The intensity of his expression made her breath catch in her chest. Still, she forced herself to be rational. Not to be manipulated by those romantic tendencies he was all too capable of using against her.
“You mean it’s the easy thing for you,” she pointed out.
This time, he was the one who laughed. But instead of cynicism, there was genuine warmth in his laughter. “Lucy, when have you ever been easy on me?”
“Good point.”
He reached up to cradle her face in his hands. “You drive me crazy. You make me doubt myself and question everything I do. Being married to you definitely won’t be easy. But I need you.”
Her heart felt tight in her chest. She so desperately wanted to believe him. But she’d been fooled by him before. Been tricked into believing in sincerity when sincerity wasn’t there.
“Let me guess. You need someone to pick up your laundry and you think I’ll fall for it since you can dangle Isabella in front of me like a carrot.”
“No. I need you, Lucy. Not someone else. Just you. You’re the only one capable of breaking down these walls I’ve been building around myself. You’re the only one who can teach me how to be an uncle and a husband and a father. You’re the only one I want to bear the child I didn’t even know I wanted to have. It’s got to be you, Lucy. You’re the only one up to it.”
“Children?” she asked, more than a little in shock.
“You didn’t think after teaching me to be a dad I’d be willing to settle for being just an uncle, did you? Besides, Isabella needs cousins.”
“Dex, how can you ask me to marry you when you haven’t even forgiven me for lying to you about who I was?”
“Who says I haven’t forgiven you?”
“Well…” She fumbled for a moment, searching for an answer. “Logic does. I can barely forgive myself for the way I messed up your life, for how my lies hurt you. I thought I was doing the right thing for Isabella, but—”
“Exactly. You were doing what you thought was right for Isabella.” He took her hands in his, his thumbs tracing delicate circles around their backs. “All my life I’ve blamed my parents for not putting our needs before their own. How can I blame you for doing the opposite? Every decision you made, you thought of her first. That’s exactly what I’d want from the mother of my children.”
“I…I don’t know what to say.”
“Say ‘yes.’” And then his lips quirked into a smile. “A definite yes would be nice this time.”
And, oh, dear God, she wanted to. Pure yearning nearly pulled out of her the “yes” he wanted. Only caution held her tongue.
She had to force herself to step away from him. “It’s not that I don’t want to say ‘yes’—”
“Then what is it? Another secret identity you’ve kept hidden from me? Another child of your sister’s you’ve been pretending was your own?”
Because there was still humor in his voice, she forced herself to smile. But before she could voice her protest, he grabbed the ring box and went down on one knee. Popping the box open with his thumb, he presented it to her.
Nestled within the black velvet of the jeweler’s box was a ring, but not the one she’d expected. Set into a simple platinum band was a round, blue-green stone, its surface polished smooth to reveal a pale six-rayed star.
She looked from him to the ring and back. “It’s lovely. Is it an opal?”
“No, it’s a star sapphire.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what he expected her to say.
“You want to know the real reason I never gave you that damn ring from my father? I don’t like diamonds.”
“Oh,” she repeated, this time with dawning comprehension, as a glimmer of hope pierced her confusion.
“Actually, I hate the things. That particular one more than most. To me, it doesn’t represent love, it’s just proof of his stubborn tenacity.”
“Then why—”
“Why did I give it to Isabella? Because whether or not I like them, isn’t the point. That ring is part of her heritage. I may not want it, but someday she probably will. Of course, I could give you some other diamond. But I don’t like any of them. I think they’re plain and colorless. They’re boring. They’re not even particularly rare. People only value them because advertising companies have worked hard to make them the symbol of everlasting love.”
He stood, took the ring box from her fingers and pulled the ring out. Taking her hand in his, he slid the ring onto her ring figure. “But look at the star sapphire. Look at its brilliant color. Look at the way it moves in the light.” He gently twisted her wrist first in one direction, then the other. As he did so, the star seemed to shimmer across the surface of the stone. “It’s almost alive. It’s enchanting. It’s a stone you could look at every day for the rest of your life.”
A faint gasp escaped her lips as she twisted her hand, watching the star’s progression across the stone.
