My heart thrashes and my lungs are on vacation.
“I bought this property. It’s mine, but I hope to make it ours. I want to build a home, a life with you. That life we pretended to have as children, it can be ours—right here. Will you honor me by being my wife?”
My eyes dart from tree to tree, and I check behind me. No cameras, no crew.
“This isn’t for the show?” Can he mean it?
The rush of blood through my ears almost drowns out his next words.
“The other one wasn’t for the show either. But you thought it was, and I decided it was probably best to do this in private. I want you to know it’s from my heart. Please, Lou, be my wife?”
“Seriously? You want to marry me again? What if…what if it doesn’t work? We’re so different now. You’re Mr. Hollywood Bad Boy, and I’m—well, I’m Loula Mae Fontaine and not much of anything else.”
He lifts his eyes to capture my gaze again. “Lou, some things have changed about us since the first time I proposed to you under this tree. But one thing has never changed: I’ve loved you forever, and I’ll continue to love you into eternity. Please, let me do that loving up close instead of from a distance.”
“But you’re leaving in a few days.”
“Marry me and come with me. Stay with me every day for the rest of our lives.”
“But—”
Buck stands and pulls me to him. “Do you want to marry me, Lou? Or do you just want to come up with a ton of excuses and be a total pain in the nads?”
I bury my face in his muscled chest. “I’m always going to be a pain in the nads, Buck. Are you sure you want me?”
“Fuck yeah, I want you. Is that a yes?”
I nod.
He takes my shoulders pushing me away and looking into my eyes. “Yes?”
Giddiness unlike anything I’ve experienced overtakes me. Breathless, I have to force myself to inhale.
I drop my head back and shout into the canopy above. “Yes. For fuck’s sake, yes! I’ll marry you—again—you idiot.”
Buck yanks me into his arms, his mouth closing over mine.
He pulls back, his eyes questioning. “So, you love me again?”
“Lord, you’re dense. Of course I love you. I never stopped.”
EPILOGUE
I spread the quilt under our magnolia tree, the tree where Lou and I said our vows just days after I asked her to marry me.
I hold out my hands. “Here, let me take him.”
Lou passes Daniel to me as she hikes Maggie higher onto her other hip.
I settle onto the blanket with my son and run my hand down the back of his mother’s leg. “I’ll take her too, you go take a nap. I got this.”
Lou gives me side eyes. “I’m not sure you and these two won’t find some sort of mischief to get into if left unsupervised.”
“I think I can handle the twins by myself for an hour or two.”
She narrows her eyes. “Nan’s on her way up, isn’t she?”
I shake my head, somehow managing to keep a straight face.
“Aunt Delores?”
I stand and take Maggie, leaning in to kiss Lou’s temple. “Go rest. These two are enough to wear anyone out, and since you won’t let me hire a nanny—”
She grimaces. “I’m not sure—what if they decide to go different directions? They’re mobile now, you know?”
Every suggestion to get her some help is ignored. She says she wants to spend as much time as she can with the babies.
I set Maggie on the quilt next to Daniel, who immediately takes her binky. Maggie’s bottom lip pokes out just before a wail splits the Louisiana sky wide open.
Lou squats in front of the babies, giving Maggie her pacifier and popping Daniel’s into his mouth. “See? You need me.”
I sigh. “Do you want to have a nap, Lou? Or do you just want to come up with a ton of excuses and be a total pain in the nads?”
She frowns. “I’m always going to be a pain in the nads, Buck.”
Pops calls from somewhere in the trees. “Hey. Don’t worry, Lou. I’ll help him wrangle those two long enough to give you a break.”
Damn. Cold busted.
She stands, shaking her head, but grinning.
I shrug. “Well, I told you I could handle it. I didn’t say I’d handle it alone.”
She leans against my chest and I breathe her in. Her sweet scent still gets me hard in an instant.
I kiss her soundly on her perfectly puffy lips. “Go. Rest. We’ll be fine.”
Pops comes into the clearing and coughs. “Why don’t you both go up to the house. Nan and Delores will be up here any minute with a picnic.”
Lou glares at me. “You.”