Arms came around my waist as I continued to prepare our sandwiches, and through the material of Kale’s T-shirt, he palmed my breasts, causing me to moan as my nipples hardened.
“You won’t wear anything else when you’re here,” he murmured in my ear. “That’s my condition.”
I snorted. “Does everyone have a condition for me to abide by around here?”
Kale laughed and kissed the back of my head, lowering his hands to my hips. “It looks that way.”
I leaned my head back against his chest and smiled. “Luckily, these conditions are something I can tolerate.”
Kale’s chuckle was a low rumble that caused his chest to vibrate. A comfortable silence fell between us as we ate our sandwiches and leaned against the kitchen counter, Kale holding me with one arm and his sandwich with the other.
“Do you feel like we’ve said everything that needs to be said?” I questioned when we finished eating.
Kale shook his head as he sat at the kitchen table. “You explained to me why you did what you did, and while I’m not happy over it, I understand it. I know you need me to explain my part in all this, but first I want you to hear something that I truly mean from the bottom of my heart.”
I licked my lips. “Okay.”
“Laney Baby,” he whispered as I sat on his lap and put my arms around his neck, “I’ve never said this to you while sober, but I am in love with you. I have been for a very long time, and I’m sorry for not telling you sooner.”
The words I had dreamt of him saying for so long suddenly felt too hard to hear.
“Pup,” I murmured, my lower lip trembling.
“Be mine,” he pressed. “Be my girlfriend, my fiancée, my wife. Please, say you’ll be my everything because you already are.”
He’s proposing to me? My head swayed as emotion, and utter disbelief, filled me.
“Isn’t this too soon?” I asked, feeling like I was having an out-of-body experience. “We’ve only been back in each other’s lives for four days—”
“It’s long overdue, darling,” Kale interrupted. “I should have asked you to marry me years ago.”
I swallowed. “I don’t want to rush into anything you’ll regret.”
He placed his hands on either side of my face and said, “I have never and will never regret anything about you. You’re the love of my life, and I’m sorry I didn’t realise it sooner. I’m sorry I let you think I regretted you; it was the only way I could think at the time to scare you away from me.”
I almost fell off of his lap, causing his grip on me to tighten and keep me in place.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my heart pounding.
He brushed my hair out of my face and searched my eyes with his.
“I remember everything about the night you gave yourself to me,” he said, shocking the hell out of me. “You were right: I wasn’t that drunk. The drink just gave me the courage to be with you in the way I wanted to be. I was harsh and blunt with you to make you mad at me, so you wouldn’t want anything to do with me in that way. I wanted you to believe I regretted making love to you.”
I blinked as a veil of confusion fell over me. “I don’t understand?”
Does he really not regret us being together?
“I was afraid of . . . of what your parents, my parents, your uncle and your brothers would think of me.” He angrily shook his head. “I didn’t want to lose your family from my life, and I thought they’d hate me if we got together. You told me you thought you were dirty for having romantic feelings about me because we were so close, and I felt the exact same way. I felt like I was taking advantage of your crush.”
My crush.
“It wasn’t a crush, Kale,” I whispered. “I loved you.”
He swallowed. “Is that still past tense?”
Tell him.
I shook my head. “I’ve never stopped loving you. You’re embedded deep in my bones. I’d never love anyone as much as I love you in the way I love you.”
“What way do you love me?” he asked, nervously biting his lower lip.
My lip twitched. “Not like a brother.”
He glanced at our bodies, relaxed from lovemaking, and laughed. The sound warmed my heart.
“Marry me, Lane,” he almost begged. “I promise to love, cherish and care for you until my last breath. Please, be mine.”
He stared at me as if I had to even think about it.
“Yes,” I nodded, my body trembling. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
We kissed then, and I broke it off with a laugh.
“What’s funny?” Kale asked, amused.
I shook my head. “I’m just wondering what my brothers and everyone else will think about this. Hey, guess what? Kale and I are getting married – surprise!”
Not that I cared what reactions we’d get, but I was still intrigued.
“Lane,” – Kale chuckled – “your brothers have known I have loved you for years.”
My jaw fell open.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling at my expression, “I told them a few months after Kaden died. I told them what happened between us; I told them what I said to you, what I did to hurt you in order to turn you off me.”
“What did they say?” I asked, completely taken back.
Kale snorted. “They told me I was a fucking idiot, which I am, for thinking that they would turn their backs on me. They said they would give their left arms to ensure you ended up with someone like me because they knew I’d never treat you badly, and I’d love you more than life itself. They said they’d be happy for us to be together.”
“They did? Wow.”
Kale nodded. “Even though they knew I loved you, they were sure you wouldn’t come home, so they tried to push me into dating again, but it didn’t interest me.”
I stared at him. “Are you telling me you haven’t been with anyone since you and Drew broke up?”
That would be years if he said yes.
“Why?” I asked when he nodded.
“I decided to wait for you to come home,” he murmured.
“Why?” I pressed.
Kale licked his ver
y tempting lips. “So I could make my play for you and try to win your heart back because I’m its rightful owner.”
He was undoing me. “I can’t believe you’re saying this.”
He took my hands in his. “It’s the truth, darling. I’ve been waiting for you for the last five years. I’d have waited fifty if that’s what it took.”
“I feel like this is a dream,” I said with a shake of my head. “You’re telling me everything I have always wanted to hear.”
He smiled. “We can have everything we’ve always wanted together now.”
I began to tremble.
“We’re really doing this?” I asked as pure joy filled me. “We’re really going to be together?”
“Until my dying breath,” Kale vowed.
My heart didn’t know what to do; it was feeling something other than heartbreak for once and was close to shutting down. I pressed my forehead against his.
“The day you left, it took me all of two seconds to realise I’d die for you,” he murmured.
Oh.
With a shaky breath I said, “I’ve been dying slowly, waiting for you, and I mean this quite literally – I can’t live without you.”
“You won’t,” Kale swore, pressing his forehead against mine. “I’ll be with you until the day my heart thumps its last beat. You’re everything to me. Do you understand that? Every. Fucking. Thing.”
Tears seeped from my eyes and splashed onto my cheeks.
“I love you so much.”
Kale smiled wide. “I love you too, Laney Baby, and to think we have your uncle to thank for bringing us back together,” he said as he nuzzled his nose to mine.
I smiled warmly. “I miss him dearly.”
“I know you do, sweetheart, but we’ll see him again. We’ll see your Aunt Teresa, Lavender and Kaden too.” He nudged his nose into my neck. “We have a lot to look forward to as we grow old, darling.”
I was going to grow old with Kale.
My Kale.
I joyfully smiled. “We do.”
“Things would have been so different if you’d never come home,” he murmured, his arm tightening around me.