Page 137 of The Last Promise You Made

“How long will you be here?” I asked.

“A couple of days. Holden and Leya wished they’d been able to come, but they said to give you a squeeze from them,” Mom replied, giving me another hug.

Eva and Brandon joined us, and pretty soon, everyone was chatting and talking. My heart skittered around at seeing them all together. It was almost like that flash I’d gotten when Ryder and I had been all dressed up for the gala—with our families together, getting along. It sent a chill up my back in the very best kind of way, and my eyes filled with tears I refused to shed.

Instead, I concentrated on the people and enjoyed the food, cake, and alcohol that had been served, drinking enough to be just a bit tipsy.

I was watching Sadie teaching Mila and Addy a line dance when Mom found me again, tucking her arm through mine and pulling me close. “You’re happy.”

“More than I ever thought possible,” I told her the truth.

“I’m pretty excited myself,” she said, and I turned to look at her, brows furrowing. She smiled. “I finally have a grandbaby.” She looked back at Addy, and I thought my chest might just explode with joy and love. Then, she looked at me with a sly smile. “Think I might get another one?”

I laughed. “Ask Holden. He’s the one getting married in, what, three months?”

“I’ll take all the grandbabies I can get.”

“Then you should have had more kids.”

She laughed and patted my cheek as a muscled arm wrapped around my middle, tugging me into a solid chest. The song changed, a slow and broody rhythm bursting through the bar.

“Can I have this dance?” Ryder asked, gritty voice low and sexy in my ear.

Next to me, Mom said, “I think I’ll get what I want sooner than you think,” before she walked away with a grin on her face.

Ryder pulled me onto the dance floor, tugging me close, an arm around my lower back and a hand twining in my hair at the base of my neck. “What did she say she wanted?” he asked.

“Grandkids,” I said with a raised brow.

If I’d expected it to freak him out, it didn’t. He just smiled that slow, knowing smile that had once made me want to knock it off his face. “Yeah. How many?”

“She’d like a whole schoolroom full of them, but she’s not getting her way.”

His smile grew, and the beauty of it made me wish we were alone in our room with the moonlight pouring in. “No? How many is she getting?” he asked.

I leaned up, kissing him softly. “We’ll have to negotiate. I remember someone saying he wanted a dozen. I think I can compromise somewhere around two.”

“That’s not a compromise, darlin’. That’s cutting it to the bare bones.”

“For someone who never saw kids in her future, two sounds like a hundred.”

His smile slipped slightly. “You’re right. You’ve already given up enough. I’ll settle with whatever number you decide works.”

That twisted my chest tight. “You once told me you didn’t want me to have to give up everything I wanted to be with you. Same goes for you. We’ll figure out the right number.”

He kissed me, tongue sneaking in and taking the kiss in a flash from a sweet one, acceptable on a dance floor with our families watching, to one that would need a dark room and no witnesses.

“Perhaps, before you need to get a room, you should remember Gia’s present!” Sadie laughed as she walked by us.

We broke apart, grinning.

“There’s more?” I asked.

Ryder spun me out of his embrace, holding my hand and then spinning me back. As I got closer to his body, he bent down on one knee, and all the breath left my body.

He held out something small and glittery, but I couldn’t look at it because I was mesmerized by the look of love and joy in those bright-blue eyes.

“Gia Kent, you whipped into my life with a gun, a badge, and snark that I thought I’d hate but was really the missing part of my soul. You brought me a daughter I’d thought I’d lost, filling cracks in me I’d been trying to heal for years. And then, you did me the honor of giving me your love on top of it, giving me the gift of a partner along with a child. While I don’t need this ring or the words I do or a piece of paper to tell me how permanent the bond we’ve forged is, I’m hoping you’ll agree to marry me anyway so the rest of the world can see what our hearts already feel. I love you, darlin’, with all my damn broody heart has to give. So, what do you think? Will you marry me?”

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