The evening sun faded to an orange glow, and the lights on the rooftop deck twinkled. “You ready for this?” Mother asked.
“I think so.” Kat opened the box revealing the silver band she’d ordered from Keith, their favorite jeweler in Chicago. She pulled it out and spun it around to see the inscription etched inside. Love is faithful. She hoped he’d understand her meaning. They both needed to take a chance on each other.
The doorbell downstairs rang, but her mother waved a dismissive hand. “The maid will answer.”
She put the ring back into its box and slid it into her dress pocket then straightened the bow at the empire waist that showed off her oversized belly. “Only another six weeks and our little joy will be here.”
“How are you feeling today?” Mother asked. Despite the sterile tone she’d yet to soften, Kat knew she cared.
“I feel great.”
The baby kicked like a European soccer player at the start of a game. She grabbed her mother’s hand and placed it on her belly. “Here, feel this.”
Mother snatched her hand away. “Nope. I’ll help with all the logistics, but I’m no real grandmother. Trust me, you don’t want me near that child.”
“When are you going to stop punishing yourself for a mistake many mothers have made? I’m fine. My baby will be fine and better with a loving grandmother.” Okay, loving was stretching it a little, but still.
“I don’t make mistakes unless it comes to children.” She about-faced. “I’ll go greet our guests while I send Wes up to fix a broken light.”
“There’s a broken light?”
“Nope, but your plan to wait until after everyone leaves won’t work. Too much stress for you and the baby. Wes would never forgive me if I let that happen.”
“You like Wes, don’t you?”
Mother waved a dismissive hand. “I respect him.”
“That’s an even bigger compliment.”
Mother disappeared downstairs, leaving Kat to stir in her excitement and anxiety. She’d grown tired of waiting for Wes to ask, and heck if she was going to have Peanut without a father if she had anything to say about it. Her baby deserved the best of everything.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, so she closed her eyes, took a long breath, and whispered, “Don’t worry, Peanut. He’ll say yes.” She wasn’t sure if she was reassuring herself or Peanut, but either way, she wouldn’t lose her nerve. She’d never backed down from a challenge before, and she wouldn’t now.
Wes strutted out onto the deck with his old swagger back. The man she’d fallen in love with had slowly returned over the last several weeks, but today there was something else. A glint in his eyes. “How’s my baby mama doing?”
She swatted at him. “That’s all I am to you now, your baby’s mother?”
He swooped her into his arms and kissed her with all the passion he’d held back the last several months, leaving her breathless and dizzy. With his arms tight around her, he guided her head to his chest. His heart beat fast and furious, matching her own. “I love you, Kat.”
Guests’ voices carried up from downstairs in a muted echo. She needed to get moving if she was going to ask. Her mother was right. She needed to do it soon to avoid the stress of waiting. “The ocean is rough tonight. You can hear the surf all the way here.”
“Storm must be brewing out there somewhere.” Wes moved to the edge of the rooftop deck and looked down. “We need to put a security lock on that door.”
“Not a bad idea, but you can’t babyproof our lives, you know.”
“I can sure try.” Wes stood with his hands on his hips, face toward the sky.
Kat took her opportunity, and holding on to the back of a dining chair, she lowered to one knee, not an easy task with her too-big belly and lack of balance from all the bed rest. She quickly yanked out the ring box, opened it with shaking hands, and held it up. The way he had on her front doorstep that day. She now realized how vulnerable and open he’d been when he’d tried to propose. The wait for an answer was unbearable.
Her knee wobbled, and she thought she’d tumble over to her side. “Wes, turn around, please.”
He turned, and his eyes shot wide.
“Don’t say anything, please. Let me talk first.” She swallowed and cleared her throat of any worry. “I know this isn’t the future we had planned.”
He opened his mouth and stepped forward, but she shook her head to stop him. “Please, if you don’t let me get this out quick, the pregnancy hormones will make me a blubbery mess and I’ll never finish saying what I want to.”
Her voice cracked, but she channeled the inner strength she’d inherited from her mother. “You asked me to marry you so many times before I found out I was pregnant, but I hesitated on saying yes because all I’d ever seen from marriage was misery. You told me our lives would be different and you chiseled away my apprehension, but then the pregnancy came and I knew I didn’t want to live a life like my mother—one of regrets and resentment—so I pulled away. You told me you wanted to be with me no matter what, but I didn’t believe you because I’d never seen anything but heartache.”
She swayed, and he raced to her, but she held up her hand. “I’m fine. I just…I’m overwhelmed with the feelings that have been bottled up for so long. I wanted to be anything but my mother in life, yet I became her. Strong, independent, a fighter. All great qualities, but not at the expense of love. You’ve shown me how to love. How to trust and allow someone into my heart. You’ve held my hair as I’ve been sick, carried me when I was too weak to walk, forgiven me for keeping secrets, loved me when I didn’t want to be loved. You’re my baby’s father, my everything, and hopefully you’re going to be my husband. You are the one man I trust more than anyone else in the world. The one man I know I can lean on and you won’t let me fall.”
Her voice broke, and he fell to his knees, taking hold of her arms as if to keep her upright.
“Wes Knox, will you marry me?” She sniffled but allowed her tears to fall down her cheeks, not hiding from how she felt another day longer.
He didn’t say anything, his gaze searching her face.
“Don’t leave a girl hanging. Will you accept my proposal?”
Wes’s mouth curved into a tight grin. “No.”