With convincing from both Lauren and Barb, Shane at last agreed that he would fight for his daughter.
Predictably, Isabel was none too pleased to hear this. “This changes nothing. Tom and I will move her to the lower forty-eight. Then you won’t be able to see her anyway. I know you won’t take time away from your precious dogs, and you know you were never cut out to be a father in the first place.”
“Stay strong,” Lauren reminded him each time Isabel came around. “Your daughter deserves to have at least one sane parent in her life.”
Shane laughed. “Believe it or not, Isabel is actually a great mom. She’s just a terrible wife, person, and everything else you can think of. It’s the only reason why I was so close to giving up.”
“But you won’t?” Lauren said, crossing her arms. Hadn’t they already been through this a million times?
“I won’t,” he confirmed. “Actually, I already reached out to my lawyer, and he’s setting up a renewed custody hearing. He’s even working on a clause that says Isabel can’t move more than a couple hundred miles away from me.” Shane stopped and frowned.
“That’s great news,” Lauren exclaimed. “So why the long face, fella?” She playfully pushed his chin to the side with her fist, but he still didn’t smile.
“The date they gave us is the same day as your big race.”
“So? Who cares?” she blurted.
“I care,” he said, kissing her forehead. “I want to be there for your big day.”
“No way are you missing that court date.”
“I could reschedule for a later—”
“No, absolutely not! Shane, there will be other races, but you only have one daughter.”
He continued to sulk, and it made Lauren upset with him. Could he honestly be considering undoing all the progress he’d made toward getting his daughter back over some stupid race that he wasn’t even running in?
“You’ll need my help to get the dogs set up, and—”
She placed a finger to his lips to quiet him. “And nothing. I can call Scarlett in to be my handler. She’ll love that. And afterward, we can all go out to dinner to celebrate your custody decision and my big win.”
Shane laughed and kissed her finger. “I love how you think. And I love you, too.”
“Finally!” Lauren said with an exaggerated huff. “I was beginning to think you’d never tell me.”
He looked confused. “What? That I love you? I’ve told you before, haven’t I?”
Lauren shook her head with a smile. “Nope, that was the first time. Now if you don’t mind, I’d love to hear it again.”
“You’re so bossy,” he said, reaching down to nip her lower lip. “But it’s true. I love you, Lauren Dalton.”
“And I love you, too, Mr. Grump.”
He pressed his forehead to hers and took in a deep breath. “You know I actually believe you when you say that,” he said.
Lauren playfully hit him in the shoulder. “Hey!”
“Hey, nothing. I never quite believed Isabel. It was something in the way she said it, like there was this hesitation.”
“Don’t get me started on that witch,” Lauren said, practically baring her teeth.
Shane continued to smile despite the unsettling change of topic. “When I win the right to custody, you’ll be seeing a lot more of her. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know.” She shrugged it off, but his eyes remained curious as he watched and waited for her to reveal some secret truth. Frankly, the two of them had already been through enough secret truths to last a lifetime.
“Is that okay?” he asked slowly, and she rolled her eyes at him, then smiled so he would know she meant her words, every single one of them.
“Of course it’s okay, because I still get you.”
He brought his face close to hers and brushed his eyelids against hers. “I’m not sure why you think I’m such a catch, but I’m glad you do.”
“I do. I really, really do.”
Their faces remained close, and she felt each syllable caress her lips as they left his. “Then, tell me, will you still love me even if I lose?”
She nodded slightly and said, “I would love you harder, because you’d need it more.”
“What if I never get better? Would you love me then?” His voice hitched on this question, and Lauren pulled back to study his face.
“That doesn’t sound like a hypothetical, Shane. Is there something you need to tell me?”
His eyes seemed to quaver, as if the tremor he sometimes had in his hands had moved north. His voice came out rough, like every word had to fight to get through. “I’m not getting better, Lauren. Eventually I might be able to walk unassisted, but there’s no way my knees could deal with the strain of being back behind a sled.”
“But you love this!”
“I love you more,” he murmured.
“Shane, no. You can have both me and the dogs. It doesn’t have to be a choice.”
He shook his head, and the first tear spilled onto his cheek. “It’s not a choice. When they dragged me in after the accident, the doctors told me there was a fifty-fifty shot I’d ever even walk again. So far, I’ve been on the lucky side of that equation, figuring I could push my luck even further if I kept trying to force my body into some sort of miracle recovery. It’s time I finally accepted the truth, don’t you think? I’m not a musher anymore, and that’s okay.”
“What makes it okay that you’re losing one of the things you love most in this world?” she continued to argue, losing steam as she did.
“Because I have you, Lauren.”
“Some consolation prize I am.”
Shane cupped her cheeks in his palms and turned her face toward his. “Lauren, you’re everything I ever wanted but never dared to hope for. When the time is right and everything is settled with Isabel and Rose, I’m going to marry you, and you’re going to take my place on the sled.”
Lauren practically had to press the rewind button to make sure she’d heard him right. Only, regrettably, there was not remote control when it came to her life. “Wait, what? That’s a lot of information to take in at once! Did you just propose to me?”
Merriment danced in his storm blue eyes. “I guess I did. Not the smoothest of proposals, huh?”
Lauren laughed. “You didn’t even actually ask. I’m not sure how to answer an unasked question.”
“Lauren Dalton, will you promise to love me forever? Will you take me and all that I am? Will you marry me?”
“Okay,” she said with another laugh.
“That’s your answer?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. Maybe she had inherited some of her mother’s acting skills, after all. “That’s your proposal?”
“I promise I’ll do it right one day when you aren’t expecting it,” he said, lacing both of his hands through hers and rocking them back and forth over their laps.
Lauren raised an eyebrow at him. “I’d like to see that, but don’t make me wait too long. It’s kind of awkward living here with my boyfriend, you know. My father didn’t raise me that way.”
“I wish I could have met him,” Shane said, kissing her eyelids.
“He would have loved you, Shane.”
“I already love him for having raised such an amazing daughter. My fiancée,” he said with a huge, unabashed smile. “Look, I don’t have a ring, but I will. I’ll get one. Until then, I’m giving you everything else.”
“What do you mean?”
“The dogs, the sled, the truck, the cabin. Everything.”
“You going somewhere?”
“I’m being forced into an early retirement. My racing days are over, but Lauren, yours are just beginning.”
“So?” The room started to spin. Panic. Was Shane dying, too?
But he, thankfully, put her mind at ease in the very next second. “I want you to take my place as the musher, and I want to be your handler. We’ll hire someone part-time for the tasks I can’t physically do. I once dreamed of being the greatest racer in the entire state, but it didn’t happen for me. Together, we can make sure it happens for you. Lauren, you’re incredible. You can do anything. Do you believe it?”
“I’m starting to,” she said—and that was the honest truth.