I pull out her chair and she sits, we have a wonderful seven course meal but honestly by the forth one I was ready to say screw the food and just drop to me knee. Thank fully I waited because I’d pay good money to have this truffle brownie delivered to Delaney everyday if it’ll get her to make these enticing sounds all the time.
“Oh I’ve never had anything this good in my life. Did you eat yours Baron? You have to. I think I’m in heaven.” She moans again as she take another bite of the sweet treat.
“I’m there with you.” I mutter. Finally I see the waiter step off to the side, all he has left is the champagne. I’ll only need that if she says yes. It’s time to ask the question.
“Delaney.” I call for her and her bright eyes jerk up to mine. “I hope the roses weren’t too much.”
She laughs and puts her hand out for me to grab, “Aye, I’m never going to forget what a rose smells like. It was all so very sweet. Thank you for that. You didn’t need to do it though.”
“I did. I needed to tell you in everyway possible how much I love you. I need to show you how complete you make me. You’re my everything Delaney. If I could keep this smile on your face for the rest of your life I’d do it.” my heart beats a million miles a minue in my chest and my palms are clammy but besides the slight nerves vibrating through my body right now I still have no apprehensions about what I’m about to do. “Our lives will never be easy or standard but if you’ll allow me I’d be so honored if you’d give me the chance to make you as happy as you can be.” I pull the box out of my pocket and drop down from chair to my knee in front of her.
“Oh god! Baron what are you doing? Oh …oh… yes! Wait, no ask first! Aye, shite! Go, go, go!” Delaney bounces excitedley and I can’t help but laugh.
I open the box and the bouncing stops as she gasps and stares entranced at the ring.
“Delaney, I promise to stand by your side and share my life equally with you. Will you make me the happiest man on the planet and marry me?”
She finally looks up from the ring to my face and big tears trail down from her eyes. “Aye, I’ll be your wife Baron. Yes!” I’m pulling her in my arms and kissing her with all the love I have inside while the few workers around us clap and shower us with congratulations. I slip the ring on her finger and for the first time in my life I know what it feels like to be absolutely complete.
CHAPTER20
DELANEY
Walking out of Doctor Morris’ practice, I glance back over my shoulder. I feel like I was just here yesterday, but I shake my head with a small smile. Walking to Baron’s car idling in a parking space, I sit in the passenger seat with a satisfied huff.
“It went well? She give you the all clear?” He asks anxiously, and I grin broadly. I’m finally free! I can be a human being again! Raising my arms, I twist side to side gingerly.
“I’m all good, aye! She said the pain will linger a little longer, but as long as I’m careful about managing my stress, I can go back to work and be a person, not a couch potato,” I giggle with happiness and relief. The last two weeks were awful! “Oh, and I even avoided gaining another kilogram.”
“Managing your stress. . . is that code for going to the arrangement we had before you went to Switzerland? The one you never ended up doing, where you take an early and long lunch and then another break later in the afternoon?” Skepticism thickens Baron’s tone, and he casts me a knowing, shrewd look. “You’re not pulling 14 hour days anymore, no matter what anyone says, Delaney.”
“Well, comparatively, that is part time for me. . . but might not be what Morris meant when she said ‘only part time’,” I admit, my face flaming at being outed. Reaching to push his jaw playfully, I shake my head and grab my buckle to secure myself. “We can do that, though. I mean, Doctor Morris is confident there’s nothing at risk about this pregnancy, and I’m officially twelve weeks in two days. I can’t just keep twiddling me thumbs in me arse and watch Jennifer outshine me every single day. It’s maddening.”
“Ah, she is doing a fantastic job. Tom has really fallen into the roll of general manager well, too. I don’t think it was nearly as daunting as he expected, and it was a relief for him to realize that the job itself wasn’t bad, Granby was just a bad boss. He told me just the other day that he actually felt better than when he was being pulled every which way as a sort of ambiguous assistant,” Baron pulls out of the spot and trails off, concentrating on the narrow roads. I nod; I faintly recall wondering why Tom was in such a good mood lately. “Which brings me to this. I received it this morning from Klaus.”
