She looks up at me. And I can see it. The fear, the confusion, the part of her brain that’s screamingthis is insane, you’veknown him for days, fighting against the part that already knows the answer.
That she is mine. Just as I am hers.
“I’m not getting on one knee,” I tell her. “That ain’t me. I’m not going to make a speech about destiny and hearts and all that poetic shit.” I set the ring on the table between us. Beside the cherry stem. “I’m going to tell you the truth instead.”
She doesn’t speak. Just watches me with those green eyes that have owned me since the night I first saw them.
“I don’t know how much life I got left, Lola. I could be in a cell in two months. I could be buried in the ground before that. The Greeks want me dead. The feds want me locked up. And there are people out there I haven’t identified yet who murdered the mother of my child and pointed the finger at me.” I take her hand, holding it in both of mine. Like a damn lifeline. “If something happens to me, the ranch goes to my brothers. My name goes with me. And you?” I squeeze her fingers. “You’d have nothing. No protection. No legal claim to stay. No reason for anyone to keep you safe. And I’d never be able to rest knowing I’d left you like that.”
Her chin trembles, and she sniffles. This is our reality right now. It isn’t sunshine and roses.
“But if you’re my wife? If you carry the Sterling name? Then you are protected. By the ranch. By my family. By every goddamn ally I’ve built over the last ten years. Whether I’m beside you or not. Whether I’m breathing or not.”
“Hunter—”
“I need to know that if I go, you’re safe. That Wyatt has you. That this ranch has you. I need that, Lola, or I can’t fight the way I need to fight. I can’t go into what’s coming with the people I love unprotected.”
She’s shaking her head. Not a no, just disbelief. But then something settles, her eyes going wide.
“Love?” She breathes out.
I tip her chin up to me gently so I can look her dead in the eyes. “Yes. Lola Jackson. This cowboy is madly in love with you and wants to make you his wife.”
She blinks at me. Her mouth opens and closes, and I bite back my smile.
She’s so fuckin’ cute.
“You’ve lost your mind,” she breathes.
“No, I haven’t.”
“We’ve known each other for only days.”
“I know.”
“This isn’t how this works. People don’t just—you can’t just?—”
“Lola.” I cup her face with both hands. Her cheeks are wet. I don’t know when she started crying, but the tears are falling, and she’s not wiping them away. “I’m not asking you to marry me because of how long we’ve known each other. I’m asking you because of how certain I am.”
She stares at me. Searching. Digging. Looking for the crack, the lie, the moment where this falls apart and reveals itself as something less than what it is.
She won’t find it. It doesn’t exist. Maybe I am insane.
“This isn’t a marriage for love. This is a marriage for you to protect me. That’s different,” she whispers.
I shake my head. She’s wrong. Because to me, the two interconnect perfectly. “This morning, I called you my soulmate. I told you I’d bet my entire ranch on it. I meant every word.” I press my forehead against hers. “My future ain’t certain. But the one thing I know for sure, the only fact I have never been more sure of in my entire life… Is that Lola Jackson is my soulmate, and I want to marry her. Right now. Today. And I fuckin’ love her with everything in my heart.”
Her breath hitches against my lips.
“Today?” she gasps, her mouth dropping open.
“Today. Tomorrow. This second, if you’ll let me.” I pull back just enough to pick up the ring from the table. I hold it between us. “This was my mother’s. My dad worked three years to buy it. She wore it every day until the day she died. And she wanted it to go to the woman who’d stand beside the next Sterling who was crazy enough to love with his whole heart.”
I take her left hand. My thumb rests against her ring finger.
“I’m not asking you to fix me. I’m not asking you to save me. I’m asking you to let me protect you in the only way that lasts. Let me give you my name, Lola. Let me know that whatever happens next, you’re untouchable. Let me show you not just how a cowboy fucks. Let me show you how one loves. Wholly and completely, until the day I die. Will you marry me, Lola Jackson?”
She looks down at the ring. Then up at me.