I rushed out from A Drop of Hope’s kitchen, my heels clicking on the floors, my knees feeling a little shaky.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever been so nervous in all my life.

Sensing the movement, Evan spun around where he was standing by the inside of the cupcake display case. When he saw me, he smiled a smile so powerful it penetrated right through the center of me.

Moving forward, I grabbed him by either side of his precious face, my thumb swiping across his cheek to clean off the smudge of frosting. “Someone’s been sneaking into the display case again.”

He nodded in my hold, that smile somehow growing stronger, my little man all dressed up in a suit, and his normally messy hair tamed with product.

Just looking at him sent my bottom lip trembling. “You look so handsome.”

His little hands flew between us.

YOU ARE THE PRETTIEST MOM IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

“You think so, huh?” I asked, trying to settle the jittery nerves that scattered through my insides, twisting up my tummy in pride and apprehension.

Jenna popped her head in through the front swinging door. “Are you two ready yet? We’re gonna be late if we don’t get out of here.”

ARE YOU READY? I signed.

YUP!

LET’S DO THIS.

I took his hand and wound us around the front counter and toward the entrance. I clicked off the last light in the shop before we stepped out into the evening, the air still full of humidity and warmth.

Still, a chill skated my skin.

Sucking in a deep breath, I moved for Jenna’s car, which was idling at the curb, and helped Evan into the back before I climbed into the front passenger seat.

The second I clicked my buckle, Jenna pulled out onto the street.

“This is so gonna wrinkle up my dress,” I said, another dose of that worry injecting itself in my veins.

“Don’t even start, Harley Hope. You look gorgeous. You’re gonna be the prettiest girl in the whole place.”

Funny how I’d never had stage fright for a second of my life. But this felt different. As if I was getting ready to let a room full of strangers view the most sacred part of me. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t incredibly honored to be invited.

To be a part of it.

I fidgeted with the skirt of my designer black dress, the one Jenna had dragged me out to some upscale boutique downtown to purchase for the event.

An event that was being held at Gingham Lakes Children’s Center.

The second I even let the thought enter my mind, moisture was threatening at my eyes. I fought off the tingly sensation that raced my throat.

This was definitely not the time nor place to get lost in that vacancy that echoed inside of me.

I only allowed myself it in the darkest hours of the night. When I was alone, and I was free to let the loss I was dealing with consume me. When I allowed myself to miss him. To ache for him. My body pleading and my heart begging for him through the silence.

I gave myself the time to feel it.

The pain.

The loneliness.

Let the what-should-have-beens cry out from my spirit.

Just for a little while.

Then I got up the next morning with a staggering amount of thankfulness.

Told myself, someday. Someday I’d find the man who was meant for me. The one who completed me.

The hardest part was Kale had fit every single one of those spaces.

Filled them perfectly.

I gave a little yelp when I was poked in the side.

“There you are, Harley Hope Masterson. Here I was, thinking I was gonna have to crawl around in that head of yours and rescue you from wherever you went. Because you sure seem to be going there a whole lot the last few days.”

I choked back the thick clot of emotion. “Just thinkin’.”

Clinging to the steering wheel, Jenna glanced over at me and then turned back to the road. “And just what are you thinkin’ about? Or more specifically, who?”

I gave her a shrug. “No one.”

It might as well have been a shout of his name from the rooftops.

Kale. Kale. Kale.

Because it was always right there.

An echo in my consciousness.

The man carved into me.

“Will he be there?” she asked.

Flinching, I shook my head. “No. I saw the guest list. He isn’t on there. I’m sure he knew it’d be too hard on us to see him.”

Her jaw clenched. “He owes me his dick, you know? Told him I was gonna cut it off if he hurt you. And that man hurt you.”

A crashing wave of it hit me from out of nowhere.

Covering me whole.

Hurt.

She was right.

Kale had hurt me.

A tear streaked free, and my voice cracked when I whispered, “How’s it possible to be so thankful for someone and devastated by them at the same time? It feels like I’m torn right in two, Jenna.”

“It would be wrong if you felt any other way, Harley Hope. He saved your son’s life, but that doesn’t give him a pass for walking out on you.”

I wiped the back of my hand across my dampened cheek, trying not to smudge my mascara as a shot of frustration took hold. “That’s the problem . . . I want to give him that pass, because he gave me back my world. I just didn’t know that, in the end, he’d leave such a huge piece of it missing.”

