His Love for Her (Carmel Springs Book 10)

Chapter 10

Without another word, Ransom took the box from my hands, then I watched as he removed the ring before slipping it on my finger. I stared at the ring as it sparkled, and I honestly didn't know how to feel right now. There were so many emotions swirling around in my chest that I couldn't focus on just one. I was happy, scared, relieved, embarrassed, and tired...very, very, very tired.

I looked up over at Ransom, and he was looking at me like I was his whole world. He was looking at me like I'd always hoped that my future husband would. He looked like he wanted to be here with me, and that's all that I had ever wanted for myself. Those silver eyes were drinking me in, and I had to smile when I realized something.

"You're not even going to ask?"

Ransom shook his head. "Hell no," he snorted. "Do I look stupid? I'm not giving you a chance to say no."

"Because you're sure that I'd still say no?" I teased.

"Bexley, the last thing that I'm ever going to do is take you for granted again," he said softly. "I've done enough of that during these past two years, don't you think?"

"You know, we still have a lot to work out, Ransom," I sighed, knowing that it wasn't going to be this easy. "I've loved you for so long without you loving me back that...I'm going to have my moments."

"You can have a million moments," he replied as he reached up to cup my face with one hand. "As long as you're mine, you can have however many emotional meltdowns that you want to, baby." His lip curled in a smirk. "Though truth be told, I'd rather have you spitting mad at me than sad."

"Like that angry sex, do you?" I smirked back.

His face softened. "Nah, baby," he lied. "I'd rather deal with your temper than your tears. Your tears are fucking brutal for me." His thumb started rubbing back and forth over my cheek. "These past few days have been fucking awful, Bexley."

"I'm sorry," I said, finally apologizing for my part in all this. "You were right. I could have easily said something also. I was scared. I thought that this was nothing but a good time for you, and it was one thing to expect my heart to get broken, but another to actually have it happen."

"Baby, you're not the only one that hadn't wanted to take the risk, so I understand," he replied graciously. "But if there's one thing that we both need to promise, it's that we will never not communicate again. No matter how ugly or uncomfortable, we share what we're thinking and feeling."

"Deal," I agreed, smiling. "Now that there's no getting rid of me, that'll be easier to do."

Ransom smirked again. "I think that's the other way around, baby. There's no getting rid of me."

Feeling better than I could ever remember, I said, "I like the sound of that a lot."

*****

Ransom~

I didn't want to be here, but not because I was a coward. It was Monday, and Mondays always fucking sucked. Though we had plenty of guys working for us, since we were a hands-on kind of management, I actually had a shit ton of things to do.

There was also the fact that Bexley and I were getting married in two weeks. While we were going to get married in Mr. Colter's backyard per tradition, we had wanted to give everyone enough time to make our wedding day work for their schedules. It was really Clayton, Brett, Jax, and Stevie that needed to switch some things around in order to attend, but advance notice was always the considerate thing to do. Nothing was worse than some last-minute shit that wasn't an emergency.

At any rate, I was at Nichols & Nichols this fine morning because Bexley had insisted on it. Though I didn't feel as if I owed Colin Byrnes any kind of apology, Bexley was still upset that I had threatened him. She claimed that she didn't want to spend the rest of her employment at Nichols & Nichols feeling like she had to apologize on my behalf whenever she saw him.