Peace settled within her as she leaned back against the man who'd given her the only thing she'd ever truly wanted. His whole heart. Of course she couldn't let him give up the military, but she'd needed to hear his willingness to do it for her all the same.
"Thank you, Gray, but I could never ask you to do that." She heard herself echoing Angela's words, finally understanding a depth of love she'd never felt before. "It's too much a part of who you are. A man I love so very much."
He clasped her braid, wrapped its length around his arm and cupped her head close to his thudding heart. "Thank you. But know the offer stands."
Lori nodded against his chest, savoring a whiff of bay rum and the scratch of starch against her cheek. She'd tried so hard to make things work between them. Finally she realized what she had to do to earn Gray's love.
Nothing.
It was already hers, but she'd been too blinded by insecurities to see it. Love wasn't like a house or piece of land to be bought, but had to be freely given—and received.
She'd wanted Gray to fit her cookie-cutter image of what a husband should be, down to dictating the way he should propose, and hadn't recognized the gift of his unique love.
Something she intended to change.
Lori relaxed into the warm security of his chest, her head nestled under his chin. "Marry me."
The muscles cording his chest contracted against her. "What?"
They had never held back with words before, and she didn't intend to start now. "Will you marry me?"
"Wait!" He gripped her shoulders, turning her to face him. "I'm supposed to say that. I've been practicing all day."
"You have?"
A slow smile spread over his face, stirring a shiver so like the first time he'd cast his best bad-boy grin her way.
"Oh, yeah, hon, because I am not going to mess it up again." He shoved to his feet, his arm extended for her.
Lori laced her fingers with his and stood. "Okay, flyboy, give it your best shot."
Their hands clasped between them, Gray looked into her eyes. "Please be my wife. Let me be Magda's father. Let me give you more babies so we can grow old together and watch their babies grow. Lori, honey, I love you like crazy and if you don't answer soon I'm gonna die here. What do you say?"
Late-night shadows couldn't hide the determined thrust of his jaw or the ring of resolution in his voice. He wasn't going to leave her if she didn't plant perfect pansies.
Her stubborn man had decided what he wanted, and he wanted her. Forever. And she looked forward to every single day. "Where are those stars again?"
He draped an arm over her shoulder to point, his breath playing through her hair. "Right there. Cassiopeia. Just to the left of the moon."
"And we'll see those same stars in Washington?"
"We?"
She allowed her fingers the pleasure of caressing his bristly jaw, a delight and right that would be hers for the rest of her life. "Yes."
"Yes? Yes, what?"
"Yes, I'll go to Washington with you. Yes, I'll marry you and give you all the babies you want. And yes, we'll be Magda's parents. Grow old together. All of it." She arched onto her toes, breathed her answer across his mouth. "Yes."
He took her answer and her lips in the same possessive sweep, giving, receiving, loving her. Her arms looped around his neck, surely the safest place to be as her limbs hummed with the musicality of his kiss. No doubt the man was a stylist with that mouth of his.
Gray scooped her into his arms, kissing her as he walked the length of the balcony to the porch doors leading to Lori's room.
Tossing him her best wicked smile, she twisted the doorknob. "Wanna play wounded Allied pilot and saucy French nurse? I'll let you be the pilot this time."
Gray nudged Lori's bedroom door open with his foot, his beautiful smile free of shadows, full of constancy and playful promise. "And I'll show you how to see those stars with your eyes closed."
Epilogue