“What does it mean?”
“It meansLife. Which I think is quite fitting, don’t you? She’sourlife.”
She blinked back tears and cupped his cheek. “Look at you being all sentimental.”
He smiled and leaned into her hand. “I have my moments.”
She nodded and looked back at the baby. “It’s perfect. Zoe … Zoe Elaine JoyHart. I love it. It’s perfect, just like her.”
Brock took the opportunity of her distraction and dropped to one knee. “Marry me.”
Her head flew back, and she gaped at him. She shook her head with utter disbelief on her tired, beautiful face. “I told you not to ask me until you were—”
He cut her off. “I know. Marry me.”
“Brock, I—” But instead of waiting for her to answer, he took her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly. There was always going to be a power struggle between the two of them, he just knew it.
“I love you. I think I’ve always loved you. From the moment you asked me if my place was stumbling distance and then proceeded to pound back tequila like a frat boy, I’ve loved you. And yesterday you could have died, our baby could have died, and the thought of not having you or Zoe in my life makes me want to die, too. Marry me, Krista.”
She swallowed and traced the beautiful diamond solitaire with her finger. “Can we do it now? Like tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” There was no hiding the surprise in his voice.
She nodded. “I don’t want to wait. We can do a big ceremony later on if we want, but I want to be your wife now. I want to have the same last name as Zoe, as you. We can do the legal bit with the license later when I’m out of the hospital. But in the eyes of our family, in our hearts, I want to be your wife now.”
His head bobbed up and down with frantic conviction. “I’ll call Chase and have him come by first thing in the morning.”
Tears trickled down her cheeks. If it wasn’t for the big smile he’d be worried. “Why Chase?”
Brock quirked one eyebrow as he dug out his phone. “Because among other things, he’s also a marriage commissioner.”
Her laughter was music to his ears. “Well, that’s convenient.”
Chapter 22
The next day Chase showed up, along with Rex, Heath and Joy. Although Krista would have liked to have had her parents and brother there as well, she didn’t want to wait any longer. They knew what had happened to her and were on their way. They would be arriving in the next couple of days. But a couple of days was too long; she wanted to be Mrs. Brock Hart immediately.
Looking at herself in the mirror after a painful shower, she burst into tears. Her cheeks were cut up from Myles’s beating. She was sore from Zoe’s birth, the emergency C-section and surgery. This was not how brides were supposed to look on their wedding day. Along with lacerations and scratches, she was black and blue across half her face. She hardly recognized herself, and what she did recognize she didn’t like.
“Everything okay in there?” Brock asked through the closed bathroom door. She knew his whole family was waiting for her in her room, waiting to start the ceremony, but she couldn’t face them. She couldn’t let them see her looking like one of those women from the domestic violence cases she used to go out on.
“Just fine,” she called back, wiping the tears from her cheeks, their saltiness causing her scratches to sting. “Be out in a second.”
There was another knock at the door, but this time the person didn’t wait for her to answer, and the knob turned. It was Joy. “Sorry, dear, you can kick me out if you like, but it ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before. Do you need some help getting dressed?”
Krista thought for sure Joy was going to gasp and cry or turn away when she saw her face, but she didn’t. Instead she held out a big, plush, white bathrobe—where on earth did she get it? It was a hospital, not a hotel. Krista slipped her arms through it. It hugged her body like a fuzzy polar bear.
“Brock’s daddy saved me from an abusive relationship,” she started, tucking a strand of hair behind Krista’s ear as she tightened the belt on the robe. “I remember bruises and scratches like these ones, and not fondly.” Krista’s eyes went wide. Joy nodded and continued. “Zane was my neighbor in an apartment building. He heard my boyfriend at the time roughing me up and came over. Kicked the crap out of him and whisked me away. We were together after that. And nine months later, Brock joined the party.”
“B-Brock was a … ”
“One-night stand?” She shook her head. “No. But I’d only been with Zane for about a month before I found out I was pregnant. We got married right away, of course. Because that’s what you did back then.”
Krista hadn’t even been paying attention as Joy was talking, but she’d pulled some concealer and blush out from somewhere and was mindlessly touching up Krista’s face.
“He was the love of my life. And I’m sure that if he were still alive today, we’d be married and happy. Celebrating the birth of our first grandchild.”
“H-how did you know?”
