just here for more of the same, she’d have to tell him no and send him away again, though the thought of that tore at her.
Yes, he was arrogant and pushy and bossy and proud and she loved him desperately.
“Amanda,” he announced, loud enough for everyone to hear, “I’ve got a few things to say to you.”
“Here?” she asked. “In front of half the town?”
“Right here, right now,” he told her, and his gaze bored into hers. “We’ve been trying to outrun or hide from gossip and rumor for so long…I think it’s time we just took a stand.” He moved a bit closer to her and his voice dropped a notch or two. “I don’t care what they think. What they say. Let ’em look, Amanda. We’re done hiding.”
A flush of heat swamped her, but she found herself nodding in agreement. He was right. They had worried over rumors. They’d allowed vicious lies to split them up seven years ago. Maybe it was time to just be themselves without worrying over what the rest of the town had to say about it.
“You’re right,” she said. “No more hiding.”
One corner of his mouth lifted into a brief half smile and she saw pride glittering in his eyes. For a second or two, the terrible tension in her chest eased and Amanda felt as if she and Nathan were a team. The two of them against the gossips.
Close enough to touch her now, he started talking. “I thought a lot about what we talked about the other night.”
His voice was low and deep and seemed to reverberate up and down her spine. His eyes were locked on hers and she couldn’t have looked away if she’d tried.
Reaching out, he stroked his fingertips along her cheek and Amanda shivered, closing her eyes briefly to revel in the sensation of his touch. When she opened her eyes again, he was still watching her.
“You were right, Amanda,” he said. “The night you told me about the baby, I said the words you needed to hear to help convince you to marry me.”
It felt as if all the air slid from her lungs at once. The tightness in her chest was painful and tears pooled at the backs of her eyes.
“But—” He cupped her face in his palms, and held her, forcing her to keep looking into his eyes. “That doesn’t mean they weren’t true.”
“Nathan—” She shook her head and tried to look away. He wouldn’t allow it.
“I do love you. I always have.” He bent and kissed her gently on the lips and the taste of him lingered on her mouth. “Maybe telling you when I did was bad timing.”
“Maybe?” she managed to ask.
He gave her a nod and a rueful smile. “You threw me that night, Amanda, but I do love you, with everything in me. If I hadn’t been too young and too arrogant to say the words seven years ago…maybe things would have been different for us.”
Amanda knew the whole diner was listening in and found she didn’t care. The only person she was interested in now was Nathan. “I want to believe you,” she said. “I really do.”
“You can,” he told her, moving into her, until every breath she took drew the clean, fresh scent of him deep into her lungs. “We’re meant to be together, and I think you know it.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, red velvet jeweler’s box. Her gaze landed on it even as her heart took another tumble in her chest. When she looked up at him again, he smiled.
“This is for you, Amanda.”
She shook her head even as he opened the lid to display a brilliant topaz stone surrounded by diamonds and set in a wide, gold band.
“This stone is sort of the color of your eyes,” he whispered, “at least, I think so. Every time I look in your eyes, I fall in love again. You’re the woman for me, Amanda. The only woman. So I’m asking you now. The right way. Amanda Altman, will you marry me?”
She shook her head and blinked to clear away the tears blurring her vision. He was offering her everything she’d ever wanted. Love. The promise of a future together. All she had to do was trust her heart and take a leap of faith.
She looked away from the ring and into his eyes and nearly cried again when she read in his eyes the truth she’d needed so much to see. Warmth, passion, love.
Before she could say anything, Nathan continued. “When you left the other night, you took my heart with you,” he said, gaze moving over her face like a caress. “I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t do anything but try to think of a way to bring you back home where you belong.”
“Oh, Nathan.” The diner, their audience, the whole world fell away and all that was left was the two of them. She and Nathan, together as she’d always dreamed they would be.
“I let you go once,” he said tightly. “I don’t know how I lived these years without you, but I know I can’t live the rest of my life without you.”
Her tears overflowed and tracked along her cheeks unheeded. Gently, he used his thumb to wipe the tears away and gave her a sad smile.
“I was young and stupid seven years ago,” Nathan said, “but I’ve changed as much as you have. I know you could raise our child on your own—but I hope you won’t.” He took the ring from the box and slowly, carefully, slid it onto her ring finger, then kissed it as if to seal the ring in place. When he looked into her eyes again, he said, “I want to be with you, Amanda. Always. I need you. And our baby. And the family we’ll build together. The family we should have started all those years ago.”
She couldn’t look away from his eyes and, in truth, she didn’t want to. The ring felt warm on her hand and her heart felt even warmer. Amanda took a breath and slowly let it out, enjoying this moment, wanting to treasure the memory of this one small slice of time forever.
This was everything she’d ever wanted. He was saying the words that were so important to her. Offering her the life she craved. And she believed him. Nathan’s eyes were filled with love as he looked at her and she knew that she would never doubt him again.
All around her, she sensed people’s attention, knew they were all listening in and found she simply didn’t care.
“I love you, too, Nathan,” she said and smiled when he grinned down at her. “I just needed to believe.”
“And now you do?” he asked, wrapping one arm around her waist to hold her to him.
“Now I do,” she said and realized she’d never been more sure of anything than she was of what she and Nathan shared. For a while, she had allowed doubts and fears from the past to cast dark shadows over the present and the future. But she was through looking backward.
“I swear, you’ll never be sorry.” He swept her up tightly to him and kissed her so deeply, Amanda would never again have any doubts about his feelings.
And while the people in the diner broke into applause, Amanda knew that she finally had everything she had ever wanted.
The man she loved, loved her back, and there was nothing in the world
