His hand moved in mine. My eyes flew to his face to see those pale eyes staring back. His voice was so soft but I heard every word, they burned themselves onto my heart. “We’ll start with that.”
Friends and family came in waves the day following Damian waking up, but now it was just the two of us and with the scare behind us, fear gave way to fury. He almost died and he was the one constantly telling me I did stupid things.
“What were you thinking?”
Even laid up in a hospital bed, the man looked formidable. In response to my question, he raised an eyebrow.
“Putting yourself in the path of a bullet. What the hell, Damian? What if he killed you?”
“Better me than you.”
“No. It’s not better, not at all.”
“It’s over, no point on harping.”
“You’re lying in a hospital bed with tubes and wires. I’ll fucking harp.”
“You would have been in a wooden box.”
“You could have been.”
“But I’m not.”’
“It was reckless.”
“Come here.”
“No.”
He started to remove the wires from his arm. I ran to him. “What—”
Even recovering from major surgery the man could move, pulling me on top of him, pressing my body into his. “I’ve waited a long time for you and now that I finally have you I will move Heaven and Earth to keep you right where I’ve always wanted you, at my side. I will walk in the rain so you stay dry, I will forgo food so you can eat, I will take the pain so you won’t feel any and I will absolutely step in front of danger to keep you safe.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks and he wiped them away. “I’ve waited a long time for you too, so let’s get an umbrella big enough for two, let’s plant a garden so we always have food, let’s share the pain because we have each other to seek comfort in and let’s just avoid danger because living a life without you would be worse than death.”
He touched my cheek and smiled. “You make some good points.”
“Please smile more often.”
He kissed me instead.
“You do realize you just spoke like a hundred words in a row. I think that’s a record.”
His hand moved down my back to my ass where he lightly swatted me. “Behave.”
Everything below my waist throbbed. “That’s not the way to encourage me to behave.”
“When I get you home…”
“Where is home?” I loved New York, but I missed the cottage.
His answer settled happily in my chest. “Wherever you are.”
It was loud and crowded. The smell of whiskey and rashers filled the tight space. Damian was right at my side, his arm around my waist, his fingers digging into my hip to keep me pressed tight against his side. His soft white shirt felt really nice against my overheated cheek.
Cam’s voice carried over the other noises in the pub. “To Thea and Damian. Fucking finally.”
“Cameron Edward Ahern. What kind of language is that to use on your sister’s wedding day?”
Damian and I got married. He slipped my grandmother’s ring onto my finger and promised to smile more, to laugh more. He promised to have my back when the zombie apocalypse came and would keep me stocked in coffee and sugar. And he promised to love me in this life and the next. I promised to not be reckless, to attempt to control my temper. I promised to never lose my sense of humor and to keep us stocked in cookies. And I promised to love him in this life and the next.
Mom was still on a rant, had been since learning of our plans for our wedding. “I still don’t understand why we’re having the reception at a bar.”
Damian pulled me even closer. I glanced up to see him looking back. And then Damian Tate curled his spine and kissed his wife in front of everyone at McGinty’s.
“He’s running late, but he’ll be here soon. He said not to wait.”
“We’ll wait. We only get together once a month, we’ll all eat together.”
Mrs. Cooke was sitting at the table in Mom’s kitchen rolling out dough for cookies. She had made the move to Mom’s permanent. I liked that they had each other, that Mom’s house became the hub of the neighborhood and that every night of the week there were people coming and going. Damian bought Mrs. Cooke’s house to set up HQ for his security firm, which was financially solvent because their ops had high price tags due to the complexity of them. And there was a need because his team was expanding. He kept her place exactly as she had it and she was able to visit whenever she wanted. She had started baking again. Confessed to us she had stopped because baking had been one of the ways she had shown her love to Mitchell and when he died it hurt too much. I understood that, boy did I understand that. But now that she was among her new family, she was whipping something up every other day.