Jeremy

Crystal was waiting for me in the lobby as I was wheeled out. Hers was the face I sought, the first face I focused on, the face that stopped my heart. When she spotted me, her eyes filled with tears. She stood and smiled, lips trembling, hands trembling, and took a step toward me.

Seeing her, I couldn't stop grinning. She was beautiful, even with her sooty, smeared mascara and stained, dirty clothes. Hell, that was my blood she was wearing like a badge of honor.

Cam, Dylan, Austin, Blair, and Ashley were waiting for me too. They got to their feet. But Crystal was the main event, my all. As she ran to me, my friends held back, giving us our moment and our space. I opened my arms to her.

She bent, threw her arms around my neck, and kissed me, gently but thoroughly. "You really are alive."

"You doubted?"

"I worried." She stroked my face. "You gave me a scare."

I brushed a tear from her cheek. "Hey. Don't cry. I'm fine."

"I know you are…"

I glanced up at my nurse and hitched a thumb at him. "I would have proved it and walked out on my own power, but this one is a tyrant."

"Standard procedure," he said.

I shook my head. "I even had a macho strut all picked out and planned."

My nurse shook his head. "I'd like to see you manage that with your bruises. I'd pay good money to see it."

I laughed. "I'd have taken your money gladly, dude."

Crystal stared at me, taking me in. "You're wearing a fresh shirt and jacket."

"Yeah. Those damned police confiscated my shirt and jacket as evidence." I took Crystal's hands and squeezed them, not wanting to ever let her go. "I would have had to be wheeled out naked, but Ashley thinks of everything. She asked the guys to bring fresh clothes for me."

I was, at least, freshly scrubbed, and somewhat drugged-up and sleep-deprived, too. I hoped my eyes didn't look too dilated and creepy. I couldn't stop staring at Crystal. The last thing I needed was to scare her off with a creeper stare now.

"What do you think?" I nodded toward my shirt. "Do my friends have good taste?"

"Begging for a compliment?" She grinned. "I don't know. You'd look pretty hot bare-chested and bandaged."

"Damn that Ashley."

"At least this way you're warm," she said. "The clean shirt is a nice touch. Very thoughtful of Ashley."

"You credit her for my stylish hospital release look? You've obviously met my friends." I was suddenly nervous about that. The guys could come off a little strong to people who didn't know them.

Crystal nodded. "I have." She glanced back at them. "They're great. And I know Ashley—she leaves nothing to chance, especially fashion."

"Yeah." I nodded. "She's working hard for that bonus Lazer promised her."

Crystal took my face in her hands. "I can't believe it. I hear your commemorative coaster saved your life?"

I grinned. "Yeah. I told you that you should have stepped forward as a hero. Then you'd have one, too. Want to see it?"

---

Crystal

And there he was—the man I loved joking again in the face of danger. Well, maybe at the back of danger. "Later." I wiped tears of joy out of my eyes with the back of my hand.

"It's quite the souvenir now." He took my hand. "Hey, don't cry. It's over—"

"I'm sorry," I blurted.

He looked confused. "About what?"

"About hesitating. About not being there for you—"

He frowned. "You did exactly what I wanted. Do you think I wanted you to get shot? More than anything, I wanted, I needed, you to be safe. How else was I going to get another date with you?"

"I have a lot more I'm sorry about." I bit my lip, forgetting again that I'd cut it earlier in the evening. "I'm sorry I didn't realize how short time can be, how little we might have left. I'm sorry I didn't take the chance of a lifetime when you offered it." My heart hammered so loudly in my ears that I could barely hear myself think. I couldn't believe what I was thinking and about to do. "I'm sorry I turned you down."

His face lit up. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Behind me, his friends were stone silent.

I nodded. "You promised me you'd ask again."

His expression became serious. His eyes shone. He took both of my hands in his. His voice was loud and clear and unwavering as he said, "Crystal Pruitt, will you marry me?"

I nodded. "Yes." I blinked back tears. "Yes, I will marry you, Jeremy Marino. We are meant to be." I leaned down and kissed him.

The pin-drop silence broke into a roar. The guys crowded around us.

"What the hell just happened?" Dylan said.

"I think you and me have just been made the last two bachelors standing." Cam sounded amused and stunned.

Ashley was shaking her head. "I knew it." She came forward and hugged me. She hugged Jeremy. "I knew of everyone, you'd be the one to break the rules. The quiet ones always do. Congratulations."

Cam came forward with the bag that had been beside him all night. He opened it and pulled a superhero cape out, draping it over Jeremy's shoulders. "Our hero. Once again."

Jeremy laughed. "You remembered my cape, too, man? Thanks." He settled it around him.

I frowned, puzzled.

"It's his favorite cosplay costume," Blair said.

"So, engaged on the second date," Dylan said. "This beats your old man's record, if I remember right."

Jeremy glanced at me.

"I think we have to give it to you," I said. "Neither of us has been home. This is still the same date. Creative accounting aside, second date."

The guys let out a loud round of applause and hoots.

Austin congratulated him. "I always thought Cam would be next."

Jeremy laughed and pulled the coaster out of his pocket. He held it up. "And I always thought no one would ever beat your epic wedding. I mean, sword fights? Maybe no one will, but look at this." He shook the coaster and pointed to a bullet lodged in the center of it. "This has to be the most epic engagement yet."

"I can't believe the police let you keep that," I said.

"I can be persuasive." He grinned and squeezed my hand. "Crystal turned me down earlier." He pointed to the bullet. "I had to get shot to change her mind." He winked at me.

Ashley shook her head vehemently and held her hands up, waving them. "Don't any of the rest of you dare to try to top that. I want you all alive for a very long time."

The guys laughed. The nurse wasn't sure how things had turned into a celebration.

Jeremy pulled me into his lap. I looped my arms around his neck.

"For the record," I said, addressing his friends, "getting shot wasn't what changed my mind. Not all of it, anyway. Meeting all of you did. If a guy has such good friends, he can't be all bad, can he?"

Austin slapped Jeremy on the back. "She's really going to fit in. We like her." He pointed to Cam and Dylan. "Now if Ashley can just find them each a woman who can stomach them—"

Dylan shoved him.

"Boys," Blair said mildly. "We're holding up Jeremy's nurse. He has work to do."

The nurse laughed. "This is more fun."

Austin looked at Cam and Dylan. "Who's taking Jeremy home?"

"They live in the same building," Ashley said to me.

"Home?" Dylan shook his head. "I'm hungry. Who's up for bacon and eggs? Let's celebrate this engagement in style."

"We took my car," Cam said. "Dylan and I have room for both Crystal and Jeremy. I'll go pull it around." He jogged off to get the car.

"Someone needs to call Lazer and tell him he's going to be a best man again." Blair turned to Ashley.

"I'll call him." Ashley grinned. "And tell him he owes me another bonus."

As the party of friends laughed and joked, I turned to Jeremy. "I love you."

He smiled. "And I love you, Soon-to-be Mrs. Marino. I suppose there are some things we should discuss now—"

"How many kids?" I said.

"Exactly."

"Well?"

"You first," he said.

"Two."

He nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

Headlights flashed in the windows as a car pulled around in the patient pickup driveway.

Dylan looked out. "That's Cam." He waved to the nurse to push us out.

I tried to get off Jeremy's lap. "Where are you going?"

I looked up at the nurse.

"Stay where you are," the nurse said. "You're small. This chair can hold two."

And so I rode in a wheelchair on my hero's lap to my awaiting chariot, an engaged woman. And one very happy unicorn hunter. I'd finally found mine.