Thirty-Three

Kye

Where are you?

I glanced down at the text from Genesis. While she’d been in the shower, I’d snuck out of the room to take Jagger to Trinity and get things set up for my surprise.

Last room on the left.

Down the hall?

Yes. Come here.

I sent the text, grinning, then watched the door, waiting on her.

When the knob turned and the door opened, I was standing in the middle of the room. It had taken me two weeks to get it set up for her. She paused and took in the room. I could see confusion and excitement flicker in her eyes.

“What do you think?” I asked her, hoping I’d gotten it all.

Quinn had been a big help. I owed her one.

Genesis walked over to the organized shelves, filled with everything I’d been told she’d want, need, and get giddy over.

She swung her gaze back to me. “Kye, what is this?”

I grinned. “Baby Doll, if you don’t know what this stuff is, then you might want to rethink your future.”

She shook her head and laughed. “I know what this stuff is, but whose is it? It’s”—she waved her hands out wide—“like a designer’s wonderland. It has everything. That sewing machine is what dreams are made of. I’ve been saving for one for over two years. And the rolls of fabric—where did they even come from? That’s expensive stuff. You don’t go get fabric like that from just any store. It’s special-ordered.” Then, she pointed at the shelves. “And that. The buttons alone are insane. I’ve not even looked through all the other containers. I can’t imagine what is all in there.”

Thank you, Quinn. She’d been right about the sewing machine and the fabric.

I closed the distance between us. “This is your new sewing room, Baby Doll. You can sketch on those pads there or use that computer there to draw them digitally. The programs you need are already loaded. You can make those amazing designs you come up with right across the hall from Jagger’s nursery.”

Her eyes went wide, and her pretty heart-shaped mouth fell open. “Mine? This? That sewing machine? The fabric? This?” She pointed at the floor, gaping at me. “This is all mine?”

I nodded. “All yours.”

She shook her head. “What nursery?” she asked me then.

Jagger had been sleeping in a crib in our bedroom.

I pointed across the hallway. “Levi and Aspen are moving to the top floor for now. Until he’s ready to build a house. Their room will be empty by the end of the week. You get to decorate Jagger’s nursery however you want.”

She covered her mouth with both hands as she slowly took in the room. “I can’t believe you did this,” she whispered. “It had to have cost a fortune.”

“My Baby Doll deserves the best,” I told her.

She looked at me, then burst into tears, throwing her arms around my neck. “I love you, Kye Levine,” she gushed.

I held her against me. “I love you more, Genesis Stoll.”

She shook her head, laughing through her tears. “I swear you do not. I’ve loved you the longest.”

“I don’t know that I can agree with that.”

She pulled back just enough to look up at me. The joy on her face made my heart full. “I promise you that I have.”

“We can dissect the different types of love and what they mean all damn day. But the fact is, I’ve loved you since we were kids. That love changed; it grew, and it became a fucking force so big that it owned me. But I’ve always loved you.”

She blinked, and more tears rolled down her face. “That was so perfect that I’m not going to say anything to spoil it.”

I bent down and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Good girl. Now, go sit in your new sewing chair and see how it feels.”

She walked over and pulled out the plush, brightly colored quilted chair on wheels that would support her back a hell of a lot better than that kitchen chair she’d been using. I realized I was holding my breath as she sat down in it and turned to the sewing table in front of her. I knew the moment she saw it because her entire body stilled.

I closed in behind her and waited in silence as she reached out and took the antique revival ring with a three-carat yellow diamond, surrounded by a halo of yellow diamonds and flanked by a half-moon of white diamonds, lying right in front of a vase I’d filled with various shades of pink Persian buttercups.

“Kye?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

I went down on one knee just as she turned in her chair to look at me. The diamond in that ring didn’t hold a candle to the way her aquamarine eyes sparkled as she stared at me. Every emotion she was feeling was laid bare within their depths.

“I love you, Genesis Stoll. You’ve been my other half since we were kids. I’ve loved you in every capacity one person can love another. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, and, fuck, I don’t want to. We can wait as long as you want. I just need to know that you are and will always be mine. Baby Doll, marry me. Please take my name like you took my soul.”

A small cry escaped her, and then she laughed. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

I slipped the ring onto her finger, and then she threw herself into my arms.

“Thank you,” I said, burying my face into her neck.

I could say I’d never imagined I’d want one woman for the rest of my life. Hell, I’d said that more times than I could count. But the truth was, I thought I’d only wanted one girl since I had been eight years old. I’d been Baby Doll’s long before I understood what being in love even meant.