We walked hand in hand over to his mother's headstone. I wanted to give them all time to pay their respects as a family. She waited at the front of them, with that same sad smile I'd gotten used to over the last six years. Six years. Holy shit.

"It'll be okay," Lachlan whispered. Then he took off, running towards his dad.

And it started again. The nerves. The sweaty palms. The racing heart. The fucking eye twitch.

I stood in front of her, my ribs aching from the pounding of my heart against it. It felt like it could break bone and skin and rip through me at any second. I placed my hand in my pocket and felt around for what I needed.

"Are you okay, Cam?" Her voice dripped with concern. "You look kind of pale."

I gazed up at her dad. He just nodded, and tried to smile. He failed, but I got it. I couldn't even imagine what this must've felt like for him. Maybe he felt like he was about to lose the only woman left in his life, but he knew me better than that. He knew I'd never take her away.

I eyed all her brothers, one by one, almost as if asking for permission.

No one gave me an out.

I finished on Lachlan, and his smile was unchanged. He nodded his head with as much enthusiasm as his seven-year-old body could muster.

Then I gave all my attention to the girl in front of me.

Lucy.

She must've been following my gaze. Her head slowly turned from her brothers behind her to me. Eyes narrowed, she asked, "What's going on?" Her gaze searched me from head to toe, and then back up again. But she didn't get all the way up—her eyes fixated on what I was holding. They widened. As if in slow motion, her hand came up to cover her mouth.

I sucked in a breath.

Let it out in whoosh.

And that's when it happened.

I dropped down on one knee.

"Lucy . . ."

Thank you to those that have supported me from day one. There are way too many names to mention but you know who you are and you know how much I love and appreciate you.

To me beta readers, (but above all, friends) Chelcie, Tricia, Alexis, Feifei, Kellie (I E), Leslee (E E) and anyone else I forgot to mention. Thank you.

I also need to thank the author friends that I've met along the way—those that have held my hand and kept me from deleting every single word on every single page. I need to say a special thank you to Tijan, for reasons I don't need to say. She's just important—that's all.

Thank you to my proofreaders and admins on my fan page for always building me up and giving me a big head and making me cry. All the time with the goddamn tears. Ugh.

Zo'om (Zoe Overment)

SamShem (Sam Shemeld POW)

You not only help me along, but you kind of organize my life. Your friendship, support and encouragement mean the world. It's the reason I write. The reason I breathe.

Debbie Flowers (You get your own paragraph because your that fucking cool). This book, I believe is my best work yet and I owe a lot of that to not only you, and your support, but your ability to tell me when to shut up and when to suck it up. So many parts of this book are inspired by our late night conversations. Eleventy-three blowfish jobs for JAMAL.

Showers = the best damn piece of writing I've ever accomplished.

It's been such a pleasure getting to know you as a person and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

P.S – Waz says the future better hold more Tastykakes.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Note To Readers

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Epilogue

Acknowledgements