He waited for what felt like an eternity before she nodded. “Let’s go home.”
* * *
They hadn’t counted on just how awkward it would be to make love with a cast on Heather’s leg from thigh to ankle. Though she’d gotten used to the cumbersome weight of it, the once-familiar moves and dexterity they were both used to was next to impossible. At one point, she came close to knocking Connor out when she made a sudden move with her leg. Not that any of her moves could be all that sudden, she concluded, unable to control her laughter.
Next to her, Connor fell back, his chest heaving. Though she wanted to believe he was breathless with desire, she knew he, too, was trying to stifle his own laughter.
“What was I thinking?” he murmured, pulling her next to him and holding her close.
“You? I’m the one who’s been living with this cast for more than a month now. You’d think I’d have seen what a ridiculous idea this was. I’m sure we could find a way to get where we both want to go, but I have to admit I’m content just to be right here in your arms again.”
“Me, too,” he said. “Not that I’m not incredibly frustrated right at this moment.”
“Tell me about it,” she said ruefully.
He looked into her eyes, his gaze searching and hopeful. “Can I get a rain check?”
“You mean for when it’s less likely I’ll clobber you with my cast?”
“That would be good.”
Heather sobered and looked into his eyes. “Connor, I don’t know. What if we start over and it gets complicated and doesn’t go anywhere? We have little Mick to think about now. I don’t want him to be confused.”
“We’ll be careful about what we say and do around him,” Connor promised her. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t think anything’s changed unless it really has.”
“What about me? I’m already confused,” she admitted. She gestured at the two of them, half dressed and tangled together. “We were always good together. That was never the issue.”
“I think that’s the point, though,” Connor said, his brow knit thoughtfully. “We always got the sex right. And we’ve never denied loving each other. Shouldn’t those be two of the things that matter the most? We’ve let all the other stuff get in the way.”
“All the other stuff—like you not believing in marriage?” she said wryly. “That’s huge, not some petty little difference of opinion over broccoli.”
“We’ve both always loved broccoli,” he reminded her.
She gave him a chiding look. “You know what I meant.”
“Of course I do. Look, the one thing I know with absolute certainty, the one thing that has never changed, is that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That was true when we were living together. It was true after the accident, and it’s true tonight. The commitment has been real practically from the day we met. With the ring and the piece of paper or without them, that will never change.” He looked directly into her eyes. “You are the love of my life, Heather Donovan. I’ve never doubted that. Not once.”
Heather heard something in his voice then that reassured her as nothing else ever had. He had the same passion, the same conviction, he had when he argued a case before a judge. And she knew better than most that he couldn’t fake that kind of sincerity. If he said it, he meant it.
And, in the end, wasn’t that what marriage was all about—taking a leap of faith that two people could fight for and hold on to the feelings they had in their hearts when they got engaged, on their wedding day and for all the years to come?
“Yes,” she said softly, knowing in her heart that it was time to take that leap with Connor. If he, with all of his misgivings, all of his personal history, could do it, then so could she. If he could do it, lying here in her bed without the pleasure and passion of making love to cloud his judgment, then she had to believe in the two of them at least as deeply as he did.
He blinked and stared. For a moment, he looked as if he didn’t dare to believe he’d heard her right. “Did you just accept my proposal?”
“Well, technically, you haven’t made one, at least not recently,” she said, smiling. “But yes, that’s what I was doing. I was agreeing to marry you.”
He stood up, gesturing at their half-dressed state. “Even after this fiasco?”
She laughed. “This wasn’t a fiasco. This was what finally made me believe we would make it. If we could laugh together when we so desperately wanted to be doing something else, if you could weather my awful moods since the accident and ignore all the times I’ve turned you down, then what we have has to be real, just the way I always thought it was.”
Connor let out a whoop and dove for the phone.
“What on earth are you doing?” she demanded.
“I never let Mom know that little Mick would be staying over,” he said, then grinned when Megan apparently answered. “She said yes!” he announced.
Heather could hear Megan’s delighted response, and then Mick was on the phone demanding to speak to her. Connor handed her the phone.
“It’s about time, young lady,” he said enthusiastically. “Welcome to the family!”
“You’ve made me feel like an O’Brien all along,” she told him, misty-eyed by the thought of being a part of this wonderful family forever.
“Well, now it will be official. Why don’t the two of you come right over here, so we can get started on the wedding plans?”
Heather smiled at the suggestion. She’d heard that Mick was never one to waste time. “Now might not be the best time,” she told him, her gaze on Connor.
Apparently Connor figured out what his father wanted because he took back the phone. “Not tonight,” he said pointedly. “See you tomorrow, and thanks for keeping little Mick.”
He hung up