A heavy breath pulled from my lungs.

Weighted.

A thousand pounds of sorrow.

I looked at her. “Does that make me crazy?”

Her head shook. “Of course not. It makes you Hope. Who you are. I just wish he would have seen you for what you are.”

My attention shifted away, and I blinked out the windshield at the buildings whizzing by. “I’m not sure him walking out had anything to do with me. I just don’t think he could handle it. Seeing Evan that way . . . after going through it with Melody.”

A quiver rocked through me when the memories flashed.

Evan collapsing.

Kale right there. Fighting for him. Refusing to give up.

Saving him.

My son.

Emotion bottled high in my throat, and I choked around it. “I forgive him, Jenna. I forgive him, and I refuse to regret loving him. No matter what kind of pain he left behind.”

She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Then don’t. You don’t need to feel guilty for loving him. He’s the one who’s missin’ out.”

I glanced back at my son, who was drawing another picture of Captain America on his sketchpad.

He’d been doing it nonstop since he’d come home from the hospital eight weeks ago.

Dealing with his own kind of grief.

The man who’d come to mean so much to him had become his own loss.

Evan’s heart on the line, the same as mine.

I couldn’t count the number of times I’d found him silently crying. Angry and confused by the fact Kale had saved him and then turned around and left us.

HE PROMISED HE WOULDN’T HURT YOU. THAT HE CARED ABOUT US. HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO HURT YOU. THAT’S THE RULE, he’d signed, driving another stake right into my demolished heart.

Our kinship so profound because he was a prisoner to the same confusion as I was.

This intense, overpowering gratefulness for a man who’d walked away in the end.

But somehow, I understood he couldn’t stay and have to face the same ghosts every day. That it wasn’t anything Evan or I had or hadn’t done. It just hurt him too much to stay.

And I could only be thankful for what he’d given while he was there.

His time purposed.

Purposed for us.

“Someday,” I whispered beneath my breath. “Someday.”

Two hours later, I was sitting at one of the round banquet tables up close to the stage.

Balloon bouquets were set up all over the enormous space, twinkle lights were strung up across the ceilings, and extravagant floral arrangements were set in the middle of the linen-covered tables.

Our plates had just been removed after we’d finished the gourmet dinner.

Evan was to my right and Jenna was to my left. Dr. Krane and his wife sat to the other side of Evan, and a few people I’d never met before took up the rest of the round table.

The gala had been setup in a conference room, the collapsible walls opened to accommodate the three hundred guests who’d been invited.

The fundraiser was for Gingham Lakes Children’s Center, and while some of the guests were staff and families who’d been helped by some of the center’s programs, the lions share were Gingham Lakes’s affluent, there to open their pocketbooks to support GLCC Charities.

Minus the Gentry’s, of course.

“Thank you for all your support,” the chairman of the board for NICU Services said as he completed his speech. Those nerves surged and spun, my stomach growing tight.

I was up next.

I’d memorized the program.

William Wright would speak, then Martha Jiminez, one of the event organizers would introduce me. I clapped for William Wright while anxious wings fluttered and scattered through my entire body. My eyes dropped closed for a moment so I could mentally prepare myself for Martha to step out to take his place.

The clapping died off and a ripple of confusion rolled across the room, a quiet anticipation taking hold to each person in attendance.

Though for me, that anticipation thundered and boomed.

A spark to the air.

I pried my eyes open and gasped when I saw who stood at the podium.

That crazy attraction that climbed to the air. It came alive between us where he stood up there dressed in a fitted black tux.

Potent.

Powerful.

Persuasive.

Kale.

The man was a perfect chaos.

My mouth went dry.

His hair was styled in that immaculate way, every part of him put together.

Commanding and bold.

But I saw beneath that gorgeous exterior. Everything about him tonight was abraded and raw.

So intense I could feel the emotion coming off him like a shockwave.

Under the table, Jenna pinched my leg, her eyes wide when I looked at her. “What is he doing here?” she whispered under her breath.

I gave her a short shake of my head.

I had no idea.

Hadn’t expected this.

God, I didn’t even know if I could handle it.

He cleared his throat. “I know your programs say Martha Jiminez should be standing up here right now to make this next introduction . . .”

He let a small smirk climb to his full lips. “There’s a chance I might have bribed her to let me stand up here tonight, but don’t blame her, I’ve been known to be a little convincing when I need to be.”

A small wave of laughter rolled through the room.

