She turned just as he got down on his knee.

“What would that—”

Instantly her brows pinched, and her bottom lip began to quiver at the sight of him on his knee, holding out the ring he’d bought earlier that week.

“Make my life completely perfect, Nellie. Marry me.” He held the ring out to her. “Please?”

Bringing her hand over her quivering lip, she nodded. Abel slipped the ring on her finger and stood, immediately taking her in his arms. Life had never felt sweeter than at that moment.

“I’d love nothing more than to be your wife, Abel, but . . .”

Abel pulled away slowly to look at her. Everything had felt so perfect until that last word. “But what?” he asked, searching her worried eyes.

“It’s one thing for us to move into this home and raise this baby together.”

Her anxious eyes were making him anxious too. But what, damn it?

“Marriage is a whole other challenge than just living together, a challenge I’ve already failed miserably at once. I just don’t . . .” She glanced away and took a breath. “I don’t want you thinking we have to get married just because I’m pregnant.”

“You can’t be serious.” His brows came together, and he stared at her very intensely. “First of all, you didn’t fail at anything. That idiot ex-husband of yours failed to see what he had. I know what I have, and let me tell you that being married to you will not be a challenge. Maybe that’s what marriage felt like to you because you married the wrong guy. But I have every intention of making you the happiest woman on earth or die trying. Baby . . .” He softened up what he was sure was too hard of an expression because he wanted to make that anxiousness he still saw in her eyes disappear. He wanted her to look as happy as she made him. “I already feel like the luckiest man alive. I have everything any man could ask for, but I’m gonna be a greedy bastard because I want more. I want it all.” Finally the apprehension in her eyes gave way to a smile, and it made him smile too. “I’m not asking you to marry me because your pregnant, Nell. I’d wanted this before I even knew you were pregnant. When you didn’t show up at my fight and even after I reached what I thought at the time was the ultimate goal in my life, and I was now the champ . . . When I couldn’t find you . . . When that doctor said there was a possibility you might not wake up . . .” He swallowed back the overwhelming emotion. “I realized something. Without you in my life, none of that matters. I need you, baby. I need you to make my life complete.”

With the tears rolling down her beautiful face, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I need you too.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist tightly. “My beautiful Nellie,” he whispered against her ear. “I love you so much.”

Sighing deeply, she hugged him tighter. “I’m the luckiest woman alive. I love you too,” she whispered, “so much.”

Epilogue

Two false alarms in one week were enough. Nellie wasn’t about to mention her contractions this time until she knew for sure they were coming closer together. A third trip to the emergency room in the same week, only to be sent home again, would be embarrassing now. But she knew being embarrassed was the last thing Abel would be worried about. He was already so anxious, and one mention of her contractions would have him herding her out the door immediately as he had the first two times.

Nellie was anxious too. But unlike Abel, she had more than one reason. She hadn’t mentioned it in months because so far she’d had a normal pregnancy. There were no complications at all, and the baby was, as far as the doctors could tell, perfectly healthy. But there was still a tiny piece of her heart that feared that maybe her asthma attack so early on in her pregnancy had damaged something. She wanted to be nothing more than excited about this baby’s arrival, but it was hard to silence that fear completely.

Not only did she not want to embarrass herself with a third false-alarm trip to the emergency room that week but today was Hector and Charlee’s engagement party. Nellie wanted Abel to be there for his brother. Earlier that week, she’d been disappointed that perhaps he’d miss out on the party because she might still be in the hospital. She was glad now that Hector had simply wanted to make it official, even if they wouldn’t be getting married for several years when they both graduated. Making Charlee Hector’s wife was merely a formality because Charlee had moved in that back house with him months ago.

Abel had mentioned how surprised he’d been at his mom’s willingness to accept things that years ago she wouldn’t have been okay with. He didn’t say it and Nellie didn’t tell him she knew, but Caro’s acceptance of Charlee moving in with Hector even before they were married was probably as surprising to Abel as her welcoming Nellie so quickly.

Roni had explained her theory, which made sense to Nellie. Like Roni had been when all the boys of 5th Street came into her life, Caro was more excited now about her expanding family than she was about old-fashioned traditions and beliefs.

Nellie had made it through the morning and a better part of the afternoon without letting on to anyone that she was experiencing the strongest contractions she’d had all week. But they were still very erratic. At one point, they’d stopped all together, so it’d been a good thing she hadn’t said anything.

Now she sat at a table with Roni and Bianca as they watched Hector and Charlee welcome more guests. The party was supposed to have been an intimate one, but Caro had invited a few more people than Charlee and Hector had originally planned.