Without Maggie, he had nothing.
She’d knocked the floor out from under his feet by telling him she was going to leave him again. And if he allowed it this time, he knew it would be permanent. If he clung to his pride and refused to bend, he would lose everything that had ever mattered to him.
So he threw his pride out the proverbial window and risked everything by going to her. Two long steps brought him to her side. He reached for her but stopped himself. First, he would say what she needed to hear. The words he’d denied them both the last time they were together.
“I need you, Maggie. More than my next breath I need you.”
Her beautiful eyes filled with tears that crested and spilled over to roll down her cheeks unchecked. Her lower lip trembled, and he lifted one hand to soothe that lip with the pad of his thumb. His gaze moved over her, from her tumbled, tangled hair to the now-ruined elegant ball gown. She was magnificent and she was his. As she was always meant to be. This was a woman born to stand beside a man no matter what came at them in life. This was a woman to grow old with. To treasure.
To thank God for every night.
And damned if he’d lose her.
“Justice, I—”
He shook his head fiercely and spoke up, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb his son. “No, let me say this, so you’ll never doubt it again. I love you more than should be humanly possible. The last time you left, you took my heart with you. When you came back, I came alive again. I won’t let you leave, Maggie. If you go, I’ll go with you.”
She laughed a little, tears still spilling down her cheeks, and she’d never looked more lovely to him.
“See?” he asked. “No more pride. No more anything unless you’re with me.”
“Oh, God…”
“Stay with me, Maggie,” he said gently, tipping her chin up so that he could look into those tear-washed eyes of hers. “Please stay. Please love me again. Please let me love you and Jonas and all the other children we’ll have together.”
She laughed again, a small sound filled with delight and wonder, and Justice could have kicked his own ass for taking so long, for wasting so much time, before setting things right between them.
“It’s getting easier to say please,” he told her, “and I swear, tonight won’t be the last time you hear it.”
“I don’t know what to say,” she admitted, staring up at him with a smile curving her mouth and tears glistening like diamonds on her cheeks.
“Say yes,” he urged, pulling her and the baby into the circle of his arms. “Say you’ll stay. Say I didn’t blow it this time.”
She leaned her head against his chest and sighed heavily. “I love you so much.”
Justice grinned and held them a little tighter. So much relief had flooded his system in the past hour that he felt almost drunk on it. He wanted to shout. He wanted to go call his brother Jeff and thank him for sending Maggie back home where she belonged.
Then she pulled back and looked up at him again. “Am I dreaming?”
He smiled at her, bent his head and placed one quick kiss on her upturned mouth. “No dream, Maggie. Just a man telling you that you are his heart. Just your husband asking you to give him another chance to prove to you that he can be the man you need. The man you deserve.”
“Oh, Justice,” she said with a sigh, lifting one hand to cup his cheek, “you’ve always been the only man for me. You’ve had my heart since the moment I saw you, and that will never change.”
He rested his forehead against hers and gave silent thanks for coming to his senses in time.
Then Maggie shifted their son in her arms and handed him to Justice. “Why don’t we take him upstairs and tuck him in? Together.”
Justice cradled the tiny boy who was the second miracle in his life and dropped his free arm around Maggie’s shoulders. Together, they climbed the stairs, and when they reached the landing, Maggie stopped and smiled up at him. “Once our son is settled in, I think I’m going to need a little attention from my husband.”
Justice grinned at her. “I think that can be arranged.”
Her head on his shoulder, they walked down the hallway of home, passing from the shadows into the light.