Because there stood that cocky, arrogant boy.

A second later, a quiet somberness filled his expression. “But the truth is, I would have paid anything to get to stand up here and make this introduction, because this charity is so incredibly important to me. As a pediatric physician here at Gingham Lakes Children’s Center, I have the honor of treating patients with many different illnesses and chronic diseases. There is no better feeling than getting to take part in their care. To maybe have the chance to make their lives a little better.”

Those blue eyes locked on me.

Penetrating.

Infiltrating and invading.

A shiver rocked through me, and Evan stirred in his seat, his own surprise coming off him in waves.

“And sometimes, it’s the patient who makes our lives better. The patient who touches us in ways we never could have expected. The patient who teaches us what true hope looks like.”

His voice grew thick, and moisture grew heavy in my eyes.

What was he doing?

Ruining me. That’s what. I had no idea how I was going to make it through this. And still, nothing felt more right than him standing up there.

He let his gaze bounce around the room. “I’m standing up here tonight with the great honor of introducing our next charity represented here this evening, A Lick of Hope. A Lick of Hope is a foundation created to support children born with heart defects and their families.”

He looked down at the folded sheet of paper he’d brought up with him and cleared his throat before he started to read it.

“A Lick of Hope has raised over two hundred fifty thousand dollars this year alone,” he said. “Their mantra reads, ‘Anything is possible if you have A Lick of Hope.’ After having the honor of getting to know this charity’s head and its inspiration, an amazing little boy who taught me exactly what that hope looks like, I am now a true believer of this statement.”

My ribs squeezed my heart. Or maybe it was just my heart that was struggling to break out. Desperate for its match.

His head dropped for a moment, as if he were gathering himself, before he looked up and met the crowd. “As physicians, we wake up each day with a huge burden on our shoulders. The health and wellbeing of the little people we get to see and treat. Sometimes that burden can be overwhelming. Wearing. Scary.”

Overcome, he sucked in a breath. Finally, he pressed on, “A Lick of Hope was created and is headed by an incredible woman and her son who reminded me what being a doctor is truly about. It’s about faith and belief and never, ever giving up, no matter how hard it might be. That even through our losses, our failures, we get up and fight all over again.”

My blood thundered through my veins, a torrent of emotion when he turned that magnetic, knowing gaze on me.

That connection pulsed.

Alive.

Begging and prodding.

“I am so incredibly proud to introduce the heart of A Lick of Hope, Harley Hope Masterson.”

A thunder of applause echoed through the room, and tears broke free of my eyes. Overwhelmed, I pushed to standing on my high heels, still caught in the stare of this beautiful man.

Evan was beaming up at me, getting onto his knees on his chair as he frantically waved his hands in the air.

My child unable to hear the sound but no doubt swept up in the vibration.

I touched his sweet chin before I turned and headed for the steps that led to the stage.

Wobbly.

Lightheaded.

Because this man made me that way.

Vulnerable and shaky as he stared down at me as if I were his world.

Hope.

It threatened to bloom in my spirit.

I beat it back and focused on what tonight was all about.

I moved through the intensity that bellowed from the walls.

At the bottom step, I just . . . stopped. Turned around and stretched my hand out for my son.

He was just as big a part of this endeavor as I was.

Truthfully, more.

The inspiration of it.

The lifeblood of it.

And he’d worked his little fingers to the bone helping me make those lollipops.

His grin was magnetic when he saw my invitation. So huge when he scrambled down from his chair and raced for my side.

The room lit up in awws and whistles and sweet sounds for my son.

My miracle boy.

I gathered his hand in mine and we moved up the steps toward Kale.

Kale who stepped back and stuffed his big hands in his pockets and stared at us with this adoring, proud, sorrowful expression on his face.

So sincere.

For a moment, we were stuck there, lost to the other, before he leaned in and brushed his lips against my cheek. “I am so proud of you.”

Energy flashed.

Ignited.

Chills racing across my flesh.

He ran his knuckle across Evan’s cheek before he turned and headed down the side steps and down the aisle.

Barely able to stand, I moved to the microphone with Evan’s hand still wrapped in mine.

I swatted at the tears clouding my vision, clearing my throat as I released a nervous laugh and looked out at the still-cheering crowd.

“Thank you all so much for being here. I know A Lick of Hope is a small charity compared to others here, but it means the entire world to me, and I’m incredibly honored to be invited to speak tonight.”

