Thief (A Bad Boy Romance)(74)
“Fish man!”
Carter’s grabbing her arms, pointing over her shoulder.
“Carter, what is-”
But I’m following his little finger as I turn and look down the pier.
And there he is.
He’s running towards us, his face fierce and his eyes grim, looking right at me.
“Silas?” Sierra says incredulously.
Our parents turn, and Dad suddenly scowls as he moves between me and the man running towards me.
“Hold up there, son.”
Silas stops short, sucking in a breath of air before meeting my dad’s eye.
“No, sir.”
Jacob Hammond’s face darkens as he draws his full frame up.
“Excuse me?”
Silas holds his ground.
“I said no, sir. Respectfully.”
“Son, you need to-”
“You’re the only family I’ve ever known,” Silas says, his voice almost breaking like the heart in my chest.
“And this is the only place where I belong. Right here, with the only people who’ve ever felt like home.”
Rowan comes jogging up behind him, puffing as he winks at me.
My dad eyes Silas. “You gave that up when you walked away from it, Silas,” he says gruffly. His face darkens. “When you walked away from my daughter.”
Silas shakes his head. “I’m not that guy anymore, sir,” he says fiercely. “I was a dumb kid, and I screwed up.”
He steps right up to my dad.
“I’m done screwing up, Jacob,” he says firmly. “I’m done being that kid.”
“Silas,” Dad shakes his head, “son you have no idea how much I want to believe you.”
“Then believe me.”
I push past Sierra and Stella.
“What do you want, Silas.”
He turns to me, his eyes locking right on mine.
“I want you to know its not too late, not for me, not for us.”
He steps towards me.
“I’m not lost, Ivy,” he says quietly. “Not if I’ve got you.”
I look at him. “Silas, we all know where you just were.”
He shakes his head. “I wasn’t.”
“Silas, I watched you there with Declan, and there was an FBI agent at my parents’ house.”
“I walked.”
He moves towards me, his eyes still locked on mine.
“Declan-” he looks away, his face grim.
“He said he’d hurt you, all of you. I didn’t have a choice.”
“Oh, Silas,” my mother’s voice breaks as she grips my father’s arm.
I stare at Silas. “You walked?”
He nods.
My dad clears his throat. “Looks like you did have a choice then,” he says quietly.
He sizes Silas up before just the faintest hint of a smile comes to his face. “And I think you made the right one.”
“Thank you.”
He takes a breath. “Sir?”
Dad raises a brow as Silas turns to look him right in the eye.
“I’d like to ask for your blessing.”
Dad laughs - a belly-shaking, chest rumbling, actual laugh.
I smile.
“Little late, wouldn’t you say?”
Silas grins. “Never to late to make up for it.”
Dad eyes him.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He turns back to me. “This is the only family I want, and you’re the only one I want.”
And quite suddenly he’s on his knee, right there on the pier.
The world starts to spin a little as I watch in almost slow-motion as his hand slips into his pocket and comes back out.
With my necklace.
“Ivy Hammond?”
Oh what is happening.
“Marry me.”
He looks up at me, his eyes full, his lips slightly parted.
“Again, or, I don’t know, stay married to me.”
I’m speechless for one second, feeling the eyes of my whole family on me.
Another second ticks by as I try and even comprehend what’s happening, and try and slow the thudding of my heart enough to even say the word I’m trying to say.
Sierra sighs loudly behind me. “Oh say yes. We all know you’re going to no matter what anyone says anyways.”
My dad chuckles, and Silas grins.
“Marry me, Ivy,” he says, reaching out and holding my hand. “Stay with me.”
And then the word does manage come out. The only word I’ve ever been able to say to the man kneeling in front of me who was once the boy doing the same thing.
“Yes.”
It comes tumbling out before I’m falling into him, feeling his arms go around me, feeling him spin me around as my mom and my sisters go nuts and Rowan and my dad grin and nod.
Yes.
Chapter Forty-One
Silas
I’m back at the house I used to know, on the back porch overlooking the backyard about to have a real, straight out-of-a-Rockwell-painting Hammond family dinner.