Holding Strong
Page 145

“He wanted to be here today?”
Denver shrugged. “He agreed to take his turn, but if he’d known things would break today, I know he’d have wanted to be here.” It burned Leese’s ass that Carver had gotten the better of him, never mind that he’d been drugged. Typical of trained fighters, Leese was cockier than most other men—and for him, this was now personal.
But not as personal as it was for Denver.
“I like the idea of Carver rotting in jail.”
He just nodded.
“Pamela loves your dad.”
“It would seem so.”
“Will you be able to forgive her?”
Strange, but he enjoyed talking to her. Needed to talk to her. “He loves her, too, so I don’t see any way around it.”
Cherry hugged him tight. “You two talked?”
“Yeah.” He cupped her face. “We’re...getting there.”
She pressed her cheek into his palm, then took his wrist and brought his hand around so she could examine his bruised knuckles. “You’re really good, aren’t you?”
“I got you, didn’t I?” When she didn’t laugh or even smile, he tipped up her face. “I do well enough, but you can’t judge by any of this. Carver and his idiot brothers are thugs, not trained fighters.”
He heard the shaky emotion when she whispered like a confession, “I was so worried.”
“I know you were and I understand why. If Carver had fired that gun...” That thought made him feel it all over again, and he crushed her close. He wanted to hug her so tightly, hold her so long that she forgot about the past and everything she’d lived through.
“You saved me.”
“You’re here because of me.” He looked around the yard. He’d grown up here. The conflict with Pamela hadn’t tainted his impression of his childhood home, but what just happened to Cherry...he’d never again be here without remembering.
“Denver?”
“Hmm?”
“What now?”
Reese and Logan showed up in person, and they had a few uniformed cops with them, too. Armie was on his cell, probably talking to Cannon. Inside the house he could hear the paramedics and his father, likely fetching Gene from the wine cellar where Denver had locked him in for safekeeping.
“You don’t mean now, today, do you?”
She shook her head. “I mean now, between you and me.”
With everything that had just happened, she should have been in tears, not pondering their future together. The fact that she was proved her strength.
A match to his own.
“I have some options I’d like to offer up.”
Her mouth twitched. “Go for it.”
After a soft kiss, he said, “I think we should stay together.”
“With you so far.”
“You’ve been embarrassed about your past when there was no reason. I’m not the only one who looks at you and thinks it’s amazing that you did so much with so little.”
“So much?” Cherry shook her head. “I don’t have any money. I barely have enough of my own funds to stay afloat.”
Denver smiled at her. “Together, we have enough, girl. I already told you that.”
“I live in the downstairs of Rissy’s house.”
“No, you live with me.” He wanted no misunderstandings on that. He sucked in a breath, then bit the bullet. “Will you marry me?”
She went still, and now tears filled her eyes. “You mean it?”
“I love you.” He saw everyone start toward them, Logan and Armie, his father and Pamela. “Say yes.”
She nodded hard instead, swallowed audibly, and buried her face in his throat. “Yes.”
Armie drew up short, his expression appalled. “She okay?” he asked in a whisper, as if Cherry couldn’t hear him.
“Yeah.” Denver cradled her close and ran his hand up and down her back.
“I could check her,” his dad offered.
Cherry shook her head. “No.”
The croak in her voice made Denver smile. “Girl, you need to say something to Armie before he starts crying, too.”
Without showing herself, she wailed, “I’m just happy!”
Laughing, Denver stood with her in his arms. Insane after everything they’d just gone through, the threat to Cherry, the adrenaline dump and the damage to his knuckles, but he felt better than he had in years.
“You are so strong,” she whispered.
“Not strong enough to resist you.” He started toward Logan. “I’m guessing we need to answer some questions.”