Vince thought the depth of his feelings would make this easy. He’d gone over it countless times since he’d left the retreat, but now the words deserted him, and with the way his throat closed over, his ability to speak probably disappeared with the words. He had to say something, because he was stuck here, on the floor, with Lulah looking more bewildered by the second.

His speech wasn’t hampered by any sort of reluctance or fear of what Lulah’s response might be. It was hampered by the emotion that overwhelmed him, by the changes occurring during the past few weeks to remove the fear from his soul so that courage and love could flow free.

“Lulah, I’ve told you before that I love you. Usually during fraught moments with my emotions running crazy, my fear battling love, and you there as my anchor. You’ve always been there for me to hold onto when I needed something to grasp, to keep me from drowning. I never wanted you to feel obligated, but as I’ve healed so much over the past month, I’ve come to understand that you make me whole. Not in a dependent sort of way, but in that manner where you’ve shown me how to stand on my own and grow as a person.

“You might not realize this, Lulah, but the more I loved you, the more love I received from you. By loving me, you made me seek the help I needed, so that today I feel like a whole and worthy person. I want to be that person for you, too. Not in a selfish way, but in a way that I can make you happy, be the person you can turn to, as I’ll turn to you, too, when something troubles us. To see you happy, Lulah, is the most precious gift to me.”

He opened his palm, exposing her hand that he held. Her fingers were lightly curled, and he stroked the back of them with his thumb, taking a moment to try and compose himself, because while he might be fit, he wasn’t sure his heart could continue at the rate it raced. He coaxed her hand open with the draw of his fingers, taking hold of one of hers.

God, she was beautiful. What sort of fool was he for imagining he deserved what he was about to ask? But they were defeatist ideas, and in his heart he knew that it was Lulah’s heart that was so beautiful, Lulah’s heart that he wanted.

“Marry me, Lulah. Let me be strong for you the way you are for me.”

Her eyes glistened, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good sign. She seemed speechless, and he smiled because it was pretty hard to render Lulah mute for long.

“Vince…”

“I want you to know that you can rely on me. My name won’t be on that list of people who have let you down, because it would break my heart to do that. We can live here, Lulah. I’ll fix up the barn as a workshop. We can add a bedroom or two to the cabin for—”

“Vince, we can’t.”

Oh, God. Tears, denial. Probably sensible, to be honest. They needed to talk about it more. He shouldn’t have sprung it on her like this. Still, this was a starting point, and he wouldn’t give up. “I don’t need an answer right away.”

“No, Vince.” She pulled her hand from his grasp. “Stand up, please.”

He would have stayed there for hours if she’d demanded it, but it was a relief to be off his knee. He stole another look, and now she smiled.

“I mean yes, but no. No, we can’t continue to live in the cabin, because it’s sold, but yes, Vince, I would love to marry you, spend my life with you, just not here in this cabin.”

Jesus, he thought his heart would burst. He wrapped her in his arms and fell into the most wondrous kiss they’d ever shared. And now it was easier to break that kiss, because it was no longer stolen in a small moment, but the first of many. He laughed. His speech came out all wrong, and he’d forgotten one vital piece of information.

“Sorry, imp, I messed this all up.” He reached into his pocket. “I performed the down-on-my-knees bit okay, I even asked Ray, which was why I missed lunch this afternoon. Well, that, and…here, hold out your hand again.”

He took hold of her finger and slipped the ring on. “I sat at the jewelers for an hour and waited for this to arrive.”

“Vince, it’s stunning.”

“Oh, you like it?”

“I adore it. It’s that sketch you did one day.”

“I’ve done a lot of them, been doing them for two months, and it took a while for me to find someone who could make it.” The ring was plain gold but the solitaire diamond was held in the clasp of two hands, one slightly larger than the other. One clearly Vince’s hand, the other, Lulah’s. “Oh, and there’s one more thing. Wait there.”

How had he forgotten this vital part of the evening? Perhaps because he’d already spent weeks imagining not only this moment but their entire life spent loving each other in this cabin.

At times, the fantasy grew to a couple of children and Gable spending a lot of time with them. Lulah as a mother would be awesome. In his bag, he found the papers from the lawyer. When he handed them to Lulah, she obviously noticed the legal envelope.

“What’s this, Vince, a prenup already?”

He grinned at her. “Read it.” She was going to marry him, wasn’t she? Is that what she’d said? He waited, his heart settling to a steady thump as he watched her try to make sense of the papers. The small crease on her brow showed she wasn’t quite getting it.

Her face screwed up. “What does this mean?”

“I bought the cabin.”