Slow Heat

“Oh, good save,” Gray muttered. “Makes up for him being so slow on the uptake.”

Penny smacked Gray lightly on the chest. “Shh. And it wouldn’t hurt you to be taking notes here, Mr. Not Romantic. You might actually learn something.”

Gray sighed and reached for another piece of pizza.

Hud lowered his head and brushed his mouth over Bailey’s. “I knew my mistake instantly,” he murmured, “I don’t know why I resisted.”

“You were hoping I’d be scared off.”

“I was,” Hud admitted.

She nodded. “You about done with that?”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “Yeah.”

“Good.”

Hud couldn’t believe his luck, that she was really here looking at him like she always did, as if he was the most important thing to her. He’d never get tired of that, and how he’d thought he could live without her, he had no idea. “I love you, Bailey. So very much. I have since I first laid eyes on you.”

“On Devil’s Face,” she said softly. “When you inferred that I was a very stupid woman for being somewhere I didn’t belong.”

“If anyone was stupid that day, it was me,” he said. “But that wasn’t the first time I saw you. It was earlier that morning. You were in the parking lot, sitting on your back bumper putting on your boots. Your cap was so bright it made me need sunglasses. You were singing Ed Sheeran. Your eyes were shining with…” He closed his own eyes. “Happiness,” he said. “You were incredibly happy, and what I didn’t know then but know now is that you were just feeling lucky as hell to even be breathing.”

She inhaled, slow and deep and a little shaky. “Yes,” she whispered.

“I took one look at you and you—”

“—made you want to run in the opposite direction?”

“Smile,” he said. “You made me smile. I wanted to know who you were. I wanted to breathe your air and take in some of your glow and feel everything you were feeling because I wasn’t,” he said. “Feeling. I’d closed myself off and yet one look at you and I knew what I was missing.”

“Oh, Hud,” she whispered.

“I have this recurring nightmare,” he said. “You take off with your list and vanish, and I never see you again.”

“I’d never do that,” she said.

“I know, and I realize now that’s not even what my real nightmare would be. My real nightmare would be if you never spoke to me again.”

“C-H-E-E-S-Y,” Gray stage-whispered to Penny.

“I took one look at you,” Hud said to Bailey, “and control went flying out the window. You tore down the brick wall around my heart one smile at a time.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Gray stage-whispered again. “Really? Women buy this shit?”

“Yes,” Penny and Lily said in sync. “Shh!”

Kenna shrugged and kept eating pizza. “Depends on what comes next.”

Hud let out a shaky breath and didn’t take his eyes off of Bailey. “I’m not saying we need to buy rings, but I think we owe it to each other to see where this goes. And I want you to know, I’m all-in.”

“What if I get sick again?” she asked with a casualness that didn’t fool him.

His lungs squeezed out all the air so he couldn’t breathe. “I’ll still be all-in,” he managed. “Whatever you need, I’m in.”

“What about if you get sick?”

“I’m not going to,” he said.

“But what if?” she asked stubbornly. “You going to try to push me away again?”

“Never,” he promised. “Never again.” He pulled a small, black velvet box from his pocket and she gasped.

The entire room gasped.

Hand to her heart, she stared at it. “I thought you just said—”

“I wanted to give you an optional ending.”

“Okay,” Gray whispered to Penny. “That’s a good one. I’ll give him that.”

Bailey stared at the box and surprised Hud when her eyes filled. “But seriously, what if?” she whispered softly, her hand over the port scar on her chest.

He tipped her chin up to look into his eyes. “Listen to me carefully, Bay. You’re so incredibly strong, and I love that about you. I love you.”

Her eyes filled. “I love you too.”

“So you get that the best part about being one-of-two is that if something happens and your strength fails you, I’ll be strong for you. I’ll never let you down again.”

She stared at him for a long time and he waited, trusting her to come to the same conclusion, that together they could face anything. “I signed up for the duration,” he said. “For the good, the bad, the ugly, everything. I’m in this, all the way in, Bailey. The question is, are you?”

She shifted, a barely there movement, but it brought her even closer to him and she smiled, letting him see what he meant to her. Holding his gaze, she finally took the box and opened it—and gasped again at the diamond ring.

“Options,” he murmured. “That’s all it is.”

She nodded and then shook her head. “I don’t need options,” she whispered. She slid the ring onto her finger and then tilted her head up to his. “I just need you.”

Epilogue

Three months later…

Bailey stood on the bow of the boat, toes over the edge, arms out, head back, eyes wide open on the huge, unbroken sky, having her Titanic moment.

She’d passed another round of tests with flying colors. The words cancer and free were starting to really take root, the reality being that the future she’d spent so many years never daring to hope for was really hers for the taking.

Her heart felt so full it might burst at any second.

She and Hud hadn’t set a date. They’d made no wedding plans at all, or further discussed it. She was very, very happy with that, happy and content to just be for a while—with the man she loved.

He’d taken her to the glaciers in Canada last month. They’d climbed them and she’d stood on the top of the world and had grinned from ear to ear. They’d gone dogsledding—the thrill of a lifetime.

And then they’d made love in the hot springs beneath gently falling snow.

They were working their way down her list. This month was the Greek Islands.

“Good?” rumbled a sexy low voice in her ear.

“So good.” She sighed, utterly content. Hard not to be with Hud standing just behind her, bracing her body safely in the haven of his, his arms wrapped firmly around her. He wouldn’t let her fall.

Not ever.

Of course it also helped that there was no wind and… the boat was moored. They’d been in the islands for a week, since the day after the resort’s ski season had ended.

Before they’d left, Carrie was good, Jacob reportedly was still on tour and safe for the time being, and all was as good as could be.

Penny had been making noises about adding a baby to their insanity, and Gray had brought her home a puppy to practice on.

Aidan and Lily were looking at dates for a wedding.

Kenna hadn’t gone off the rails.