I lifted Evan’s hand in the air. “And this little boy . . . Evan . . . he’s the reason I’m here tonight.”

My tongue darted out to wet my dried lips, still feeling the weight of Kale’s stare from where he’d moved to the very back of the room at the entrance doors.

“When my son was born, the first thing I wanted to know was if he had ten fingers and ten toes, and when I held him for the first time, whole and perfect in my arms, I’d never been so happy in all my life. I had no idea that we soon would be in for the fight of our lives.”

Emotion swam and churned, and I glanced down at my boy, who was still swaying at my side.

It was easy to find my strength in his bravery.

“I’m not sure there could have been anything to prepare me for learning that he had a severe heart defect. Nothing that could have been said to prepare me for the moment I was told my tiny newborn would need to be flown to another state to undergo emergency surgery to save his life. And there was absolutely nothing that could have equipped me for the devastating news just months later that if he were to live, he would need a heart transplant.”

Evan shifted at my side, and I glanced down at him to find him smiling this smile that was so full of love that it nearly bowled me over.

He’s the reason I dream.

I looked back to the crowd. “My son might have been born with a heart defect, but it most definitely didn’t change the size of it. He’s the most genuine, caring little boy I have ever known, and for all the years I can remember since he learned to sign, he’s said prayers at night, hoping that no more babies would be born with bad hearts.”

I cleared the lump from my throat, so in awe of my child.

For what he’d gone through.

For what he’d accomplished.

For the incredible person he’d become.

“From those prayers, A Lick of Hope was created. And we share that hope with every lollipop we make.”

A wobbly, grateful smile pulled to my mouth. “That hope is spread with every lollipop that is purchased and every donation that comes in. Because we will never give up hope that one day, no child will have to go through the pain and struggles my son has gone through. That no parent will ever have to hear the words that their child may not make it through the night. That, through research, congenital defects will be easily repaired, and maybe someday . . . someday . . .”

Someday.

The words stumbled on my tongue and my gaze fumbled to Kale at the very back.

The man just a silhouette.

The most profound thing I’d ever seen.

I finally managed to find my words again. “That maybe someday they won’t exist at all. We couldn’t do it without every five-dollar lollipop we sell or the amazing donations and contributions that come in every day. So, thank you . . . thank you for your support. And if you’re so inclined, we have some of those handmade lollipops available in the auction tonight. Each one is made with love and our gratitude to you.”

I stepped back, and applause broke through the room. But my sight was sealed on the man. On his slow, sad smile. The pride behind it.

Then he turned and disappeared out the door.

And I wanted to hate him and hold him. Scream and drop to my knees.

Instead, I fumbled back to my table.

Evan climbed onto his seat and turned to me, confusion and anger and hope billowing across his precious face. HE CAME BACK.

My mouth trembled because I had no idea what that meant. Why he’d done what he did.

But hope, it blistered and radiated and beat.

So intense, I kept shifting on my seat, struggling not to come out of my skin as I listened as the next charity head was introduced then the next and the next until finally the auction was opened. The guests filtered out into the next room to bid on vacations and diamonds and a donated car.

And our small offering.

A thousand lollipops.

As everyone filtered out, I looked to my son, who was clearly growing sleepy. I ran my fingers through his hair before I signed, ARE YOU READY TO GO HOME, SWEET BOY?

Yes, he mouthed before giving me a tired grin, and the smile I returned was adoring. Because I was so proud and happy, even though there was a huge part of me that was feeling brittle.

Those broken pieces moaning at the sight of Kale.

The man who’d changed everything.

Who gave me the greatest gift and then stole what could have been.

“Let’s go,” I said, offering my hand, Jenna at my side. We said our goodbyes to Dr. Krane and his wife before we headed up the aisle.

Jenna sidled up to me. “Oh, Harley Hope, you are in so much trouble, my friend.”

Trouble.

I’d always known he’d be.

“That man does know how to make an entrance, doesn’t he, standing up there looking that way. Mmm . . . all that deliciousness. Think that man sent every woman here into a swoon.”

She fanned herself. “He does not fight fair. One look, and he knew you’d be nothin’ but putty in those big ol’ hands.”

“Stop it,” I scolded her under my breath, stepping out into the courtyard that fronted the conference building. “He just wanted to be here to support A Lick of Hope. That’s all. He left me, Jenna. He left us. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?”

“How about we don’t?”

That deep, powerful voice hit me from the side.

My fragile heart pulsed.

