Simon rolled his eyes. “Ask me, JT.”
“Did she even stay around to see if I was okay?” He wasn’t sure it would matter. If she’d left then it had been because she was scared. He’d lied to her and put her in a corner, and she was afraid she would cease to exist if she stayed with him, that she would lose something essential about herself in the face of being his wife. He would show her that she was wrong.
Simon frowned. “Are you asking about Nina?”
Michael’s expression had lost its humor. “She’s gone, but I don’t think it’s for long.”
“She’s coming back? To Dallas?” She might have work to do there.
“No,” Simon corrected. “She’s coming back to the room. She’s barely left it, but your mother insisted she eat a proper lunch.”
Nina was here? “She’s okay? She didn’t get hurt tracking down the spy?”
“JT, she wasn’t involved in that,” Simon replied. “She hasn’t left your side except when you were in surgery. She’s been worried sick. Though she did manage to talk Michael out of a job.”
“She can deal with Dad now.” Michael breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve been trying to convince Big Tag to let someone else be the liaison with Malone Oil for years.”
The door swung open and sunshine walked in. Nina was wearing a T-shirt and jeans and she looked weary, as though she hadn’t slept in days.
She was the single most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen.
She stopped and tears filled her eyes. “You’re awake.”
He was alive because she was here with him. He held a hand out. “Baby, please come close. I need to see you.”
She rushed to him, taking his hand in hers. “How are you feeling? Are you in pain? I can talk to the doctors. Your mum and dad are with them right now because we want to fly you back home. They’re making arrangements.”
He brought her hand to his chest. “I’m fine and I’ll go anywhere as long as you’re with me.”
“Wow, Tag is right,” Michael said. “This does kind of make me gag.”
Nina shot his brother a look that could have frozen fire. “Then you should leave because I’m about to tell your brother that I love him and I’m staying in Dallas and dating him until we’ve reached an acceptable time to become truly engaged. I will then marry him and we will proceed to have a few children, grow old and enjoy our lives together. And he’s not going to lie to me ever again.”
Now he was the one having trouble with tears. His eyes had gone watery. “Never. But, baby, you have to know I wouldn’t take it back because I want everything you just promised me.”
She leaned over and brushed her lips against his. “Then tell me you love me.”
That was the easiest command he’d ever followed. “I love you.”
“I’m going to find Mom and Dad.” Michael put a hand on his stomach. “I can’t take much more of that.”
Simon shook his head but started to follow him out. “Only because you’ve never had it, cos. One day. One day.”
But this was his day. His day to find forever. He drew her close and promised to never let her go.
Epilogue
Six months later
JT looked around the elegantly decorated space with a deep sense of satisfaction.
This time it was for real.
“Happy engagement,” his brother said, giving him a hearty slap on the back. “Nina looks stunning tonight. She’s far too good for you.”
He glanced over where his fiancée was laughing at something Chelsea Weston was saying. Chelsea grinned as she held her ten-month-old daughter. Sophy Weston looked an awful lot like her father.
“Mom dotes on that kid,” Michael said with a sigh.
His mother treated Sophy like her grandchild, and constantly hinted that she would like some more. Nina was on board, but they were going to enjoy being a couple for a little bit before starting their family. Nina liked a schedule. They’d stuck to her original plans. She’d moved to Dallas and they’d dated for five months. Then he’d taken her on a trip to London to see her family and friends and asked her to marry him and she’d finally gotten to wear that gorgeous Tiffany ring for real.
He could still remember the glow in her eyes when she’d said yes. It was how he would always see her, vibrant and beautiful, nodding her head because words had failed her.
“Well, it’s a good thing since Si’s parents are in England and Chelsea’s are gone,” he pointed out. “I know Sophy has plenty of family around, but there’s nothing like a doting grandmother. Dad’s crazy about her, too. They’re going to ride us both hard until we present them with an appropriate number of kiddos for them to spoil.”
Michael shook his head. “That’s all going to be on you, brother.”
“Right now it is,” he replied. “But one day you’re going to join me.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen for me. Not the way it has with you and Nina,” Michael replied with grim certainty. “I’ve never once been in love. I think you got all those genes.”
“That’s bullshit. You’ve had plenty of girlfriends over the years.”
“And I never once looked at any of them the way you do Nina. I’ve never felt the need to chase after a woman the way Si did Chelsea,” his brother pointed out. “I’ve never felt that, and I don’t think I ever will. You and Si are lucky, you know.”
Nina looked his way and winked at him before welcoming Charlotte Taggart into their little group.
He was the luckiest man in the world. But his brother was wrong. “You haven’t met the right person yet. You should let Mom set you up.”
His brother’s face went the tiniest bit green. “Don’t you even start that.”
Simon strode up, a glass of Scotch in his hands. “Start what?”
“My brother here has decided since he’s now getting married that it’s my turn,”
