“What – what is?”

Lifting the fist he’d just freed, he turned it over, showing her his palm.

In its big center sat a huge diamond ring.

“When I look at you, I see my future,” he said softly. He kissed her long and tenderly. “When I touch you, I know peace, the first I’ve had in a long time, if ever. You make me whole, Trisha.”

“You do the same for me,” she managed, her gaze glued to the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen.

“Then will you marry me, and make me whole for the rest of our lives?”

“Oh, my.”

He smiled and took her hand. “I sure hope that’s a prelude to yes, because I don’t think I’ll make it without you.”

Her eyes filled and ran over as she stared at him dreamily, picturing their children running around the house, all replicas of their daddy, with his expressive green eyes, his capacity to love, his understanding.

“You have to say yes,” he said a little urgently, clearly taking her silence for hesitation. “Who else will help me turn this duplex into the home it was meant to be?”

“I’ll marry you,” she said with a laugh. “Because I love you with everything I have. But as far as turning this house into a home…” She took a breath and plunged. “I might have given you just a little head start on that one. You see, I had this little accident today with the roof. But it’s no problem. All you have to do is -”

His bark of laughter drowned out her next words.

Author Biography

Jill Shalvis is the award-winning, bestselling author of over a dozen romance novels. She’s been making up stories to keep herself out of trouble since the day she learned to talk, and is very thankful to get paid for doing what comes naturally. When pressed for an answer on why she writes romance, Jill Shalvis just smiles and says she didn’t realize there was anything else. She lives in California in a house filled with young children, too many animals and her hero/husband.