Kale stepped out from the shadows, his hands still stuffed in his pockets.

Moonlight poured in from above, striking against all the curved, defined angles of his beautiful face.

Evan squeezed my hand almost frantically when he realized Kale was standing right there, two feet away from us.

“What are you doing here?” The words were a frenzied whisper.

“Stalking you, clearly.” He fought for the joke, but that mouth only managed to minimally tweak up at the side. Too heavy with the sadness that rimmed his lips.

I could feel my son’s own turmoil. The questions coming off him as the man who’d rescued us then abandoned us took another step in our direction.

The air grew thick.

Dense and full.

My pulse thrummed.

Erratic.

My breaths turning choppy.

“I’m just gonna . . . go check out the auction items.” Jenna’s tone was cautious, her eyes searching when she looked at me to find out if that was what I wanted.

If I wanted to be alone with him or if I wanted for her to step in and intervene.

Problem was that I wasn’t so sure I knew the answer to that myself.

Finally, I gave her a tight nod while still staring at Kale because I couldn’t seem to tear my attention from his face.

When she disappeared back inside, I finally spoke. “What are you really doing here? Why would you stand up there and say all those things?”

It was a plea. A warning. I didn’t know.

I didn’t know if I should tell him to stop, not to come a step closer, or throw my arms around his neck and beg him to never leave me the way I was aching to do.

He blanched, and all those defined, distinct curves of his face went rigid in stark vulnerability. “I don’t have anywhere else to go . . . not when wherever you are is the only place I want to be. Because I meant every single thing I said when I stood up there. You two taught me what it really means to hope.”

“You don’t get to do this, Kale Bryant. I told you that day in my kitchen, you don’t get to come in and make promises and then just walk away. And you sure as hell don’t get to walk right back in whenever you feel like it.”

And I knew he had his demons. I respected that. But if he wanted a place in our lives, he had to be certain he was all in. That he could handle my son’s disability. His old fear.

He roughed one of those big hands through his hair and looked off into the distance as if he were trying to gather himself.

Evan climbed down onto his hands and knees beside me, his notepad on the ground as he began to furiously write across a clean page.

My son nearly broke me when he turned it toward Kale.

And I knew that it broke Kale in some way, too. Because the towering man dropped to his knees in front of my child.

His hands were shaking when he took the pad and wrote out his response.

Oh God.

My spirit licked and danced and my body swayed.

Lightheaded.

Evan sat back on his heels, his hands flying in front of him.

YOU PROMISED I WAS YOUR FAVORITE. I THOUGHT I WAS YOUR FAVORITE.

Desperation wove into Evan’s movements, and his entire face pinched in grief, the remnants of the rejection Kale had inflicted. He lifted his thick glasses, swiping the tears that streaked down his face with the sleeve of his jacket.

Kale gasped over a sob.

Physical, wrenching pain.

He grabbed the notepad, his back heaving as he leaned over to write.

Evan’s face was completely blanketed by the heartbreak written all over him, soaking wet with the tears that wouldn’t stop falling when he read what Kale had written.

I’d warned Kale what was on the line. Did he see it now? The kind of pure love my son had trusted him with?

Evan sat up on his knees and signed more, anger seeded in the emphatic movements.

OUR HOUSE IS L-O-V-E. YOU HAVE TO LOVE IF YOU LIVE THERE. THAT’S THE RULE.

Hardly able to see through the bleariness, I attempted to start to translate, but Kale lifted his own hands.

His motions were awkward and prolonged, off half the time, but there was no mistaking what he was trying to say.

THAT’S GOOD THEN. BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, EVAN. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, AND I LOVE YOUR MOM. I WANT TO STAY WITH YOU. WITH HER. BE YOUR FAMILY. BECAUSE YOU ARE MY HEART.

He punctuated the last with a fist against the middle of his chest.

I nearly buckled, watching him sign to my son. That he’d taken the time to learn. That he’d listened. That he could hear.

Kale looked up at me from where he was still on his knees. “I love you, Hope. I love you so goddamned much, I can’t see. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep.”

Slowly, he pushed to standing, his hand still fisted over his heart. “You warned me your life was complicated, that you didn’t have any room for anything else, and I pushed my way into it anyway. I wanted to save you. Save him. Be your knight or your hero or whatever you wanted me to be. But it turned out that you were the one who was complicating me. In the best of ways. Waking me up and making me feel, when I’d never thought I could possibly feel that way again. All along, you were the one who was saving me.”