“Of course, I could just grab a big diamond from the family vault if you’d prefer.” He made to remove the ring from her finger.
She jerked her hand away, with a giggle. “No. It’s mine now. You’re not getting it back that easily.”
“But you’re still hesitating.”
And how could she explain that after he’d gone to such lengths to give her the big gesture, she wanted the little words to go with it. That without them, she couldn’t really believe.
“I’m just afraid…” She stepped away from him, giving herself a little room. “Look, the woman you think you want doesn’t even exist. You were never really attracted to me. You wanted my sister, or rather, what you remembered of her. Some exotic stranger you met in a bar. That was the woman you desired.”
He actually had the gall to laugh at her. She felt a stab of pain, deep in her heart. Just when she thought her defenses against him would hold…
“How shallow do you think I am? No, wait. Don’t answer that. I already know.” He took her chin in his hand and forced her to look up at him. “I’m not some high school boy to be manipulated. I know what I want. And don’t flatter yourself. You’re not that good of an actress.”
Before she could protest, he continued on.
“You never really pulled off pretending to be your sister. I never mistook you for some good-time party girl I’d picked up in a bar. I never thought you were just some ‘exotic stranger’—to use your term. I always knew you weren’t the woman I picked up at the bar that night.”
“How? What do you—”
“Oh, I believed you were Isabella’s mother alright. I believed you were physically the woman I’d slept with. But I knew you were different. I just assumed motherhood had changed you. Transformed you into someone I could imagine loving. You said I’d fallen in love with an illusion.”
“I never claimed you’d fallen in love,” she protested.
“Ah.” Awareness flickered across his face. “No, you didn’t, did you? You accused me of feeling attraction. Not love. I bet you still don’t even believe I love you.”
“I—”
He tilted her chin up to face him more fully, but she refused to meet his gaze.
“The truth is, I barely remember meeting and sleeping with your sister. If you hadn’t shown up on my doorstep, I literally never would have given her a second thought. It’s you I can’t get out of my head. It’s you I love.”
Once again he cradled her face in his palms. This time, he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. Unlike every other kiss they’d shared, this one was gentle. A delicate request. Light as air and soft as the morning sun drifting through a window.
When he pulled back, his heart and his love were in his eyes. “Don’t make me ask you a fourth time because you know I’m not going to give up this easily.”
“Yes.” And she kissed him again. “Yes, Dex. I’ll marry you.”
As he kissed her again—a real Dex kiss this time—she couldn’t help but marvel at her luck. All she’d done in the past month was make mistakes. And somehow it had still ended perfectly.
Epilogue
I sabella, now a rambunctious fourteen-month-old, sat in her high chair, swinging her legs back and forth, kicking the base of the table. One hand clutched the handle of a sippy cup, the other a fistful of Cheerios.
Dex shot an exasperated look at Lucy. “I don’t think she understands.”Lucy, suppressing a smile, crossed to where he sat in the chair beside Isabella’s high chair. She rubbed her hand along his shoulder, soothing the lines of tension in his muscles. He shifted toward her and she automatically stepped between his open legs. “Of course she doesn’t understand. Not really.”
Dex tugged on her arm, pulling her down onto his knee. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and leaned into his chest, marveling at his strength. Relishing the feel of his body against hers, so strong and comforting.
Marveling at her luck, as well. This man would do anything for her. Anything for the child she now carried in her belly.
Dex absently ran a hand over her protruding stomach, obviously not even noticing that the muscles were taut with a contraction of early labor. To Isabella, he said, “The new baby will take a lot of our attention at first. But that doesn’t mean we love you any less.”
Isabella giggled, no doubt amused by her uncle’s serious expression and tone. She brought her fist to her mouth and shoveled in the Os. With one still clinging to her lips, she brought the tips of her fingers together in the baby sign for “more.”
Lucy put another handful of Cheerios on the tray of Isabella’s high chair, her heart so full she thought it might burst. She had more joy in her life than she’d ever imagined. A child on the way. A husband who loved her. A niece she adored and—now that Lucy and Dex had moved into their own house—who lived just around the corner.