He sighed and his gaze lowered a bit. “I’d love to have them with you.”
“But you can’t.” I dropped my head, but he reached across the table to tip my chin. “Says who? Just because one doctor gave you a few opinions doesn’t mean it’s set in stone, Kandy. We can always see other doctors for other opinions.”
“Yeah, but I just…I feel it, Cane. Remember that time in New York when I pretty much made you come inside me?”
He huffed a laugh. “How could I forget?”
“Well, I was ovulating that day. I had it all planned out, was hoping it would work, but nothing happened. I got my period like clockwork. I guess it doesn’t matter though. I wasn’t ready to have a kid back then anyway.”
Cane let out a long, weary sigh, then grabbed my hand to squeeze it. “Kandy, you’re still young, okay? And no way was your body fully healed then. You can’t worry yourself about that right now. You haven’t even finished school yet. You don’t even know what you want to do after you graduate. You ever think that maybe nothing happened because it wasn’t meant for it to happen just yet?”
“No,” I muttered.
“Quit sulking,” he lightly scolded, and my eyes swooped up to his. “Look, how about this: once you graduate and figure out what you’d like to do during your free time, as a career or part-time thing, we can see a doctor for another opinion, and if you really want to try, we will. I’ll find the best doctor around.”
I bit back a smile. “You’re saying you’re willing to knock me up when I’m ready?”
“I’m saying that I’ll do whatever you want me to do, as long as it puts a smile on your face. Besides,” he tilted one shoulder, shrugging. “I don’t mind the idea of having a little bundle of my own.”
“I’m not in a big rush to have a kid. I don’t know what I was thinking that night. There’s just this urge to know if I can or not, and it bothers me as a woman, you know? It’ll continue bothering me until I see something happen.”
He nodded. “I get that.”
I sipped my coconut water.
“All right. My turn to ask you a question now,” he said, voice lower.
“Sure.”
“Do you feel like you could be with me when I’m wrinkled and liver-spotted?”
“Of course I can, Cane. I love you.”
“I know you do, but I mean, really really be with me?”
My brows dipped. “I don’t understand what you mean…”
He smirked, then dropped his fork to stand up. He walked around the table, and when he was right next to me, he cupped my face in his hands and leaned over to press his lips to mine. He kissed me for a long time, his lips supple and smooth. Perfect. Pulling away, he studied my eyes, his shimmering from the decorative lights hanging above.
“Okay…let me ask you one more question. One that’ll make a little more sense.”
“What?” I asked.
Cane released my face to dig into his front pocket, and when he pulled out a velvety black box and dropped to one knee, I sucked in a sharp breath, covering my mouth as he asked the one question I had been waiting to hear since the moment I fell in love with him.
“Kandy,” he said, opening the box with sweet laughter in his voice. “This might sound crazy, but will you marry me?”