Page 46 of Forever His This Christmas

“No buts, not from any of you. You stand behind her or you leave this house,” she said cutting him off. “Is that clear?”

“Yeah, Mom, we got it,” Kirby stated looking at the other men. “Let’s get their things from the car, make sure everyone’s settled in for the night.”

“Good idea,” Ashton agreed, and they moved off to see what they could manage to do to help Lisa the most.

***

Lisa shut the door to the bedroom, moving down the hallway towards her room. She hadn’t been able to leave until she knew Abby was asleep after everything that’d happened today. She needed to make sure she was okay. She let out her breath trying to relax as she moved into her room, stopping in surprise in the doorway finding Corey inside it waiting for her. “I didn’t expect you to be in here.”

“Because of what you told everyone today,” he guessed, and she nodded. “Baby, I’ve told you a dozen times already that it doesn’t make a difference. I don’t care what you did to protect yourself or that you kept Abby from me. It explains so much, but I meant it when I said you were always going to be mine,” he stated moving over to her and pulling her into his arms. “Do you remember when we were here last year…I asked you to let me be your rock.”

“Yeah, but all I saw was the sand underneath it.”

“There is no sand anymore, we are on solid ground baby, so please let me be your rock. Let me love you and Abby the way you deserve to be loved. I don’t care about anything but you—and that encompasses your daughter because she’s a part of you. If you want to stay in Chicago, I’ll move the company there or simply run it from there. I just can’t be away from you any longer. I love you and I know you had to have made a choice about us or none of us would have been here…let me love you and Abby, forever.”

“Forever? I think I like the sound of that.” Lisa let out a soft sigh snuggling into his hold more. “I did make a decision about us because I do love you. I just had to see that I loved you enough to do this. I needed something to remind me that I had to be stronger than my fear.”

“God baby, I thought I’d never hear you say those words to me,” he said sliding his hand up into her hair kissing her long, hard, showing her just how much he loved her back.

“Mmm, I don’t want to lose you, never again.”

“You won’t,” he promised carrying her over to the bed. He laid down with her, holding her to him as he kissed her, loving her with every little touch. He brushed a strand of her hair from her cheek and stared down at her beautiful face unable to stop himself from asking her, “Lisa…baby, marry me. Let me be Abby’s father, let me be your husband, show you both what it’s like to be loved…marry me.”

“Corey…”

“Marry me, say yes baby, make all of this official, it’s your decision still. No one else can make you, push you, or cajole you into it,” he stated leaning up to stare down at her. “Lisa Gracelyn Branson, I love you with everything I have, will you please put me out of my misery and marry me?”

“Yes.” Lisa gave him a huge smile. “Yes, it’s the easiest choice I’ve ever made,” she added kissing him back until she needed to feel him inside her.

They stripped each other and she felt every touch and caress deep inside her heart, her soul was connected to his and she never wanted to lose it. She let him wrap his arms around her and hold her against his chest, her ear pressed against it over his heart, and she wasn’t surprised to find it was beating in sync with hers. She let out a happy sigh and pressed a kiss to his chest as a smile settled on her lips.

“Can I ask what convinced you to come back to me? I thought when you cancelled this past week that you were regretting our night,” Corey admitted, and she leaned up so she could see him to tell him the truth.

“I just needed some time to think—to process what was going on.”

“And when did you come to a decision?”

“Friday afternoon—evening after I talked it over with Abby.”

“What changed? I’m not complaining in the least, I just want to understand.”

“I had a doctor’s appointment early Friday afternoon…and it showed me that I was focusing on the wrong thing. I was so stuck on worrying that I didn’t listen to what I already knew.”

“Which was what?” he asked worried about why she had a doctor’s appointment.

“That I had to be happy in order to make others happy.”

“I could have told you that seven months ago, baby.”

“I know but I had to get a reminder in order to see it clearly.”

“And what was this reminder? Are you sick—is it serious?” he asked, trying to control his emotions at the thought of losing her to something he couldn’t fight.

“No, no Corey, I’m not sick,” she promised seeing the fear in his eyes. “I promise I’m not sick. I missed you even more after that night and then I was trying to figure out how I felt about something big.”

“Telling me about Abby?”

“That was part of it, but mostly it was about something else,” she admitted getting up from the bed. She grabbed her robe moving over to her bag to take out the ultrasound photo. She turned back towards the bed and smiled seeing him propped up against the pillows waiting for her. “It only took me a second to realize that I had nothing to worry about, I felt the exact sameway that I did before, and I knew that doing anything this time meant being strong enough to do this.”

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