“Marry me?”
My eyes snapped open and I looked up at him. I couldn’t have heard him right. “What?”
“I said, marry me.” Nope definitely heard him right.
“Are you crazy, we haven’t been together that long.”
“Long enough for me.” Maybe he was so sex deprived he’d lost his mind.
“How do you know I’m the right woman?”
“Just like my mom and dad, I know you’re it for me.” I’d heard the story of his parents’ first meeting a few weeks ago. I thought they’d exaggerated. Maybe I was wrong. That didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t ready to marry Miller. Although I could see myself spending the rest of my life with him, I needed more time to know I was ready.
“I can’t marry you. Not yet, anyway.”
A smirk crosses his features. “I got you to agree to move in with me, let me pay off your loans and get a new car. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to change your mind.”
EPILOGUE
Miller
Eight months later.
“Your parents are going to kill us if we do this.”
“No, they won’t. They’ll think it’s a great idea,” I said, while we waited our turn. “Besides, you thought it was a great idea earlier.”
“That was before we got here.”
“Mr. Hawes and Miss Carner.” The woman at the front of the room called us forward and I shot Tess a wink.
“Too late for second thoughts now.” I gave her a brief kiss, then took her hand and led her forward.
“Looks like we have everything here. Ah, wait. We missed one box. Long or short?”
We gazed at each other. “Short.”
“Perfect. Give me thirty seconds to turn on the camera.”
The woman nodded to the man standing at the front of the room waiting for us to come forward. He looked back and forth between us. “Miller Hawes, do you take Theresa Carner to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, as long as you both should live?”
I smiled down at the woman who had given me everything I’d tried to avoid my whole life. She’d brought both peace and chaos into my world and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Brock still hadn’t finished the job with Nathan Marcello, so Tess kept a lower profile than before, unless she was with me. She didn’t like the extra security—I even had Charlie or Dean go to campus with her—but until the bastard was dead, she would never be out of sight. There were very few people I trusted nowadays.
Standing in front of Elvis and the other couples waiting to get married, I pledged my life to the one woman who knew how to control the asshole in me. She loved me even when I was being a dick, and I could admit that it probably wasn’t an easy feat. But she did it, for me. She was my everything. And I was hers.
“I do.”
He turned to Tess. “Theresa Carner, do you take Miller Hawes to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, as long as you both should live?”
“I do,” she answered, the biggest smile on her face.
“By the power vested in me by the state of Las Vegas, and by being the King of Rock ‘n Roll”—Elvis paused and gyrated his hips a few times before continuing. Tess’s attempt not to laugh forever ingrained in my memory—“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
“I love you,” I said, right before my lips caught hers.
She pulled away at the first sign of catcalls.
“I love you, too, but calm yourself down.” My face fell slightly until she added, “There’ll be time for more of that later—with no interruptions.”