He gave her a quick grin that sent whips of electricity shooting through her veins.
“Now why would I want to do that when I could be right here?”
“Here?” She nearly choked on the word.
“Nowhere else,” he said, stepping up onto the porch.
Penny held the babies, one on each hip, and laughed a little when they started bouncing and shrieking their delight at seeing their daddy again. Colt laughed, too, reached out and plucked both twins from her. He held them in his arms, kissed each of their foreheads and said, “I missed you guys.”
“They missed you, too,” Penny told him and surreptitiously wiped away one stray tear.
“How about their mother?” he asked. “Did she miss me?”
“A lot,” she admitted, because what was the point of holding back now?
“Penny.” His voice dropped to that low rumble that never failed to dance along her nerve endings like a caress. “You were right about me.”
“What? Right? When?”
He smiled at her and said, “Can we go inside?”
“Yes. Sure.” She stepped back and Colt slipped past her. He carried both babies into the living room, set them down with their toys, then came back to her. She couldn’t look away from him. She was half afraid that if she did, he might disappear. That she was just having delusions or something because her heart had ached for him so badly.
But then he was there, in front of her. He smelled so good. His black hair fell across his forehead and his ice-blue eyes were—not icy at all, she realized. They were warm, like a sky in summer, and they were locked on her, showering her with emotions too dizzying to identify.
“You were right,” he said softly, “when you said that I had been chasing death because I didn’t want to risk living.”
“Colt...”
He shook his head and grinned. “Don’t lose your nerve now. Everything you said to me was right, Penny. But not anymore. I want to live. With you. With my kids. You guys are all I’ll ever need.”
Oh, God, she really wanted to believe him. But, “What about how you love adventure? How will you be happy living in a cottage in Laguna?”
He pulled her in for a quick hug, then set her back again so he could watch her eyes. So that she could read the truth in his. “Living with you and the twins and all of our other kids will be all the adventure I could ever need.”
“All the—”
“And I know you love the cottage, but it’s going to be way too small for the bunch of kids we’re going to have, so I was thinking we could give the cottage to Robert and Maria and we could move to the cliff house?” Another smile. “If I live here, I’ll eventually kill myself, you know, smacking my head into the low beams.”
Her head was spinning. “All the kids we’re going to have?”
“Caught that, huh?” His eyes were shining and his smile was wide. “We may even get another set or two of twins, who knows?”
“Another— Colt, you’re moving too fast,” she said. “I can’t keep up.” And, oh, how she wanted to.
“This isn’t fast,” he promised her. “I’ve wasted too much time already, thinking about the past instead of looking at the future.”
He was right there with her. In her living room. Promising her everything. Looking at her with all the love she could have dreamed of, but he still hadn’t said the words she needed to hear so badly.
“I talked to Con, too, before—”
“Before you hired a gardener, and bought me new furniture and a new car?”
“Exactly.” He winked at her. “We’re going to be restructuring our business. Con thinks it’s a great idea. King’s Extreme Adventures is going to become King’s Family Adventures. We’re going to find the best places for families to visit. To vacation. To experience the world. We want people to enjoy their lives, not risk them.”
Her heart melted. “Oh, Colt...”
“Think about it! Way bigger customer base.”
She smiled at him and could only think how happy she felt. How right it was to be here like this, with him.
“Con and I think you should take all the photos for the advertising, too....”
“I think I need to sit down.” Before she fell down. Afternoon sunlight spilled through the front windows and lay across the scarred wooden floors. Her kids were in the living room playing and giggling. And the man she loved was standing in front of her offering her the world and more.
“I’ll hold you up,” he promised, and wrapped his arms around her. “I swear to you, Penny, I will always be there for you. To depend on. To count on. I want you to feel like you can lean on me and let me lean on you. I won’t ever let you down.”
She stared up into his eyes, lifted one hand to cup his cheek and said, “I never believed you would, Colt.”
He took a breath, pulled her in close and held on tightly. “We can talk about the business and the move and more kids right after I finish telling you the most important thing.” He let her go, took a step back and dropped to one knee. “I’m doing it right this time.”
Penny lifted one hand to the base of her throat and watched as her dreams became reality.
“I love you, Penny Oaks. I think I did from the very first moment I met you.” He gave her a sad smile. “That’s why I ran so far so fast. What I felt for you terrified me. Now, the only terrifying thing I can imagine is having to live without you.” He pulled a jeweler’s box from his pocket, flipped the velvet lid open and showed her a huge, canary-yellow diamond ring.
“Oh, Colt...”
“Marry me again, Penny. Share your life with me. I promise we’ll have a great adventure.”
“Yes, oh my God, yes, Colt. I will absolutely marry you!”
He jumped to his feet, swept her up into his arms and swung her in a circle before setting her down and sliding that ring onto her finger. Penny couldn’t stop smiling.
“We’ll have the kind of wedding you deserve this time,” he said, cupping her face and pausing only long enough to kiss her senseless. “We’ll have the biggest damn wedding California’s ever seen. Anything you want.”
She looked from the ring on her hand to the love shining in Colt’s eyes and said, “All I want is to go back to the chapel where we were married the first time. Just you, me and the twins.”
“God, you’re amazing,” he whispered and kissed her again. “I’ll get the jet fueled. We can go tomorrow if your doctor says it’s okay. Did you see him?”