Melanie remained silent, her dark gaze locked on his face.
“But Caroline wrote that my standing by her to the very end had meant the world to her. She wrote that she’d marry me all over again for that... I realized that I might be stubborn, but that can be a good thing. Mel, if you let me love you, I’ll just keep on loving you. I’ll be too stubborn to do anything else. You can count on me to be faithful—I’m not the kind of guy who cheats. And if you tell me when I mess up, I’ll fix it. I don’t want to look back on these years, right here, and wish I’d done better.”
“I’ve been so scared, Logan. I mean, I was married for a long time, and lied to for almost as long. That’s hard to recover from.”
“I get it. I know you might not be able to do this with me, but I had to tell you face-to-face what changed for me.”
“This kind of love doesn’t come along every day,” she said quietly. “I know that, and I’ve had a good friend explain just how rare this is. What we feel—”
Logan lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them. He didn’t trust himself with words just yet.
“I’m terrified,” she whispered. “But I think the best things in life have the biggest risk attached. I was married to Adam for fifteen years, and he was cheating most of that time. I didn’t notice, either, because I’d lowered my expectations. And seeing you again—it raised the bar.”
“Yeah?” He smiled at that. “Do you mean that?”
“Just promise that you’ll share your feelings with me—you won’t shut me out.”
“I can do that,” he agreed. He’d been opening up with her these last couple of weeks, and it had come naturally. He wouldn’t be perfect. He’d still clam up sometimes, but he was also stubborn enough to keep trying to improve.
“I don’t want you to walk away again,” she whispered. “I love you...”
Walk away—it would tear his heart out to do it. Now that he was here with her, looking her in the face and his heart was stretching toward her, there was no way he could just leave.
“Mel, this might be crazy, but I want to marry you,” he said.
“This is crazy...” she whispered, but a smile tickled her lips.
“I know, but—”
“Where would we live?” she asked.
Wait—was she considering it?
“Wherever you want,” he replied. “I can hire a manger for my company and we can live here, or we could split our time between Denver and Mountain Springs. We can figure it out.”
“I need to be able to start my own business, too. That’s important to me. I need something that’s mine.”
“Mel, I’d give you the moon, if it would make you happy,” he said. “Take a diploma, start a business, do anything that makes you happy. I’m meeting you halfway. I’m not asking you to dump your life and jump into mine. I’m not that kind of guy.”
Melanie’s breath caught. “That’s not all, though...”
“No?”
“I want a baby.” She licked her lips. “I know it’s late, and you’ve already raised one son, but...”
A baby...that really would be a fresh start, and the thought was a little bit scary, but imagining Melanie pregnant with his child—it sped up his pulse in a good way.
“A baby? We could try for one, at least. Yeah.”
Melanie’s eye sparkled as a smile spread over her face, and her fingers tightened around his. “Okay, then.”
“Wait—” He paused, the moment slowing down around him. “Just so we’re completely clear here—this detail matters to me—you’re agreeing to marry me, right?”
She laughed and nodded, and without waiting for another word, he stood up, circled around the table and pulled her up and into his arms. He lowered his lips over hers and the rest of the dining room seemed to melt around them as they sealed this new promise with a kiss. When he finally pulled back, he looked around uncomfortably to see most of the diners staring at them.
“I might have caused a scene,” he whispered.
“I don’t care!” she whispered back. “Kiss me again.”
And when the woman he loved asked to be kissed again, he couldn’t exactly turn her down. When they pulled back, he found the waitress at his elbow.
“Sir, I have a feeling that champagne might be in order?” she asked discreetly.
“Yes, thanks,” he said with a grin. “She just agreed to marry me.”
“Congratulations,” the waitress replied, and she pulled a bottle of champagne off a trolley and popped the cork. “This is on the house, courtesy of Ms. Cunningham.”
Logan looked over to see Angelina watching them, her arms crossed over her chest and a smile on her face. She winked when Melanie turned.
“If you aren’t a hundred percent sure, you might want to back out now,” Logan said, grinning down at her as Melanie turned back toward him.
“Nope,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m in.”
“Let’s skip breakfast,” he suggested. “I want to go ring shopping with you.”
“Actually, with that champagne, we’d better have some food in our stomachs,” Melanie replied with a twinkle in her eye. “And I have a feeling that’s a very expensive bottle...”
Logan checked the label. It was.
“Fine. But after breakfast, it’s time for a ring,” he said with a grin.
Logan ran his fingers over hers as his heart swelled with love. Coming back to Mountain Springs was supposed to be a goodbye to his mother, his father and the life of trying too hard to belong to a father who’d never appreciated him. But instead, he’d discovered the Wilde family that was uncomfortably his and the one woman he couldn’t bring himself to let go...
Second chances didn’t always look the way a man expected them to. Sometimes, a new start came in the form of forgiveness spread liberally
