Page 77 of Operation: Return

“I need to finish, but feel free to keep interrupting me because that was pretty amazing.”

She giggled. “I’ll wait my turn. Probably.” A gleam in her eyes challenged him.

“I don’t blame you for not telling me. I did at first, but I don’t now. I look back on the Erica I knew and I look back at what I did and made you go through and I just can’t hold it against you. I was alive and didn’t come for you when I said I would. You had every reason to believe I would walk away at the first sign of trouble. The question is, can you trust me now?”

She grinned. “If I answer, will I still get kissed for interrupting?”

“Do you want me to?” He stepped closer to her and threaded his fingers together behind her back.

“Yes, to both. I trust you and I absolutely want you to kiss me.”

He was supposed to be resting according to the doctor, but his ticker could take a little exercise in the form of kissing the gal he wanted to be with the rest of his life. He pressed his lips to hers, taking his time and letting the moment linger. They wouldn’t always get time alone and he was in no rush to get to their destination, even though he hoped it would make her happy.

He let her end the kiss when she was ready instead of taking the lead and he chuckled slightly when she leaned her forehead against his chest. “You okay? Need to sit down?”

She smacked his shoulder and laughed. “Yes, I think I do. But I also need apologize. This wasn’t all about you. I was scared. You were the only guy I ever trusted and you let me down.”

He could feel her confession was going to take a while so he started them walking once again, keeping the pace slow so she didn’t feel rushed.

“When you didn’t come back, when I heard you were dead, I folded in on myself. By that time, Pete was a newborn. I’d sent letters to tell you, but you must have never got them. When you showed up at my house saying you were Taylor, but you didn’t seem to know Pete was yours, that was my first reason to hide it. Taylor would’ve known.”

He hadn’t gotten any of those letters. He wondered if those were the letters Dominic had talked about and if the government still had them in some file somewhere, gathering dust. His parents also might have sent letters that he’d never seen.

“As time went on and we spent more time together, I couldn’t deny that you were Taylor, but I was so worried you’d see how little I had and try to take him from me. I can’t live without Pete.”

“I don’t want you to.” He was rewarded with a kiss for speaking out of turn.

She grinned at him. “I think we’re doing the opposite of what we intend. This is definitely negative reinforcement.”

He understood what she was getting at, but he felt pretty positive about the whole situation. “Negative reinforcement aside, I wouldn’t ever want Pete separated from his mom. But I do want to be a dad. Hopefully, a good dad.”

“If what you’ve done so far is a clue, you’ll be wonderful.”

He finally led her all the way to the parking lot where he’d been headed in the first place, glad that they had the deep things that needed to be said out of the way. This would be a lot more fun now that the air was clear.

“I’m sure you were wondering why Teddy took so long to pick me up. It’s because I had to stop at that jewelry shop and get the ring. I also needed to stop at the dealership and get that.” He pointed to a sedan at the edge of the lot. It was red, her favorite color, with a brand-new booster seat in the back for Pete.

Her mouth dropped open. “For me?”

“Mostly. I’ll probably ask to use it if I need to take Pete anywhere because I’d rather have him in a car than in my truck, but yes, yours.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, realizing that if she didn’t like it, she might be uncomfortable with a gift that big.

She threaded her arms around his waist, careful of the wrap that still helped him stay upright without putting too much pressure on his wound. “Cole, you’re amazing. You know that?”

“I do now.”

“How can I possibly top that? I don’t even know what to say. I suppose thank you is a good start,” she mumbled quickly but just stared at the car.

“You could start with ‘yes’.” He laughed.

“Yes?” She tilted her head and looked up at him.

He loved everything about her sweet, innocent face. “Yes. As in, yes, I’ll marry you. You slipped on the ring and I’m assuming that means you want to . . . but you haven’t said yes yet.”

She laughed and rested her head against his bicep. “I need to get better at being very clear. Yes, I want to marry you. No matter what name you choose to keep, I want to be your wife. You’ll just need to let me know if I’ll be Erica Bradly or Erica Creed. They both sound good to me.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that. He’d considered contacting his commanding officer and trying to start the process of proving who he was and that he was still alive, but his life had been a little too up in the air to really consider everything. “I don’t know which I want.”

“We have time. We have all the time in the world.”

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