EPILOGUE
Tessa tiredly lifted the strap of her purse to settle on her shoulder as she glanced up at the illuminated numbers counting down each floor. On one hand, filling in for one of her nurses had been a change of pace. It had been exhilarating to go back to her roots. On the other hand, the demanding hours had made her appreciate her position as Nursing Director all the more. She would be glad when her unit was back to full staff.
She tilted her head back against the elevator wall, closing her eyes in exhaustion. All she wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed, and sleep until tomorrow morning. She’d just worked her fourth twelve-hour shift in a row with the intention of having four days off because…
Derek was finally coming home.
She’d dreamed of him every night.
She’d imagined him holding her, touching her, and loving her.
And now?
He was coming home to her.
They had spoken nearly every day since he’d left to go back to Afghanistan, either by phone or over FaceTime. She would gently trace his features on the computer monitor with her fingertips, memorizing each and every line so she wouldn’t be lonely when she closed her eyes. He’d somehow become her everything.
There had been very few days where Derek hadn’t called her. Those had been the worst days of Tessa’s life, terrifying and graphic images of what could have happened playing over and over in her mind. On rare occasions, the military had programmed communications blackouts on their end. It always coincided with the Marines taking casualties in country. It never failed to cause a fear stronger than the day she’d almost died at the hands of Jackie. It was in those times she realized just how much he’d come to mean to her. She would gladly give her life to guarantee his.
Tessa peered through the lashes of one eye to see how many more floors she needed to descend to reach the lobby of the hospital. Two more. She exhaled in sleepiness and pressed her cool hands to her face, needing to stay awake long enough to drive home. She was to pick Derek up at the airport in less than seven hours, roughly giving her six hours of sleep. That was more than enough knowing that tomorrow night she would be sleeping in his arms.
The ding of the elevator indicated she’d finally reached the main floor, where all she had to do was walk around the corner to enter the parking garage. She gave herself a pep talk about putting one foot in front of the other, reminding herself that she would soon hear Derek’s voice telling her that he was about to board his plane in Virginia to come home. He’d been back in the States at Quantico, processing out of the Marine Corps for the past two weeks. She’d waited an entire year for this homecoming. She could wait seven more hours.
The doors swooshed open.
Tessa thought for just a second that she’d fallen asleep. The scene before her was something that could only be conjured up by a dream. She blinked again, but nothing changed.
Derek was no more than eight feet from the elevator bank, kneeling on one knee with a small box in his hand. Her mind was still not accepting the mind-blowing view, so she let her eyes drift behind him to find that both her parents and Derek’s were holding up a very large white sign with the words Marry Me written in big, black letters.
Why were her parents here? For that matter, why were his?
It was after midnight.
No one should be here.
Derek shouldn’t be here. He was supposed to be driving to the airport.
The doors ever so slowly closed, erasing the view that had her literally speechless.
“Shit,” Tessa muttered, rushing forward and dropping her purse in the process. She didn’t care. She pressed the button that would reopen the doors over and over and over, willing for the elevator to open. “Shit, shit, shit. Open, damn it!”
And just like that, Tessa was rewarded once more with a view that she would forever commit to memory. More people had gathered around, but it was only Derek who remained clear in her now blurry vision. She furiously blinked the tears away. She didn’t want to miss a single second of the next few minutes.
The doors once again tried to drift shut, but Tessa stepped forward to stop it from happening again. She wasn’t sure how she succeeded, considering her knees were trembling. She somehow had closed the distance and was now looking down at the one man who was her everything.
“Tessa Marie Daniels, I have thought of nothing else but this moment for the past three hundred and sixty-five days,” Derek said softly, his words for her ears only. “I have no intention of leaving your bed once I’m lying beside you this evening, and if my mother taught me anything, it was to be an honorable man.”
“Then we shouldn’t disappoint her,” Tessa laughed lightly through the tears that had gathered in her eyes. She’d thought of their future often—a short engagement, a very long marriage, two spoiled children, and maybe one or two more furbabies. She had already adopted a six-year-old mutt who she loved with all her heart, and Milo would enjoy having more company, either in the form of four legs or two. As for her? She’d waited a long time for this moment. “Our parents already know I love you, Derek Spencer. My answer is yes. Yes, yes, yes.”
Derek quickly stood with that charming smile of his and gathered her in his arms, tilting her over his arm and capturing her lips for a kiss to celebrate her answer. He’d already known that she would say yes, yet he’d gone to all this effort to include both his and her parents. Why? Because he loved her, just as she did him.
Their parents, plus the hospital staff who couldn’t pass up such a romantic scene, gathered around. There was applause, whistles, and congratulations being thrown about, but she only cared about one thing…
He had finally come home to her.
~ The End ~