Jen looked down. “You’re giving me the ring?”
“Aye.” His accent roughened the one word into a burr. “Take it.”
When she didn’t move, still stunned with euphoria, he grabbed her hand and slapped the box into her palm.
“I’ll be off now.” He paced away, his gait stiff, not like the usual prowl she’d come to love.
“Wait,” she called once more.
He didn’t stop this time. He picked up his gait instead.
Cameron Steward loved her. He hadn’t been onto the next woman with Amanda. He hadn’t come here to yell at her about the ring. Not really.
He’d come to get her back.
She raced after him, her love and heart bouncing inside in a mad jig. He must have sensed her behind him, because he began to run.
“I won’t accept this ring.”
Her thrown words made his shoulders tense, but his long legs kept churning under him.
“Not unless you come with it.”
Coming to a hard stop, he whipped around and stared at her. “What did ye say?”
“You heard me.” She stopped a few feet from him, unable to believe how happy she was and how wonderful her life was going to be. “I want you with the ring.”
“Me.” Disbelief tinged the word.
“You. And Robbie.” She braved a smile and something broke free inside. A fear she’d held since she’d been five. A fear that she’d never find her way home again. “My home.”
“Jenny?” He took one tentative step toward her, then stopped. “Are ye sure, lass? I’m not such a great prize, ye know.”
“What I know is I love you, Cameron Steward.” She put out her hand. “Only you. And only for forever.”
His eyes lit, the gold splashing sunshine onto the dark center. With one stride, he came to her and swept her into his arms. “Jenny.”
“Cam.” She let herself touch him now, brushing across the stubble of his jaw. “I think you need to put this ring on my finger.”
“Do ye now?” Grabbing the box, he plucked the ruby ring out. “Well, then, give me your hand, my love.”
The ring looked exactly right on her finger. The warmth of the stone seemed to seep into her skin, lighting the love inside her into a glow of peace. She’d found her place, found her man. Leaning into his arms, she sighed in contentment.
“My Jenny.” He kissed her, a warm taking, a silent pledge to give her a forever home.
Epilogue
His little sister was a pain in the arse.
Not that his da would let him say that. Or her mother for that matter.
“No, ye can’t, Charlotte.” Rob popped his head up to glare over the side of his sailboat. “You’ll get in the way.”
“I won’t.” The seven-year-old glared right back. “I’ll be your second mate.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it.” Grabbing a wrench, he focused on fixing his engine. He needed to get this done fast so he could meet the girl he’d had his heart set on for more than a year. Megan Mackenzie would be waiting for him on the docks of the angling club, where her own da worked as a guide.
He’d had to ask her gruff old man if he could take his wee daughter on this jaunt. Having survived that trauma, he wasn’t about to let his little sister spoil this long-awaited date.
“Ye have to let me come.” Charlotte began her usual wheedling. She knew her brother was a sucker when she got all pleading and such. “I’ll make sure to make ye a fine sandwich when we get to the middle of the loch.”
Rob glanced at her. Aye, she had on her wheedling face. “No means no.”
“But I make a fine sandwich. Ye know I do.” She gave him a jaunty grin, still sure of her eventual success. “I brought your favorite crisps, too.”
Ignoring the familiar bag she held up for his inspection, he wrenched the last piece into place. The engine roared to satisfying life.
“Please?” his sister begged from the dock. The wheedling had now turned to pitiful tears. “Please, Rob?”
He sighed. He hated tears and every one of his sisters knew it. “I have a date.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened in immediate interest, the tears drying up. “What?”
“Don’t tell Jen or Da.”
“Don’t tell us what?”
At the sound of his da’s deep voice, Rob threw the wrench down in disgust. “Dammit.”
“I won’t tell.” His sister’s words were lost in the engine’s roar, yet he read her lips.
He gave her a smile, the one they’d shared since the moment he’d found Charlotte swinging from a tree limb at the age of three. Instead of a crying infant who caused him endless trouble, she’d suddenly become a fellow daredevil. A girl, sure, but one who was willing to do anything he proposed.