I tucked my trembling bottom lip between my teeth, and Kale came closer. So close I could feel him everywhere. Racing across my flesh, sinking deeper into my heart.

“It kills me, Hope, kills me that I walked away from you that night when you needed me most. I was scared. Terrified. Filled with grief and guilt. But you awakened that dead place in me. That’s a gift . . . you and your son are a gift . . . and I don’t want to live my life without it.”

He took my face in both of his big hands. “I love you, with all of me, and I promise, if you can find a way to forgive me, I will live my life for you. For Evan. For us. There might be times when I’m afraid, when I fail, but I will never stop fighting for you. You set me on a path that I don’t want to stop walking. I will follow you anywhere.”

A soggy laugh jolted free, and I sniffled and reached up to scratch my nails across his jaw. “Cowboy.”

He gathered that hand in his, brushed his lips across my knuckles. “Princess.”

He stared at me for the longest time before he looked back at Evan who was staring up at us, sniffling and wiping the tears from his face. Kale knelt back down and did it for him. “Do you want me to stay?” he asked, his voice ripping from his throat. “With you? With your mom?”

Evan made that scraping, raw sound as he said, “Stay.”

I pressed my hands to my chest. Overcome. Overwhelmed.

Kale smiled at him. Tenderly. With so much love it nearly blew me over.

“Is it okay if I kiss your mom, little man?”

Evan turned back to his pad.

“Yeah? And what if I’m her husband?”

Evan was quick to write on his pad.

Kale shifted on his knee and turned his gaze on me, the blue brimming with a sea of promises.

Lust and love and devotion.

He dug in his pocket, and my hands flew to my mouth, a gasp flying free when he held out the little black box.

“What do you say, Hope? Can I give you a billion kisses and all my love, every single day, for the rest of our lives?”

I was frozen, shocked.

Wondering if it was all too much, too fast.

“He bought All. The. Lollipops.” I jerked to look to the side where Jenna was hanging halfway out the door and shouting at us. “Say yes, Harley Hope. Don’t you dare walk away and not say yes. You deserve this. More than anyone I know.”

There was my best friend. Grinning from ear to ear in all her brash, pushy encouragement.

“Yes,” I whispered, the word soggy, love sliding free.

Because it didn’t matter the circumstances. The path we’d taken to get here. This man had led me exactly where I was supposed to be.

“Yes,” I said again, this time laughing with the wave of joy that crashed over me.

He slid the ring on my finger. Diamond glimmering in the moonlight, the man stared down at it.

Awed.

Floored.

Finally, he pushed to standing.

The second he did, I threw myself in his arms.

Kale lifted me from the ground and spun me around.

Round and round.

His face buried in my neck while he clung to me.

He set me on my feet and took my face in his hands. He leaned down and captured my mouth in a dizzying kiss.

Soft and tender and slow.

A promise.

A passionate claiming.

And my unstable world . . . it no longer spun.

It danced.

Clapping went wild around us, and Kale dropped his forehead to mine, grinning against my lips. Redness flushing to my cheeks, I peeked out to the side to see Jenna jumping up and down and clapping her hands.

Dr. Krane and his wife were beside her.

His smile was slow.

Knowing.

Kale looked at Jenna. “You wouldn’t mind if I gave these two a ride home, would you?”

Jenna smirked. “Like I’d expect anything less from you, Sir Bryant.”

She turned her attention to me. “I just expect all the details tomorrow.”

Giggling, I rested the side of my head against Kale’s beautiful, bleeding heart. “Of course, she does.”

“She’s going to cause me all sorts of trouble, isn’t she?” he murmured down at me.

“Oh, I think you can count on that.”

I stretched my hand out, looking at the diamond glinting on my finger. Giddiness swept through me, head to toe. I peeked up at him, a playful smile taking to my mouth. “A ring, huh, Cowboy? Awful presumptuous of you.”

He let that cockiness ride to his lips. “Hey, can’t blame a man who knows what he wants.”

“Is that so?”

“Mmhmm . . .”

He kissed across my jaw and up to my ear. “Besides, I know my girl. If she knows something is right? Then she’s going to jump and trust she lands right where she’s supposed to.”

“With you.”

Kale gathered up Evan’s hand. “With us.”

He wrapped his arm around my waist and leaned in to kiss me on the temple. “Let’s go home, Shortcake.”

Home.

I couldn’t wait to make one with him.