Free Finding Gary (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 4) by Trevion Burns Page B

heavily.  “I went to Jessica’s apartment to try and use myself as bait.  To lure in King’s men.  She told me it was a stupid idea, but I didn’t listen.  I was blinded by the fear of losing you.”
    “That’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said to me.”
    “That’s what she said.” Angie laughed and then fell into another fit of coughs.  This one brought her back off the bed, and when she slammed back down, she was still smiling.  “But I wouldn’t listen.  I was sure you would resent me for not telling you about Val’s mug shot sooner.  That it would eventually tear us apart.”
    He licked his lips and went into his back pocket.  He came back up with a ring between his fingers, the only thing in the room that shone brighter than his breathtaking eyes.
    Angie gasped, and her hands flew up to cover her eyes, which were already burning with tears.
    Roman waited for her to lower her hands from her face, shifting the emerald green diamond ring between his fingers.  “Does this look like a man who will ever let anything tear us apart?”
    Angie kept her hands over her lips, shaking her head no.
    “When I tell you I love you, I mean it.  When I tell you I’ll never let anyone hurt you, I mean that, too.  And when I tell you I’m in it for the long haul, I’m in it for the long haul.  When you opened your eyes…” Roman had to take a moment, sniffling as he leaned deeper into the bed, cradling his big arms on either side of her body.  His voice took on a wobble.  “It was the first time I could breathe again since the moment I saw you lying in this bed.  I knew that… if you didn’t open your eyes… I would regret that for the rest of my life.  For the rest of my life, I would regret not asking you sooner.  I would regret not asking you from the moment we made love for the first time.”
    “Roman,” Angie whispered, cupping his jaw.
    His eyes bore into hers.  “Will you marry me?”
    She bit her bottom lip and nodded furiously, unable to speak.  They shared a smile, and he slipped the ring on her finger.
     
    ***
     
    “Oh my God…” At the Presbyterian NICU later that day, Zoey looked up at the nurse with questioning eyes.  The tears blurred her vision so much that she barely saw the nurse give her an encouraging nod.  Prompted by that nod, Zoey held her arms out, stilling herself, so the bundle had a solid place to land as the nurse bent over and eased Marcus down.
    The moment he was in Zoey’s arms, she burst into tears, which prompted the nurse to laugh softly.  “The first time is always the best.  I remember when I first held my daughter in my arms.  Everything just… disappeared.  Ceased to exist.  Even myself.”
    Zoey nodded, unable to break her eyes away from him.  He was still cradled in a thick foam swaddle to protect his brittle bones, so Zoey couldn’t get as close as she wanted.  She couldn’t feel his skin on her skin, his body against her body.  She couldn’t bring his cheek to her chest so he could hear the heartbeat he’d lived under for six months.  But she didn’t care.  He was out of that incubator, he could breathe on his own, his body was warmer than it had been since the day he’d been born, and even as dozens of tubes raced out of his tiny body from what seemed to be a thousand directions, that was enough.
    She brushed her finger along his button nose, down the bow tie above his puckered pink lips and across the fine lashes coming in under his tightly closed eyes.  Swiping away every tear that fell from her eyes and landed on his sleeping body, she shot a look up at the nurse.
    “He never has to go back in there again, right?” she asked.
    The nurse reached down and adjusted some of the tubes helping keep Marcus alive, her smile calm and sure.  Before that afternoon, this nurse had always been forcing her smiles, showing her teeth as best she could, even as her eyes painted a different picture.  Now, however, the nurse’s