anything else.”
“Love you, Angel.”
“I don’t love you, Harlen. Whatever this is, it isn’t love. I don’t think there’s a word in the English language to describe how I feel for you,” she confesses, and my arms tighten around her as I shove my face between her neck and shoulder and I hold onto her, doing it tightly, knowing I’ll have this for the rest of my life. This contentment, this peace, and this happiness, as long as I have her.
***
“It’s beautiful, perfect Mom more than that it’s special, he made it using his mom’s diamond… I know but just wait until you see it,” I hear Harmony say, as I step out onto the front deck of the cabin the next morning. Seeing her curled up in one of the chairs with the phone to her ear and her hand out in front of her, moving her finger and watching the light catch on her ring, I smile. “No, I’m not upset I didn’t get to ask him to marry me.” She laughs then her head lifts, her eyes meeting mine, as her smile gets brighter.