Page 109 of Inevitable
I leaned back so I could see his face.
His eyes were dead serious.
Hewasgoing to give everything up for me and for Wren.
Tears filled my eyes, and my heart squeezedhardinside my chest.
He cared about usthatmuch.
He loved usthatmuch.
I stroked his jaw as tears plopped onto my cheeks. “You can’t just give up everything you care about here.”
“I can,” he said nonchalantly as he gently swiped a tear from my face. “Nothing here comes close to the way I love you and my daughter. I can’t be happy here without you. Shelby was right. I’m not myself here anymore because you’re in Michigan and I’m here in California.”
For him, it was just that simple.
For me, it was complicated.
Because I loved him, I didn’t want him to give up Last Hope for me.
“You’ve never asked me if I’d be willing to move to California,” I mused. “It would be a better environment for Wren. Better schools with advanced programs for her. She has friends here, and my mom is here.”
“I can’t just ask you to uproot your entire life in Michigan,” he grumbled. “What if I had asked?”
I sighed. “I would have wanted to do it. I thought about moving after my mother moved here. Wren and I miss her. I knew there would be more opportunities for Wren’s education, and the weather is nice in Southern California year-round. Money was always a deciding factor for me. It’s expensive to live here, and I’m a single mother.”
“What if money wasn’t an issue and I asked you to move here?” he asked.
“Then I’d move in a heartbeat,” I confessed. “Wren and I would have missed our friends in Michigan, but we’d have you and my mom here. I can make new friends and see the old ones when I can. Wren is already complaining about missing California.”
“She just started school,” he argued.
I rolled my eyes. “Are you really worried that she’ll fall behind from the move?”
His arm tightened around my waist. “Will you marry me and move here?” he asked hesitantly.
I laughed as I touched the beautiful ring on my finger. “You’re finally going to ask?”
“I’m asking,” he confirmed.
There was a vulnerability in his tone that touched my heart.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. “I think we’d all be happier here.”
“If you marry me and move here, I’ll make damn sure that you never regret it,” he stated solemnly.
“I know I’ll never regret it,” I said as I happily snuggled up against him. “We’ll be together.”
“We should have been together years ago,” he griped. “If I’d made it back to you before you left Virginia Beach, I never would have let you go.”
“It’s a miracle that we’re actually getting a second chance,” I reminded him.
I didn’t want to think about what our life could have been like had things gone differently.
I was just grateful that Colin was here with menow.
“I’m not complaining about that,” he assured me. “I guess I just want you to know that I’m not stupid enough to do the same thing twice. I’m always going to hold onto what should have been ours years ago. When are you going to marry me?”
