Chapter 28
Amber
“Everyone, I’m in love with Amber Roselynn. I’ve been in love with her for over a year now. The baby that she is carrying right now is my baby. I am the father of this child.”
Gage’s voice echoed loudly in the room. The Christmas music had stopped suddenly when Scott ended up on the floor, howling in pain. Blood had spurted from his nostrils, followed by the sickening crunch of bones beneath Gage’s knuckles. All within a matter of seconds.
My heart pounded furiously at the mixed reactions from the crowd surrounding us. I wanted to slap Gage across the face. I wanted to ask him what the hell was he doing? This was not how I wanted my father to find out. My emotions were wavering from one extreme to the other. I couldn’t even bear looking over at him to see what his reaction was. Hushed and stunned silence followed Gage’s announcement.
“Gage,” I started, voice shaky with emotions. “What the hell are you doing?”
His fingers squeezed mine consolingly. “I’m tired of lying to everyone, Amber. It’s time to tell everyone that I’m in love with you.” Gage’s eyes threatened to burn holes into my own from the intensity of his own stare. “I don’t care what some of the people in this room are going to think of the both of us. Age is just a number to the both of us. I lost my wife to cancer. I watched her slip away from me every single day to that disease until she was no longer here. I didn’t think that I would be able to love someone ever again because I didn’t want to get close enough to love. I was afraid that I would lose someone that way again, and it terrified me beyond anything. That’s when you came into my life, Amber.” Tears filled my eyes as my heart swelled with love. “I’m not a religious man, but I can tell you that I believe that God brings people together for a reason. Even when we don’t see it, or don’t understand it, there is a reason why people are in our lives. I fell in love with your spirit this past year. You are a wonderful mother to not only Ethan, but to my child. And to our unborn baby. You’ve filled the hole in my heart that I thought would be empty for the rest of my life.”
Gage let go of my hand and pulled a small box from the pocket of his suit jacket. I could barely hear over the pounding of my heart as Gage looked up at me with a loving smile. He went down on one knee while opening the small black box to reveal a diamond ring.
“Amber Roselynn,” he said. “I was going to ask you this in Florida, but we were rudely interrupted there. Will you marry me?”
A series of whispers echoed in the conference room. I could barely see straight from the tears in my eyes and from the emotions heaving inside of me. I glanced around the room to see a mixed reaction of shock and disapproval, but I didn’t care. I no longer cared what the rest of the world thought.
I loved Gage Devlin. I didn’t want to live my life without him by my side.
“Yes,” I whispered, holding out a trembling hand for him. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Gage slipped the ring onto my finger with a happy grin. He stood up to gather me into his arms. Our lips met in a passionate kiss. An awkward and confused chorus of claps came, followed by a few cheers, but I paid little attention to it. We were together. That was all that counted in my eyes.
Christmas music started up suddenly. The crowd around us started to move again when I pulled back to smile happily down at the beautiful ring on my finger. It fit perfectly.
“I can’t believe you,” I said breathlessly. “You planned this whole entire thing tonight, didn’t you?”
“Not in this particular order,” Gage replied, shrugging with a grin. “I had planned it a bit differently, but I did have intentions of asking you to marry me tonight.”
“You’re sneaky.”
“Sneakier than I ever thought he was,” Beau said.
The sound of my father’s voice, tinged with confusion and anger, fell over the both of us. I turned to look at him, but I didn’t get a chance to say a word. He gestured stiffly for Gage and me to follow him out into the quiet and cold lobby, away from prying ears.
I grabbed Gage’s hand anxiously while a part of me squirmed happily knowing that I was free to do so now. We followed my father’s rigid shoulders through the crowd of people until the doors were closed behind us on the conference room. He turned to look Gage directly in the eye.
“This is my daughter,” he said, voice a deadly calm. “I asked you to look after her. To care for her as your own child. This is how you repay me?”
“Dad,” I started.
“It’s okay, Amber,” Gage said, not breaking eye contact with my father. “I understand where he is coming from. Just know, Beau, that I never meant to disrespect you. Amber and I never planned for this to happen. It happened without either one of us pushing it to happen. I love your daughter. I would never do anything to hurt her. You know who I am.”
My father couldn’t argue with that. I could see it on his face as he looked over at me. “And you, Amber? Do you love him?”
“More than anything in this world,” I said passionately. “He’s never mistreated me. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted. This relationship and marriage is going to happen, no matter what. I just hope that you can give us both your blessing.”
Gage squeezed my hand with a small smile. I tried to read the expression on my father’s face, but it was pointedly guarded. He chewed on his lower lip for a moment before letting out a sigh.
“I can’t say that I didn’t have my suspicions that something was going on,” he said slowly. “I was just praying that it wasn’t what I thought it was. I guess it wasn’t, in a way.” He looked back at me with a frown. “I can’t say that I am happy that the both of you lied to me, but you are my daughter. I will support you in whatever you want to do.”
“This is what I want.” I gazed up at Gage with a smile. “I’ve wanted Gage for a while. I’ll be happy with him. He has protected and cared for me every single day that I’ve been with him.”
“You’ll need that once news of this is leaked. Expect the press to be all over you two, so I suggest leaving here while you still can.”
I hesitated as Gage signaled for our coats. “What about you? I can’t just leave here, knowing that you’re going to get hounded with questions.”
“I’ll be fine,” my father said, nodding at me. “I’ve handled things in the past just fine. Just make sure that my daughter is safe, Gage.”
“You know that I will,” Gage replied, helping me into my coat. “Come on, Amber. Your father is right. If we don’t leave now, the press will be all over us.”
My father nodded encouragingly as he pulled out his phone. “Go on. Listen to what your fiancé is saying. I’ll be in touch with you two tomorrow.”
I embraced my father tightly, pouring all my relief and appreciation into the touch. He hugged me back just as tightly.
The cold night air rushed to greet us the second that Gage opened the City Hall doors. I didn’t feel cold, though, as we both hurried down the stone steps in the direction of our parking spot. I was giddy with excitement as Gage helped me up into the truck, with a grin that spread from ear to ear.
“Are you ready, Mrs. Soon-to-be Devlin?” Gage asked, turning the truck on to blast us both with warm air. “I have a hotel room booked for us on the other side of Bozeman.”
I leaned across the center console to kiss him on the lips. “I’m ready, Mr. Devlin. I can’t believe this is happening now.”
“Soon or later, it had to happen. Everyone will eventually move on to accept our future together.”
“I hope so,” I replied, sitting back down in the seat to buckle myself in. “Let’s get out of here before the media shows up. I’m sure people are in there contacting various papers.”
“We will be long gone before they are even here, baby.”