“Oh, Cooper. I don’t care what you have. I just want to be a part of your life,” she said with tears streaming down her face.

“I love you, Stormy. I was planning on telling you this sooner, but things got messed up,” he said, a sparkle in his eyes. “By the grace of God, the sea refused to bury me in its depths; instead, it brought me back to you.”

“I love you so much,” she replied. “I’m sorry I left—that I ran away. I won’t run again.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, repeating her words.

Suddenly, he let her go as he dropped to one knee, pulling from his coat pocket a very mushy black ring box. There before her, a brightly polished gold ring was shining like the sun, set with three diamonds, the center stone larger than the surrounding accents.

“Stormy, marry me and I’ll cherish you for as long as I have left on this earth. I’ll give the entire inheritance to whatever charity you want. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove to you that I want you, only you.”

With her left hand still in his, Stormy placed her right on his check, gently caressing his jaw. Never breaking eye contact, she knelt down on both knees, lightly kissed him on his lips, and nodded her head.

“Yes, Cooper, yes. I want to be yours for the rest of my life. And I do trust you. Even if I forgot that for a few days.” Tears of tender joy streamed down her face as she smiled and kissed the corners of his mouth. Cooper removed the diamond ring from the crumpled velvet box and slipped it on her finger.

As Cooper and Stormy embraced, the lobby erupted into applause and the sound of cameras clicking as the crowd of passengers, friends, and family all hugged and congratulated each other and the new couple. Something that could have been a great tragedy was ending so beautifully.

Sherman looked down from his vantage point, and he caught a glimpse of someone he hadn’t seen for too long. When the man looked up, their eyes connected.

As the two locked gazes, for a fleeting moment Ace smiled, perhaps out of gladness for seeing his uncle, Sherman hoped. But quickly, his nephew regained his composure, his eyes again became ice, and the lone wolf walked out the doors, to wander and lust after the desires of his soul.

And Sherman’s heart broke.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Cooper stood face-to-face with his reflection, smartly dressed in his uniform. Over the harbor, the frosty January morning had left the world blanketed in a white lace of frozen dew. Cooper’s mother lightly knocked at his door and entered the bedroom.

“Today is your big day. Your bride looks splendid, absolutely angelic. Your father would be . . . is. Your father is very proud of you. I am proud of you, too, and I love you.” Resting her face against his shoulder while lightly rubbing the small of his back, Evelyn embraced her son.

“I know. I know he’s proud of me. It’s a funny thing, but I understand now why he chose to do things as he did. I have so much peace inside me, and it’s all because I fell in love.”

“Yes, love keeps us sane,” his mother said with a sad smile.

“I’m sorry you’ve been without him for so long,” Cooper told her.

“Thank you, son. That means more than you could ever imagine.”

Peering back out the window as he reined his emotions in, he decided he liked the cold and ice. It was clean, crisp, and beautiful.

“We better go. I don’t want to keep my bride waiting.”

“Yes, let’s not keep my new daughter waiting.” Evelyn smiled at her son as she took his hand and led him from the room and downstairs to a waiting limousine, where Sherman and his brothers were already sitting.

“Are you ready to be tied down for time and all eternity?” Nick asked with a punch to his arm.

“Yeah, I am,” Cooper said, not even embarrassed.

“What in the world has happened to you?” Maverick asked with a laugh.

“I fell in love. You should try it sometime,” he told his brother.

“No thank you. I prefer to hold on to my balls,” Mav said with a wink.

“Yeah, without a wife, I’m sure you’re doing that a lot,” Cooper told him.

“Hey!” Mav scowled. “I have no problem finding women to warm my bed.”

“Yeah, but at the end of it all, you’re still left with an empty bed,” Cooper said.

“This is a conversation a mother shouldn’t be hearing,” Evelyn told her sons, reminding them she was there.

“Sorry, Mom,” Mav quickly muttered.

“Let’s just focus on your brother since this is his day,” Evelyn suggested.

“I think that sounds like a plan,” Nick said, happy for once not to be the one getting in trouble. “Besides, you’re a national hero who’s marrying a beautiful girl. Plus, I’m going to be an uncle. And since I helped so much in the relationship, I think you should name my nephew after me.”

“Stormy and I were thinking of naming him William Sherman . . . or Will.” Scanning their faces for reactions to the name of the little boy that would be coming in the spring, Cooper fondly smiled at his mother.

“That’s a wonderful name, son. Baby Will is a wonderful name and this grandma can’t wait to meet him.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

“Lindsey, my hair is beautiful.” Stormy gazed in the mirror at her best friend, who’d been fussing with the do all morning.

“I know, but I’m so nervous,” Lindsey replied.