Chapter 41

I can't stop the tears from washing down my face in an endless flood.

My already frayed nerves are going haywire as I look at the most amazing man I've ever met, down on one injured leg, asking me to choose him.

Scuffling and yells sound around us as more Cobras are taken into custody, and flicking my glance to the left, I can see the very worried EMTs.

As far as proposals go, this is the last place I would have ever expected one.

Rolling my lips between my teeth, I sniffle in a breath, acutely aware of my pounding heart.

"Luke, I?—"

"I promise, doc. I'll do better." His eyes are wide as he jumps in and cuts me off. "I'll go to a therapist. I'll go to fucking AA. I can't lose you. I thought I had for a moment, and it nearly destroyed me. I can't do that again."

"Luke—"

He squeezes my hands. "I'll do anything, Clara. I love you. I want to be with you. Forever."

I laugh suddenly through the tears streaming down my face. Shaking my head, I lower it, narrowing my eyes down toward him with a playful glare.

"My turn?"

He chuckles, rolling his eyes as he nods. He's still holding that emerald poised.

"Sorry, go ahead."

A subtle nod, nearly imperceptible, and I hang my head, closing my eyes as I take a steadying breath.

"I've had really bad luck with dates, you know." I turn down the corners of my mouth as Luke cocks a brow at me. "It's true. Terrible at 'em. I've been nearly exclusively focused on my career. My relationship with Regina and Beth being the only exception."

"I have to admit, I'm glad you were," Luke mumbles, and I shove gently at his hands before continuing.

"Dating, connecting with someone like that, it's messy and unpredictable and time-consuming."

Thinking back to before all this, before Luke, I sigh. It was simpler back then. But…

"I didn't let anyone get close. It was too much of a risk. Sure, it meant not experiencing some things that are really great—sex, comfort, companionship. But I was okay with that. It meant I could focus on becoming the best cardiac surgeon."

There's that squeeze at my hand again, the ring Luke's holding still perched on the tip of my finger.

"And now?"

"Now?" I raise my brows at him, and the tears come harder. "I can see why people write love songs. Why they enjoy romance movies and books. I see what I was missing."

Luke's eyes are glassy now. I don't expect him to let any of those tears fall, but seeing them there…

I like seeing him like this. Open. Vulnerable.

Because it means he's not hiding from me, and that's what I really need.

"I don't want to be alone. And I think," I say, looking down, silently acknowledging the potential person who could join our lives, "I want more of that. That love. A family."

A ragged sob escapes as I begin to vocalize the hang-up that has been with me since childhood.

"I've always put other people's needs and happiness ahead of my own. My aunt and uncle took me in, yes. But damn, that was about it. I sometimes wonder if they just did it for the tax break. I have never been a child. Not really, and I want to give someone a better life than I had growing up."

With a shaky laugh, Luke looks beneath his brows at me.

"I very much understand that compulsion. My father was an abusive drunk and is why I joined the military, to get away from him."

With a sympathetic nod, I scoff. "That answers a lot of questions, frankly. But we don't have to be those people, right?"

Luke shakes his head, and a moment of stillness hangs in the air before he chuckles again to break the tension.

"You're killing me, doc. Is that a yes?"

"Oh no, I'm not letting you off that easy." I smile, still holding his hand while the other is poised to accept his offering.

"I have some stipulations."

Luke chuckles, bowing his head. "Like what?"

"One, which you've already said, is to get help. Therapy, AA, whatever works, but you can't go on like this anymore. Got it?"

My voice is stern, but I'm smiling at him.

He nods with a small grin. "Understood. Next?"

"You introduce me to your family. I want the whole thing. Someone makes dinner, we all eat, and you tell them everything you're doing with me and for yourself. And about this."

I press our hands closer to my stomach.

"All right." Luke smirks. "I can do that. I shouldn't cook, though. No one will enjoy that."

With a laugh, I shrug. "Good thing I'm not interested in your cooking skills, then. Three."

Luke nods, looking up into the distance for a moment before returning his hazel eyes to mine.

"I can count on your help when I need to be at the hospital, and no more driving me. I hate it."

Scoffing in mock offense, Luke jokes, "Jeez, am I that bad a driver?"

Shaking my head, I cringe slightly. "No, but your music is terrible."

Luke laughs, adjusting on his knee. The gravel beneath it crunches, and I know that I'm really making him earn this.

"Last—" I watch Luke roll his lips between his teeth as he tries not to smile "—no more secrets or keeping things from the other person. To protect them or for any other reason. We're open and honest about everything."

Licking his bottom lip before worrying it between his teeth, Luke starts a slow nod, clearly apprehensive.

"I will do my absolute best." He squeezes my hand again while offering a tight-lipped smile. "I suppose I should start off on the right foot by saying I can be overprotective about the people I care about. That list was damn short before you, too."

"I'm a big girl, and you need to understand that, okay?"

He nods more quickly this time. "I promise. So…"

Holding Luke's eyes, I let myself fall into those green-brown irises, taking in every detail about this moment because I want to remember it forever.

My ass hurts from sitting on this metal ambulance floor. Luke's hands are warm on mine.

There's a breeze that smells fresher than the air in the abandoned warehouse. I'm vaguely nauseated again.

The headache I've been battling is getting stronger, and I can't tell if I'm more hungry or tired.

And yet…

My heart has never been so full in my entire life.

"Yes." I smile at Luke, letting every ounce of my feelings into the expression. "Yes to you, to us, to this baby. To the future."

Luke slides the ring down my finger, his shoulders sagging.

The breath he releases is pure relief, and once the ring is on, he starts to push up off his bad leg.

"Oh, thank God. I didn't think I was going to make it down there for much longer."

I open my arms, pulling Luke into my embrace. "Get over here, you silly man."

Wrapping his arms around me, Luke pulls me up and crashes his lips against mine.

He shakes ever so subtly, and I can tell he must be exhausted.

"Let's get you off your leg, okay?" I look up at him, pulling him back down toward the ambulance.

"Yes, excellent." He hisses as he sits, and then the EMTs are back at our sides.

"Well, that was…" The female responder smiles. "I've never been on a call when there was a proposal. But you really should get off that leg."

Luke and I both laugh. When the other EMTs try to take him to another rig, Luke steadfastly protests.

"Absolutely not. I'm staying right here, sitting on the floor of this thing while you get my fiancé to the hospital. I'm not leaving her side."

He holds my hand, the other one on my lower belly.

"Ever again."

Smirking, I look up at the responders in the crowded vehicle with us.

"It's no use arguing. He's very stubborn. It's how he got me to live with him."

Luke laughs. "Damn straight. And I ain't stopping now."

The crew gives up fighting with him, getting settled so we can go to the hospital.

They've helped us contact Regina and Luke's brothers, and I imagine we'll be having quite the party waiting for us there when we arrive.

I suddenly feel so damn loved. There's a host of people concerned about us, and they'll be in our lives through every step.

I just know it.

Turns out, all I needed to get myself the big family of my dreams was patch up a side injury—and be threatened by an international drug syndicate.

Who would have guessed?

Luke looks up at me, furrowing his brow. "You okay, doc?"

"Never been better, Mr. Shaw. Never been better."