Three days later, Will was back in the apartment he and Mick were sharing—and chafing at the bit.
"If you don't stop hovering," he growled.
Mira rolled her eyes. "I'm not hovering. I'm just making certain you're all right."
"I'm fine, damn it! Go… fix supper or something."
She grinned and saluted. "Steak or fish?"
"Both?" he asked hopefully.
"Glutton. But then you always were."
"I beg to differ. I was very… ungluttonish, if that's a word. At least when it came to eating." He held out his hands to her and when she took them he pulled her into his lap. "When it came to you, however, I could never get enough."
She snuggled against him, smiling. "I remember. We were so in love then. Nothing mattered but the two of us."
"And now?"
"Well," she stroked his cheek. "We're a bit older, a bit wiser…"
"A bit more shopworn, in my case."
"Not shopworn, just"—she looked at him, seeing the new lines in his face, the thinness that accented his cheekbones—"experienced in ways I'll never be and probably can never really understand. But you're the same man I fell in love with all those years ago." She brushed a kiss over his lips.
He returned it, deepening it, pouring all the emotions he thought he'd buried long ago into the kiss.
"I do love you," he murmured when they broke apart.
"Are you certain?"
"More than you could ever believe."
Her face lit up with happiness and a bit of mischief as well. "In that case, Mr. William Reynolds, will you do the honorable thing, which somehow we didn't do, lo those many years ago, and make an honest woman out of me?"
Will stared at her, his mouth dropping open. She put a finger under his chin to close it, waiting for his reply.
"If you're certain."
She nodded. "I was certain when you asked me, way back when. I'm just as certain now. Marry me?"
"On one condition."
"Uh-oh."
"You move back here. I don't think a long-distance marriage is such a good idea. Besides which, Kevin's going to be in school for four more years, give or take, and, well…"
Mira grinned. "I think your Captain Newsome is going to have two new cops on his force. That is, if he wants me."
"I'll tell him it's a package deal—both of us or neither of us."
"Good." She nodded her head sharply. "So, if you're up to it, we'll go talk to him tomorrow?"
"Yes. But tonight, I'm going to show you what else I'm up to." Sliding his arms under her, he stood, smiling when she wrapped her arms around his neck. "And maybe, if we're lucky, Kevin might have a new brother or sister soon."
"Bite your tongue, mister."
"How about I bite your lip instead," he murmured, nipping it. Then he kissed her deeply while carrying her to his bedroom.
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