Reaching into the pocket on the door, Baron hands me a little brochure, and surprise raises my brows. “Costa Rica? Why would your brother send you a brochure for a resort in Costa Rica?”
“I think it’s a white flag,” Baron grumbles, his tone sharpening before he clears his throat. Curiosity rampages through my veins; Baron didn’t mention his brother much except to say their relationship was contentious. “Klaus and I ended up in a strange situation after Hans’ death. Suddenly, I was the one with the answer, and Klaus was the one running around like a chicken with his head cut off. These life-long roles we had were reversed, and we no longer had a common denominator.”
“S- so. . . this is his way of saying he’s sorry? For what?” I’m confused. I know Petra Frey favored her eldest son, but I’m unaware of anything Klaus did specifically to Baron. Looking over at him, I gnaw on my bottom lip at his sour expression.
“You know, I’m not really sure. It’s not like Klaus was an asshole, or that he did anything so horrible to me that wasn’t usual brother banter. We were closer to each other, for what it was worth, than either of us were to Hans, so the only conclusion I can come up with,” Pausing, Baron takes a steadying breath before trudging on, a frown deepening the lines around his mouth and eyes. “Is that he feels bad for not being better? He wasn’t a terror, but he wasn’t all that great. We were mostly indifferent to each other, and I think, after spending some time in the shoes I wore for the past 12 years, he realized how good he had it? I dunno. I also don’t think Mother ever sent him to do anything seriously challenging, so her sending him all over the place, and him getting rejected and even assaulted and ran out of town. . . really hit him hard.”
“That’s right. . . he’s spent the last few months trying to personally appeal to business partners. I think I remember you saying something about that while I was in Switzerland.” I nod, opening the brochure to scan through it. Baron grunts knowingly, rubbing his jaw out of the corner of my eye.
“I’m not concerned either way, but I wonder if it has anything to do with my mother. Liam Mackenzie’s bounty on her reached 20 million,” Baron reveals, and I look up sharply with a shocked squawk. “Exactly what I said! So the moment she even looks over the border of Germany, she’s done. There’s so much money involved at this point that it’d take a miracle for her to find a place to hide.”
“Jesus Christ! T- that’s absurd!” I balk, and I can barely believe Liam would go so far. Then again, she did cause so much strife. “B- but. . . at the same time. . . Petra did assault him in his home. No one has ever done that before successfully, so I’m sure part of it is. . . a show of strength somehow?”
“I know you haven’t spoken to your sister since she disappeared from the hospital, but have you talked at all to Eamon?” Baron asks cautiously, and I shake my head. “Has Bran?”
“He does. He told me Eamon exploded on Keeva for coming to London secretly to basically ambush me. And not only that, but she forced Theo to come along, which left Lilly, Eamon’s best advisor in Seattle, in a really horrible position that had some strong repercussions,” I confess, running my hand through my hair in agitation. “Why? I don’t think neither Bran nor Eamon have regular contact with Liam.”
“With things going the way they are, and Tom and Jennifer running smoothly together, I was thinking we could go on vacation,” Baron says, hope coloring his tone as he glances over at me briefly. I look down at the brochure in my hands and frown. “Not necessarily to Costa Rica, but getting that brochure got me thinking. . . a change of scenery might be nice, and you’re in no rush to let your siblings know you’re pregnant.”
“Baron. . . are you suggesting we run away together?” I ask very seriously, and he flexes his hands over the wheel before shaking his head firmly. A strange sensation spreads through my chest and numbs my fingertips as I hold the brochure between them.
“I don’t think ‘run away together’ is the right term, but. . . I think we need time to figure out the kind of people we want to be together. My mom is a narcissistic control freak, and your family is all about smashing boundaries and downplaying the consequences,” Holding my breath, I can’t deny that Baron has a point. One I’d been contemplating for some time, myself. “It could be a vacation. But we both came to London to escape, and our demons followed us here, Delaney.”
